Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31801809›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2020

Locus Coeruleus Norepinephrine Drives Stress-Induced Increases in Basolateral Amygdala Firing and Impairs Extinction Learning.

Thomas F Giustino, Karthik R Ramanathan, Michael S Totty, Olivia W Miles, Stephen Maren

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
66citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
5.0field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

66 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Alpha-2 Adrenoreceptor Antagonist Yohimbine Potentiates Consolidation of Conditioned Fear.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2022
    Trial
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Locus coeruleus-amygdala circuit disrupts prefrontal control to impair fear extinction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Reduction in Reward-Driven Behavior Depends on the Basolateral But Not Central Nucleus of the Amygdala in Female Rats.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
    Article
  16. Maternal separation disrupts noradrenergic control of adult coping behaviors.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Stimulus-Dependent Dopamine Dynamics from Locus Coeruleus Axons.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  19. Review
  20. Article

6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Thomas F GiustinoDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3474.
Karthik R RamanathanDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3474.ORCID 0000-0002-8843-3665
Michael S TottyDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3474.
Olivia W MilesDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3474.
Stephen MarenDepartment of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3474 maren@tamu.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-9342-7411
Texas A&M University · US

Funding

Neural Substrates of Contextual Memory in Fear ExtinctionR01MH065961 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI MAREN, STEPHEN · 2003 to 2025
$7.9M
Neural Circuits for Stress-Impaired Extinction LearningR01MH117852 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN · PI Stephen Maren · 2018 to 2026
$4.6M
Noradrenergic modulation of stress-induced deficits in fear extinctionF31MH112208 · NIMH · TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY · PI GIUSTINO, THOMAS · 2017 to 2018
$68k
NIMH NIH HHS F31 MH112208NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH065961NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH117852
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Stress impairs extinction learning, and these deficits depend, in part, on stress-induced norepinephrine (NE) release in the basolateral amygdala (BLA). For example, systemic or intra-BLA administration of propranolol reduces the immediate extinction deficit (IED), an impairment in extinction learning that occurs when extinction trials are administered soon after fear conditioning. Here, we explored whether locus coeruleus (LC)-NE regulates stress-induced changes in spike firing in the BLA and consequent extinction learning impairments. Rats were implanted with recording arrays in the BLA and, after recovery from surgery, underwent a standard auditory fear conditioning procedure. Fear conditioning produced an immediate and dramatic increase in the spontaneous firing of BLA neurons that persisted (and in some units, increased further) up to an hour after conditioning. This stress-induced increase in BLA firing was prevented by systemic administration of propranolol. Conditioning with a weaker footshock caused smaller increases in BLA firing rate, but this could be augmented by chemogenetic activation of the LC. Conditioned freezing in response to a tone paired with a weak footshock was immune to the IED, but chemogenetic activation of the LC before the weak conditioning protocol increased conditioned freezing behavior and induced an IED; this effect was blocked with intra-BLA infusions of propranolol. These data suggest that stress-induced activation of the LC increases BLA spike firing and causes impairments in extinction learning. Stress-induced increases in BLA activity mediated by LC-NE may be a viable therapeutic target for individuals with stress- and trauma-related disorders.

Indexed as

Action PotentialsAdrenergic beta-AntagonistsAnimalsBasolateral Nuclear ComplexConditioning, ClassicalExtinction, PsychologicalLearningLocus CoeruleusNeuronsPropranololRatsAdrenergic beta-AntagonistsPropranololamygdalaextinctionfear conditioninglocus coeruleusnorepinephrinestress

Identifiers

PMID31801809
PMCPMC6975297
OpenAlexW2992514738

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.