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SUMMARY:BMI Seminar // The central amygdala mediates socially transferred 
 emotions of different valence
DTSTART:20171011T121500
DTEND:20171011T131500
DTSTAMP:20260916T054415Z
UID:9d9c2151473e48af710601c74b0124a7601bcb260181be7de92361ae
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION: Ewelina Knapska\, Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology\, Nenc
 ki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS\, Warszawa\, Poland\n\nIn its sim
 plest form empathy can be characterized as the capacity to share the emoti
 onal state of another being. Tuning one's emotional state to that of anoth
 er increases the probability of similar behavior\, which thereby allows fo
 r a rapid adaptation to environmental challenges. Emotional contagion\, co
 mmonly observed in animals\, including rodents\, is well described at the 
 behavioral level\, but the neuronal circuits necessary for sharing emotion
 s are not well understood. The neuronal circuits in the central nucleus of
  the amygdala (CeA) are crucial for both appetitively and aversively motiv
 ated non-social behaviors. In the latter case the CeA mediates both active
  and passive defensive responses. To test the hypothesis that the neuronal
  circuits of the CeA are necessary for socially transferred emotions of di
 fferent valence we used three behavioral rat models of adult\, same-sex so
 cial interactions that induce positive emotions\, active fear and passive 
 fear. Using c-fos-driven targeting of channelrhodopsin and halorhodopsin i
 n these models we were able to activate or inhibit neurons involved in soc
 ial interactions. We show that activation of the CeA neurons involved in s
 ocial interactions of different emotional valence in a novel environment r
 esulted in distinct behavioral patterns. Activation of the CeA “positive
 ” neurons increased exploration of the environment\, activation of the 
 “passive fear” neurons motivated rats to hide and activation of the 
 “active fear” neurons enhanced risk assessment behavior. Inhibiting th
 e CeA neurons led to opposite effects. We also showed that when the “soc
 ial” CeA neurons are activated in social context\, the rats exhibit the 
 behavioral repertoire characteristic to social interaction with an emotion
 ally aroused conspecific. In order to further characterize the neuronal pa
 thways underlying social emotions of different valence\, we identified\, b
 y functional mapping methods\, the neurons activated by the same three typ
 es of social interactions in the brain structures targeted by the CeA. Mos
 t of the identified activated neurons received projections from the CeA an
 d the pattern of activation depended on the emotional valence of social in
 teraction. Taken together\, our results show that the neural circuits with
 in the CeA control socially transmitted emotions and that social emotions 
 of different valence involve subpopulations of neurons that are\, at least
  partially\, distinct.\n 
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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