# Cortical Amygdala to Medial Prefrontal Cortex Circuit Control of Olfactory Fear Memories

> **NIH NIH F32** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2021 · $61,036

## Abstract

Project Summary and Abstract
 Fear-related stress and anxiety disorders manifest in millions of individuals throughout the world, many
following a traumatic or frightening experience. While the symptoms of these disorders are well known, our lack
of knowledge of how the brain encodes and modifies fear memories is not. How auditory and contextual
memories are formed have been thoroughly studied in the past decades, however, research on aversive olfactory
fear memories is relatively sparse. These experiments will determine the involvement of a novel circuit in the
processing of olfactory fear memories. I have discovered a discrete circuit consisting of neurons projecting from
the posterior medial cortical amygdala (pmCoA) to infralimbic division of the medial prefrontal cortex (IL).
Silencing this pathway using chemogenetics prior to olfactory fear conditioning leads to a strengthening of a fear
response to a conditioned odor. Aim 1 proposes to determine what phases of aversive olfactory memory
processing this circuit is involved in. To do this, I will silence this circuit prior to acquisition, consolidation, and
extinction to determine the degree that this pathway has on each process. Aim 2 will determine the activity of
this circuit elicited by acquisition, consolidation, retrieval, and extinction of a learned odor. I will use fiber
photometry to directly record calcium activity within the pmCoA neurons projecting the IL (pmCoA→IL neurons)
to determine patterns of activation of this circuit during these different phases of aversive olfactory memory
processing. These experiments could provide fundamental information on how olfactory fear memories are
organized in the mammalian brain.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10163070
- **Project number:** 5F32MH122147-02
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Christopher deSolis
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $61,036
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2022-02-25

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10163070

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10163070, Cortical Amygdala to Medial Prefrontal Cortex Circuit Control of Olfactory Fear Memories (5F32MH122147-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10163070. Licensed CC0.

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