Pathophysiological mechanisms underlying increased anxiety after soman exposure: Reduced GABAergic inhibition in the basolateral amygdala

What is it about?

We provide a mechanism by which increases in anxiety-like behavior are observed after a nerve agent exposure. In particular we find that after a nerve agent exposure there is a significant loss of inhibitory neurons in the amygdala, which leads to long lasting reductions in inhibitory synaptic transmission, and enhanced excitatory synaptic transmission.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This work demonstrates that the loss of GABAergic interneurons leads to long lasting reductions in the basolateral amygdala, a very seizurogenic brain region. This leads to increased excitation, which may be observed as increased anxiety-like behavior and spontaneous recurrent seizures.