Publications de Ralf Schneggenburger

A posterior insula to lateral amygdala pathway transmits US-offset information with a limited role in fear learning

Ralf Schneggenburger, Olexiy Kochubey, Denys Osypenko, Shriya Palchaudhuri

During fear learning, associations between a sensory cue (conditioned stimulus, CS) and an aversive stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US) are formed in specific brain circuits. The lateral amygdala (LA) is involved in CS-US integration; however, US pathway ...

2025

Auditory stimuli suppress contextual fear responses in safety learning independent of a possible safety meaning

Ralf Schneggenburger, Olexiy Kochubey, Johanni Michael Brea, Christos Sourmpis, Denys Osypenko, Shriya Palchaudhuri

Safety learning allows the identification of non-threatening situations, a learning process instrumental for survival and psychic health. In contrast to fear learning, in which a sensory cue (conditioned stimulus, CS) is temporally linked to a mildly avers ...

2024

A striatal circuit balances learned fear in the presence and absence of sensory cues

Ralf Schneggenburger, Olexiy Kochubey, Michael Kintscher

During fear learning, defensive behaviors like freezing need to be finely balanced in the presence or absence of threat-predicting cues (conditioned stimulus, CS). Nevertheless, the circuits underlying such balancing are largely unknown. Here, we investiga ...

eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD2023

Fear Learning: An Evolving Picture for Plasticity at Synaptic Afferents to the Amygdala

Ralf Schneggenburger, Denys Osypenko, Shriya Palchaudhuri

Unraveling the neuronal mechanisms of fear learning might allow neuroscientists to make links between a learned behavior and the underlying plasticity at specific synaptic connections. In fear learning, an innocuous sensory event such as a tone (called the ...

SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC2022

Stimulation of medial amygdala GABA neurons with kinetically different channelrhodopsins yields opposite behavioral outcomes

Ralf Schneggenburger, Olexiy Kochubey, Aiste Baleisyte

The medial amygdala (MeA) receives pheromone information about conspecifics and has crucial functions in social behaviors. A previous study showed that activation of GABA neurons in the postero-dorsal MeA (MeApd) with channelrhodopsin-2(H)(134R) (ChR2) sti ...

CELL PRESS2022

A VTA to Basal Amygdala Dopamine Projection Contributes to Signal Salient Somatosensory Events during Fear Learning

Ralf Schneggenburger, Olexiy Kochubey, Wei Tang, Michael Kintscher

The amygdala is a brain area critical for the formation of fear memories. However, the nature of the teaching signal(s) that drive plasticity in the amygdala are still under debate. Here, we use optogenetic methods to investigate the contribution of ventra ...

2020

LTP of inhibition at PV interneuron output synapses requires developmental BMP signaling

Ralf Schneggenburger, Christopher Clark, Denys Osypenko, Evan Dean Vickers

Parvalbumin (PV)-expressing interneurons (PV-INs) mediate well-timed inhibition of cortical principal neurons, and plasticity of these interneurons is involved in map remodeling of primary sensory cortices during critical periods of development. To assess ...

Nature Research2020

Optogenetic Stimulation of Basal Forebrain Parvalbumin Neurons Activates the Default Mode Network and Associated Behaviors

Ralf Schneggenburger, Gregor Rainer, Michael Kintscher, Laura Lozano Montes, Jayakrishnan Harikrishnavilas Raveendran Nair

Activation of the basal forebrain (BF) has been associated with increased attention, arousal, and a heightened cortical representation of the external world. In addition, BF has been implicated in the regulation of the default mode network (DMN) and associ ...

2020

RETRACTED: Insular cortex processes aversive somatosensory information and is crucial for threat learning

Ralf Schneggenburger, Olexiy Kochubey, Wei Tang, Michael Kintscher, Denys Osypenko, Shriya Palchaudhuri, Emmanuelle Marie Brigitte Berret

Learning about threats is essential for survival. During threat learning, an innocuous sensory percept such as a tone acquires an emotional meaning when paired with an aversive stimulus such as a mild footshock. The amygdala is critical for threat memory f ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2019

Role of BMP Signaling for the Formation of Auditory Brainstem Nuclei and Large Auditory Relay Synapses

Ralf Schneggenburger, Christopher Clark, Elin Kristina Kronander

Large excitatory synapses are found at specific points in the neuronal circuits of the auditory brainstem, to enable fast information transfer and the preservation of acoustic timing information. The extracellular cues and signaling mechanisms that lead to ...

WILEY2019