Experiments in both humans and animal models point to BLA as a key area in processing anticipatory cues, expectation, and taste (Belova et al., 2007, Fontanini et al.,

2009 and Roesch et al., 2010). BLA, one of the several areas activated by expectation with Proteases inhibitor anatomical projections to GC (Allen et al., 1991), exerts excitatory and inhibitory effects (Ferreira et al., 2005, Hanamori, 2009 and Yamamoto et al., 1984). Recent in vivo intracellular recordings showing the ability of BLA inputs to promote spiking in GC neurons further strengthen the functional relevance of this connection (Stone et al., 2011). Our results indicate that BLA can have a crucial role in directly promoting cue responses in GC. Interactions between frontal circuits and amygdala are responsible for the emergence of cue responses BIBW2992 price in BLA (Schoenbaum and Roesch, 2005), which would then transfer this signal to GC. As for the psychological nature of the signal provided by BLA, the recent suggestions that BLA might be involved in processing saliency, attention, and expectation (Balleine and Killcross, 2006, Holland and Gallagher, 1999 and Roesch et al., 2010) are entirely consistent with our results. The priming of GC networks induced by cues could be related to a salient anticipatory signal reaching sensory cortices via BLA. Our results, thus, extend the involvement of BLA in stimulus processing beyond its role of enriching

sensory codes with emotional value (Fontanini et al., 2009, Grossman et al., 2008 and Maren et al., 2001) and point at a more dynamic and context-dependent relationship between amygdala and sensory processing. Sensory perception in general, and taste perception in particular, are heavily influenced by expectation. Most of the studies on the subject have focused on a very specific

form of expectation, which involves the anticipatory knowledge of the identity of the stimulus. fMRI and immediate early gene studies have shown that this form of expectation results in the anticipatory activation of stimulus-specific representations (Nitschke et al., 2006, Saddoris et al., 2009 and Zelano et al., 2011). In this study we address the most general form of expectation, that of a stimulus occurring in a specific modality regardless of its specific identity. We showed that cues can associatively activate GC even when specific information Idoxuridine about the identity of the gustatory stimulus is not available. This anticipatory activation is remarkably similar to general patterns that prime GC following the presentation of UT. We further explained the mechanism through which this anticipatory priming can influence taste coding. Our results can be extrapolated to the case of specific expectation. Indeed, it is likely that cues associated with specific stimuli would not only produce patterns of activity correlated with those evoked by the sensory dimensions they predict (Kerfoot et al., 2007 and Saddoris et al.