Skip to main content
. 2010 Apr 14;30(15):5451–5464. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0225-10.2010

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

BLA deactivation inhibits nocifensive and affective pain behaviors and restores impaired decision-making. a, Administration of a CRF1 receptor antagonist (NBI27914, 10 μm; 15–20 min) into the BLA decreased hindlimb withdrawal thresholds in the arthritis pain state but not under normal conditions. The same animals (n = 5) were tested before and 5–6 h after arthritis induction. For each animal, three measurements were averaged. b, Anxiety-like behavior was measured in the elevated plus maze as decreased open-arm choice (ratio of open-arm entries to the total number of entries expressed as percentage; see Materials and Methods). Normal animals (n = 15) were tested with vehicle (ACSF) administration into the BLA and then assigned to one of three treatment groups: NB27914 (10 μm; 15–20 min) administration into BLA under normal conditions (n = 5), vehicle administration into the BLA 5–6 h after arthritis induction (n = 5), and NBI27914 administration into the BLA 5–6 h after arthritis induction (n = 5). c, d, Vocalizations in the audible and ultrasonic range were measured in the same animals before and 5–6 h after arthritis induction (n = 6). NBI27914 (10 μm; 15–20 min) inhibited vocalizations in arthritis but not under normal conditions. Bar histograms in a–d show means ± SE; two to three measurements were averaged for each animal. e, Deactivation of the BLA, but not CeA, with NBI27914 (10 μm, 20 min) restored normal reward-based decision-making in arthritic rats (5–6 h after induction). Symbols (mean ± SE) show the preference index [(low-risk − high-risk choices)/number of trials] averaged for 10 consecutive trials of animals in five experimental groups (n = 5 each). Animals chose between low-risk (1 food pellet in 9 of 10 visits) and high-risk (3 pellets in 3 of 10 visits) levers. Preference index of normal animals and arthritic animals with deactivated BLA was not significantly different. Preference index of arthritic rats with or without deactivated CeA was significantly different from normal animals. a–d, *,#p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***,###p < 0.001 (compared with normal and predrug, respectively; Tukey's multiple comparison test). e, *,***p < 0.05, 0.001 (compared with normal; Dunnett's multiple comparison test).