Without neurotensin signaling in the BLA, mice could no longer assign positive valence and didn’t learn to associate the first tone with a positive stimulus. They used CRISPR gene editing approaches to selectively remove the gene for neurotensin from the cells associated with valence processing - the first time CRISPR had been used to isolate specific neurotransmitter function. In the new study, the researchers homed in on the importance of the signaling molecule neurotensin to these BLA neurons. “We found these two pathways - analogous to railroad tracks - that were leading to positive and negative valence, but we still didn’t know what signal was acting as the switch operator to direct which track should be used at any given time,” Tye said. A separate set of BLA neurons was activated with negative valence, as the animals learned to associate a different tone with a bitter taste. One set of BLA neurons was activated with positive valence, as the animals learned to associate a tone with a sweet taste. In 2016, Tye discovered that a group of neurons in the brain’s basolateral amygdala (BLA) helps assign valence when mice are learning. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the La Jolla Light.įor a human or an animal to learn whether to avoid or seek out a particular experience again in the future, the brain must associate it with a positive or negative feeling, or “valence.” The brain’s ability to link those feelings with a memory is called “valence assignment.”
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