Immature neurons in the primate amygdala: Changes with early development and disrupted early environment

In human and nonhuman primates, the amygdala paralaminar nucleus (PL) contains immature neurons. To explore the PL’s potential for cellular growth during development, we compared PL neurons in (1) infant and adolescent macaques (control, maternally-reared), and in (2) infant macaques that experienced separation from their mother in the first month of life compared to control maternally-reared infants. In maternally-reared animals, the adolescent PL had fewer immature neurons, more mature neurons, and larger immature soma volumes compared to infant PL. There were also fewer total neurons (immature plus mature) in adolescent versus infant PL, suggesting that some neurons move out of the PL by adolescence. Maternal separation did not change mean immature or mature neuron counts in infant PL. However, across all infant animals, immature neuron soma volume was strongly correlated with mature neuron counts. TBR1 mRNA, a transcript required for glutamatergic neuron maturation, is significantly reduced in the maternally-separated infant PL (DeCampo et al., 2017), and was also positively correlated with mature neuron counts in infant PL. We conclude that immature neurons gradually mature by adolescence, and that the stress of maternal separation may shift this trajectory, as revealed by correlations between TBR1 mRNA and mature neuron numbers across animals.