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Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex

Neuroscience research over the past few decades has reached a strong consensus that the amygdala plays a key role in emotion processing. However, many questions remain unanswered, especially concerning emotion perception. Based on mnemonic theories of olfactory perception and in light of the highly...

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Autor principal: Li, Wen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3985029/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24778610
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00098
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author Li, Wen
author_facet Li, Wen
author_sort Li, Wen
collection PubMed
description Neuroscience research over the past few decades has reached a strong consensus that the amygdala plays a key role in emotion processing. However, many questions remain unanswered, especially concerning emotion perception. Based on mnemonic theories of olfactory perception and in light of the highly associative nature of olfactory cortical processing, here I propose a sensory cortical model of olfactory threat perception (i.e., sensory-cortex-based threat perception): the olfactory cortex stores threat codes as acquired associative representations (AARs) formed via aversive life experiences, thereby enabling encoding of threat cues during sensory processing. Rodent and human research in olfactory aversive conditioning was reviewed, indicating learning-induced plasticity in the amygdala and the olfactory piriform cortex. In addition, as aversive learning becomes consolidated in the amygdala, the associative olfactory (piriform) cortex may undergo (long-term) plastic changes, resulting in modified neural response patterns that underpin threat AARs. This proposal thus brings forward a sensory cortical pathway to threat processing (in addition to amygdala-based processes), potentially accounting for an alternative mechanism underlying the pathophysiology of anxiety and depression.
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spelling pubmed-39850292014-04-28 Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex Li, Wen Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience Neuroscience research over the past few decades has reached a strong consensus that the amygdala plays a key role in emotion processing. However, many questions remain unanswered, especially concerning emotion perception. Based on mnemonic theories of olfactory perception and in light of the highly associative nature of olfactory cortical processing, here I propose a sensory cortical model of olfactory threat perception (i.e., sensory-cortex-based threat perception): the olfactory cortex stores threat codes as acquired associative representations (AARs) formed via aversive life experiences, thereby enabling encoding of threat cues during sensory processing. Rodent and human research in olfactory aversive conditioning was reviewed, indicating learning-induced plasticity in the amygdala and the olfactory piriform cortex. In addition, as aversive learning becomes consolidated in the amygdala, the associative olfactory (piriform) cortex may undergo (long-term) plastic changes, resulting in modified neural response patterns that underpin threat AARs. This proposal thus brings forward a sensory cortical pathway to threat processing (in addition to amygdala-based processes), potentially accounting for an alternative mechanism underlying the pathophysiology of anxiety and depression. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC3985029/ /pubmed/24778610 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00098 Text en Copyright © 2014 Li. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Li, Wen
Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex
title Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex
title_full Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex
title_fullStr Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex
title_full_unstemmed Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex
title_short Learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex
title_sort learning to smell danger: acquired associative representation of threat in the olfactory cortex
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3985029/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24778610
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00098
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