Associative retuning in the thalamic source of input to the amygdala and auditory cortex: receptive field plasticity in the medial division of the medial geniculate body

The medial division of the medial geniculate body (MGm) projects to the lateral amygdala and the upper layer of auditory cortex and develops physiological plasticity rapidly during classical conditioning. The effects of learning on frequency receptive fields (RFs) in the MGm of the guinea pig have been determined. Classical conditioning (tone-footshock), as indexed by rapid development of conditioned bradycardia, produced conditioned stimulus (CS)-frequency specific RF plasticity: increased response at the CS frequency with decreased responses at other frequencies, both immediately and after a 1-hr retention period. Sensitization training produced only general changes in RFs. These findings are considered with reference to both the elicitation of amygdala-mediated, fear-conditioned responses and the mechanism of retrieval of information stored in the auditory cortex during acquisition.