ArticleBrain structure & function2016
Organization of connections between the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, and lateral hypothalamus: a single and double retrograde tracing study in rats.
Article in Brain structure & function, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 90 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
90 citing papers in PubMed, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
- Computational modeling of prefrontal-amygdala circuits links functional connectivity alterations to circuit-level mechanisms in major depression.Journal of computational neuroscience · 2026Article
- Central control of gastrointestinal functions in health and disease.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- A prefrontal cortex-lateral hypothalamus circuit controls stress-driven increased food intake.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Whole-brain efferent projections of glutamatergic neurons in the cingulate cortex of mice.Molecular brain · 2026Article
- Oxytocin facilitates social behavior of female rats via selective modulation of interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Loss of the Mecp2 gene in parvalbumin interneurons leads to an inhibitory deficit in the amygdala and affects its functional connectivity.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Sexual dimorphism and acute stress modulation of infralimbic-posterior hypothalamic synaptic transmission.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Article
- Dual Role of LH-GABA Neurons in Encoding Alcohol Reward and Aversive Memories.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Adaptive communication between cell assemblies and "reader" neurons shapes flexible brain dynamics.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- A network of basolateral amygdala projection neurons contributes to stress-induced activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.Science advances · 2025Article
- Morphological and electrophysiological diversity and connectivity of principal neurons in the lateral and basal nuclei of the mouse amygdala.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Improvement in the Cognitive Function in Chronic Pain: Therapeutic Potential of the Endocannabinoid System.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- The Heart-Brain Axis: Key Concepts in Neurocardiology.Cardiology discovery · 2025Review
- Activation patterns in male and female forebrain areas during habituation to food and context novelty.Brain structure & function · 2025Article
- Elaborating the connections of a closed-loop forebrain circuit in the rat: Circumscribed evidence for novel topography within a cortico-striato-pallidal triple descending projection, with thalamic feedback, to the anterior lateral hypothalamic area.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The Role of Basolateral Amygdala and Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Fear: A Systematic Review.Cureus · 2025Review
- Evaluating the effectiveness of integrating biofeedback in the treatment of aggressive outbursts (BRET-IA2): A study protocol.PloS one · 2025Article
- A magnetic resonance imaging and gut flora-based study of intake desire in overweight/obese type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Identification of a stress-responsive subregion of the basolateral amygdala in male rats.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Acute stress activates basolateral amygdala neurons expressing corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor type 1 (CRHR1): Topographical distribution and projection-specific activation in male and female rats.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
30 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
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are highly interconnected telencephalic areas critical for cognitive processes, including associative learning and decision making. Both structures strongly innervate the lateral hypothalamus (LHA), an important component of the networks underlying the control of feeding and other motivated behaviors. The amygdala-prefrontal-lateral hypothalamic system is therefore well positioned to exert cognitive control over behavior. However, the organization of this system is not well defined, particularly the topography of specific circuitries between distinct cell groups within these complex, heterogeneous regions. This study used two retrograde tracers to map the connections from the amygdala (central and basolateral area nuclei) and mPFC to the LHA in detail, and to determine whether amygdalar pathways to the mPFC and to LHA originate from the same or different neurons. One tracer was placed into a distinct mPFC area (dorsal anterior cingulate, prelimbic, infralimbic, or rostromedial orbital), and the other into dorsal or ventral LHA. We report that the central nucleus and basolateral area of the amygdala send projections to distinct LHA regions, dorsal and ventral, respectively. The basolateral area, but not central nucleus, also sends substantial projections to the mPFC, topographically organized rostrocaudal to dorsoventral. The entire mPFC, in turn, projects to the LHA, providing a separate route for potential amygdalar influence following mPFC processing. Nearly all amygdalar projections to the mPFC and to the LHA originated from different neurons suggesting amygdala and amygdala-mPFC processing influence the LHA independently, and the balance of these parallel pathways ultimately controls motivated behaviors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.