Fig. 2.

BLA function is necessary for repeated stress-induced hippocampal molecular changes and learning and memory deficits. (A) Schematic of the AAV₅-CaMKIIa-eYFP control and AAV₅-CaMKIIa-HM4Di-IRES-mCitrine constructs and mode of virus administration. (B–D) Effect of DREADD-induced BLA inhibition during repeated stress on p25 generation (B) and of expression levels of HDAC2 and Synaptophysin (C) and GR and pGR (D) in the dorsal hippocampal CA1 subregion (n = 4, 5, and 6 per group, one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post hoc analysis) (pGR and HDAC2 in red; GR and Synaptophysin in green; DAPI in blue). (E) Effect of DREADD-induced BLA inhibition on the performance of RFS-treated mice in novel object recognition and novel location recognition tasks (n = 10, 10, and 7). Values are mean ± SEM. n.s., nonsignificant; P > 0.05; *P ≤ 0.05; **P ≤ 0.01; ***P ≤ 0.001, one-tailed t test. (Scale bars: 20 µm.)