The amygdalae are also involved in appetitive (positive) conditioning. It seems that distinct neurons respond to positive and negative stimuli, but there is no clustering of these distinct neurons into clear anatomical nuclei. However, lesions of the central nucleus in the amygdala have been shown to reduce appetitive learning in rats. Lesions of the basolateral regions do not exhibit the same effect. Research like this indicates that different nuclei within the amygdala have different functions in appetitive conditioning. Nevertheless, researchers found an example of appetitive emotional learning showing an important role for the basolateral amygdala: The naïve female mice are innately attracted to non-volatile pheromones contained in male-soiled bedding, but not by the male-derived volatiles, become attractive if associated with non-volatile attractive pheromones, which act as unconditioned stimulus in a case of Pavlovian associative learning. In the vomeronasal, olfactory and emotional systems, Fos (gene family) proteins show that non-volatile pheromones stimulate the vomeronasal system, whereas air-borne volatiles activate only the olfactory system. Thus, the acquired preference for male-derived volatiles reveals an olfactory-vomeronasal associative learning. Moreover, the reward system is differentially activated by the primary pheromones and secondarily attractive odorants. Exploring the primary attractive pheromone activates the basolateral amygdala and the shell of nucleus accumbens but neither the ventral tegmental area nor the orbitofrontal cortex. In contrast, exploring the secondarily attractive male-derived odorants involves activation of a circuit that includes the basolateral amygdala, prefrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area. Therefore, the basolateral amygdala stands out as the key center for vomeronasal-olfactory associative learning.
The amygdalae are also involved in appetitive (positive) conditioning It seems that distinct neurons respond to positive and negative stimuli but there is no clustering of these distinct neurons into clear anatomical nuclei However lesions of the central nucleus in the amygdala have been shown to reduce appetitive learning in rats Lesions of the basolateral regions do not exhibit the same effect Research like this indicates that different nuclei within the amygdala have different functions in appetitive conditioning Nevertheless researchers found an example of appetitive emotional learning showing an important role for the basolateral amygdala The naïve female mice are innately attracted to non-volatile pheromones contained in male-soiled bedding but not by the male-derived volatiles become attractive if associated with non-volatile attractive pheromones which act as unconditioned stimulus in a case of Pavlovian associative learning In the vomeronasal olfactory and emotional systems Fos (gene family) proteins show that non-volatile pheromones stimulate the vomeronasal system whereas air-borne volatiles activate only the olfactory system Thus the acquired preference for male-derived volatiles reveals an olfactory-vomeronasal associative learning Moreover the reward system is differentially activated by the primary pheromones and secondarily attractive odorants Exploring the primary attractive pheromone activates the basolateral amygdala and the shell of nucleus accumbens but neither the ventral tegmental area nor the orbitofrontal cortex In contrast exploring the secondarily attractive male-derived odorants involves activation of a circuit that includes the basolateral amygdala prefrontal cortex and ventral tegmental area Therefore the basolateral amygdala stands out as the key center for vomeronasal-olfactory associative learning