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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Ex Vivo Optogenetic Dissection of Fear Circuits in Brain Slices
Published on: April 5, 2016
Intra-amygdala injections of neuropeptide S block fear-potentiated startle
Markus Fendt1, Stefan Imobersteg1, Hugo Bürki1
1Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research, Neuropsychiatry, GPCR Expertise Program, Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Injections of neuropeptide S (NPS) into the lateral ventricle induce a strong hyperactivity. Since most behavioral paradigms are dependent of spontaneous locomotor activity, this makes it difficult to interpret the role of NPS in such paradigms. The aim of the present experiment was to investigate the effects of NPS in fear-potentiated startle, a behavioral fear paradigm which we believe is less sensitive to general changes in locomotor activity. Furthermore, NPS was directly injected into the amygdala, the central site of the neural fear circuitry. Our data shows that intra-amygdala NPS injections dose-dependently block the expression of conditioned fear and that this effect is independent of NPS effects on locomotor activity. This strongly supports a crucial role of amygdaloid NPS in conditioned fear.
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