Neuropeptides Boost Reward and Punishment Learning in the Amygdala

Memories that link disparate ideas like berry and sickness or enjoyment are called associative memories. They form in a tiny almond shaped region of the brain called the amygdala. So traditionally known as the brain's fear center, the amygdala responds to pleasure and other emotions too. One part of the amygdala called the basolateral complex associates stimuli in the environment with positive or negative outcomes. But it wasn't clear how it does that until a few years ago. That's when a group at MIT discovered something remarkable happening in thebasolateral amygdala of mice - which they reported in nature in 2015 and in neuron in 2016. The 2019 study showed that although this feel-good molecule could encode emotion and