Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Aug 6.
Published in final edited form as: Behav Brain Res. 2021 May 27;411:113370. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113370

Figure 1. BLA Circuit Model.

Figure 1.

Both basolateral amygdala (BLA) afferent and efferent projections contribute to valence encoding. The BLA receives cholinergic input from the basal forebrain (BF), serotonergic input from the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), and dopaminergic input from the ventral tegmental area (VTA). These projections respond to appetitive and aversive stimuli, which allows them to modulate valence encoding. Within the BLA, neuron ensembles encode positive versus negative valence and project to various downstream targets. For example, BLA projectors to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) encode positive valence, BLA projectors to portions of the central amygdala (CeA) encode negative valence, and projections from the BLA to the ventral hippocampus (vHPC) respond to valence-related cues.