LTP IS ACCOMPANIED BY COMMENSURATE ENHANCEMENT OF AUDITORY-EVOKED RESPONSES IN A FEAR CONDITIONING CIRCUIT

Transmission of auditory information from the medial geniculate body t o the lateral nucleus of the amygdala is believed to be involved in th e conditioning of fear responses to acoustic stimuli. This pathway exh ibits LTP of electrically evoked field potentials after high frequency stimulation of the medial geniculate body. High frequency stimulation of the medial geniculate body also results in a long-lasting potentia tion of a field potential in the lateral amygdala elicited by a natura lly transduced acoustic stimulus. This demonstrates that natural infor mation processing can make use of the physiological mechanisms set in motion by LTP induction.