Search results for "vomeronasal organ"
showing 4 items of 44 documents
Amygdala
2015
The amygdala is considered a key center in managing emotional information and its dysfunction is at the base of disorders ranging through anxiety, depression, PTSD and autism. However, the amygdala seems heterogeneous both structurally (with pallial and supallial components) and functionally. Thus, whereas cortical and thalamic multimodal sensory inputs enter the basolateral complex, the corticomedial amygdala is dominated by olfactory and vomeronasal inputs. Intrinsic amygdaloid circuitry, connects these two amygdaloid divisions and convey processed information to the main amygdala outputs. The pallial amygdala is the main source for telencephalic outputs to associative cortical areas (e.g…
The pallial amygdala of amniote vertebrates: evolution of the concept, evolution of the structure
2002
Embryological studies indicate that the amygdala includes pallial structures, namely the cortical amygdala (olfactory and vomeronasal) and the basolateral complex deep to it. In squamate reptiles, the cortical amygdala includes secondary olfactory (the ventral anterior amygdala) and vomeronasal centres (the nucleus sphericus). In birds, the situation is far less clear, due to the relative underdevelopment of the chemosensory systems. The basolateral amygdala of squamate reptiles includes two ventropallial structures: the posterior dorsal ventricular ridge and the lateral amygdala. Like their mammalian counterparts, these centres give rise to glutamatergic projections to the striatal (centro…
Lipocalins in Arthropod Chemical Communication.
2021
Abstract Lipocalins represent one of the most successful superfamilies of proteins. Most of them are extracellular carriers for hydrophobic ligands across aqueous media, but other functions have been reported. They are present in most living organisms including bacteria. In animals they have been identified in mammals, molluscs, and arthropods; sequences have also been reported for plants. A subgroup of lipocalins, referred to as odorant-binding proteins (OBPs), mediate chemical communication in mammals by ferrying specific pheromones to the vomeronasal organ. So far, these proteins have not been reported as carriers of semiochemicals in other living organisms; instead chemical communicatio…
Motherhood‐induced gene expression in the mouse medial amygdala: Changes induced by pregnancy and lactation but not by pup stimuli
2021
During lactation, adult female mice display aggressive responses toward male intrud-ers, triggered by male- derived chemosensory signals. This aggressive behavior is not shown by pup- sensitized virgin females sharing pup care with dams. The genetic mechanisms underlying the switch from attraction to aggression are unknown. In this work, we investigate the differential gene expression in lactating females ex-pressing maternal aggression compared to pup- sensitized virgin females in the me-dial amygdala (Me), a key neural structure integrating chemosensory and hormonal information. The results showed 197 genes upregulated in dams, including genes encoding hormones such as prolactin, growth h…