ArticleNature2011
Amygdala circuitry mediating reversible and bidirectional control of anxiety.
Article in Nature, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 725 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
725 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 1,288 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genome-wide meta-analysis, functional genomics and integrative analyses implicate new risk genes and therapeutic targets for anxiety disorders.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- The Role of Kappa-Opioid Receptor/Dynorphin System in Modulating Neural-Circuits of Depression and Anxiety-A Review.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2026Review
- The proto-cortical amygdala: a perspective on the functional and evolutionary relationship between the basolateral amygdala complex and neocortex in mammals.Brain structure & function · 2026Review
- Article
- Amygdalostriatal transition zone neurons encode sustained cue responses to guide defensive behaviors.Neuron · 2026Article
- Differential effects of acute, chronic, and social defeat stress on microglial morphology in the basolateral and central amygdala, and the medial and lateral habenula.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Bioactive dietary polyphenols modulate hippocampal inflammasome activation and sex-specific affective behavioral deficits following peripheral Foxp3Research square · 2026Article
- A Selective Cortico-Limbic Network Organizes Behavior During Reward Seeking Under Threat.Journal of neuroscience research · 2026Article
- Unveiling the enigma of anxiety disorders and depression: from pathogenesis to treatment.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- Exendin-4 alleviates anxiety-like behaviors in chronic restraint stress miceActa pharmaceutica Sinica. B · 2026Article
- Dynamic Network Reconfiguration of Brain Function During Exposure to Aversive Stimuli.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2026Article
- Novelty exploration-activated ensemble in the lateral hypothalamus confers analgesic and anxiolytic effects.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Hyperactive basolateral amygdala mediates comorbid anxiety in chronic rhinosinusitis.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- Sgk1 upregulation in hippocampus-projecting amygdala neurons underlies the delayed onset of PTSD-like avoidance behavior.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Identification of somatostatinProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- CeA-projecting VTA neurons contribute to alcohol withdrawal-induced anxiety-like behavior in male and female rats.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Negative-Valence Neurons in the Larval Zebrafish Pallium.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Functional brain network alterations in a rat model of dental malocclusion.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Bridging the translational gap in systems neuroscience: from circuit mechanisms to clinical therapeutics.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
665 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Anxiety--a sustained state of heightened apprehension in the absence of immediate threat--becomes severely debilitating in disease states. Anxiety disorders represent the most common of psychiatric diseases (28% lifetime prevalence) and contribute to the aetiology of major depression and substance abuse. Although it has been proposed that the amygdala, a brain region important for emotional processing, has a role in anxiety, the neural mechanisms that control anxiety remain unclear. Here we explore the neural circuits underlying anxiety-related behaviours by using optogenetics with two-photon microscopy, anxiety assays in freely moving mice, and electrophysiology. With the capability of optogenetics to control not only cell types but also specific connections between cells, we observed that temporally precise optogenetic stimulation of basolateral amygdala (BLA) terminals in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA)--achieved by viral transduction of the BLA with a codon-optimized channelrhodopsin followed by restricted illumination in the downstream CeA--exerted an acute, reversible anxiolytic effect. Conversely, selective optogenetic inhibition of the same projection with a third-generation halorhodopsin (eNpHR3.0) increased anxiety-related behaviours. Importantly, these effects were not observed with direct optogenetic control of BLA somata, possibly owing to recruitment of antagonistic downstream structures. Together, these results implicate specific BLA-CeA projections as critical circuit elements for acute anxiety control in the mammalian brain, and demonstrate the importance of optogenetically targeting defined projections, beyond simply targeting cell types, in the study of circuit function relevant to neuropsychiatric disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.