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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Oct 20.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Neurosci. 2013 May 2;14(6):417–428. doi: 10.1038/nrn3492

Figure 6. Neural circuit for context-dependent regulation of fear memory.

Figure 6

The context-dependence of fear memory involves a neural circuit that includes the hippocampus, the medial prefrontal cortex (specifically, the infralimbic cortex (IL) and the prelimbic cortex (PL)) and the amygdala (specifically, the basolateral amygdala (BLA), central amygdala (CEA) and intercalated (ITC) cells). The hippocampus projects directly to the BLA, and this projection may be crucial for the renewal of fear expression in response to an extinguished conditional stimulus. Indirect projections between the hippocampus and amygdala via the medial prefrontal cortex might also mediate the context-dependent expression of fear in response to an extinguished conditional stimulus. In particular, PL projections to the BLA are involved in fear renewal, whereas IL projections to ITC cells, which in turn inhibit CEA output, are involved in suppressing the expression of fear in response to an extinguished conditional stimulus.