Animal behavior is shaped by a variety of" internal states"—partially hidden variables that
profoundly shape perception, cognition, and action. The neural basis of internal states, such …

How do our brains determine whether something is good or bad? How is this computational
goal implemented in biological systems? Given the critical importance of valence processing …

Social connections are vital to survival throughout the animal kingdom and are dynamic
across the life span. There are debilitating consequences of social isolation and loneliness …

Learning drives behavioral adaptations necessary for survival. While plasticity of excitatory
projection neurons during associative learning has been extensively studied, little is known …

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is an evolutionarily conserved brain region, well known for
valence processing. Despite this central role, the relationship between activity of BLA …

Basal amygdala (BA) neurons guide associative learning via acquisition of responses to
stimuli that predict salient appetitive or aversive outcomes. We examined the learning-and …

Pain is an unpleasant experience. How the brain's affective neural circuits attribute this
aversive quality to nociceptive information remains unknown. By means of time-lapse in vivo …

Highlights•Populations of the amygdala complex drive positive and negative
valence.•Valence coding can be defined by neural responses to positive and negative …

The property of mixed selectivity has been discussed at a computational level and offers a
strategy to maximize computational power by adding versatility to the functional role of each …

Alcohol and drug use can dysregulate neural circuit function to produce a wide range of
neuropsychiatric disorders, including addiction. To understand the neural circuit …