Comparative basolateral amygdala connectomics reveals dissociable single-neuron projection patterns to frontal cortex...

Basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a key hub for affect in the brain,^1,2,3 and dysfunction within this area contributes to a host of psychiatric disorders.^4,5 BLA is extensively and reciprocally interconnected with frontal cortex,^6,7,8,9 and some aspects of its function are evolutionarily conserved across rodents, anthropoid primates, and humans.¹⁰ Neuron density in BLA is substantially lower in primates compared to murine rodents,¹¹ and frontal cortex (FC) is dramatically expanded in primates, particularly the more anterior granular and dysgranular areas.^12,13,14 Yet, how these anatomical differences influence the projection patterns of single BLA neurons to frontal cortex across rodents and primates is unknown. Using a barcoded connectomic approach, we assessed the single BLA neuron connections to frontal cortex in mice and macaques. We found that BLA neurons are more likely to project to multiple distinct parts of FC in mice than in macaques. Further, while single BLA neuron projections to nucleus accumbens were similarly organized in mice and macaques, BLA-FC connections differed substantially. Notably, BLA connections to subcallosal anterior cingulate cortex (scACC) in macaques were least likely to branch to other medial frontal cortex areas compared to perigenual ACC (pgACC). This pattern of connections was reversed in the mouse homologues of these areas, infralimbic and prelimbic cortex (IL and PL), mirroring functional differences between rodents and non-human primates. Taken together, these results indicate that BLA connections to FC are not linearly scaled from mice to macaques and instead the organization of single-neuron BLA connections is distinct between these species.