Understanding how distinct functional circuits are coordinated to fine-tune mood and behavior is of fundamental importance. Here, we observe that within the dense projections from basolateral amygdala (BLA) to bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST), there are two functionally opposing pathways orchestrated to enable contextually appropriate expression of anxiety-like behaviors in male mice. Specifically, the anterior BLA neurons predominantly innervate the anterodorsal BNST (adBNST), while their posterior counterparts send massive fibers to oval BNST (ovBNST) with moderate to adBNST. Optogenetic activation of the anterior and posterior BLA inputs oppositely regulated the activity of adBNST neurons and anxiety-like behaviors, via disengaging and engaging the inhibitory ovBNST-to-adBNST microcircuit, respectively. Importantly, the two pathways exhibited synchronized but opposite responses to both anxiolytic and anxiogenic stimuli, partially due to their mutual inhibition within BLA and the different inputs they receive. These findings reveal synergistic interactions between two BLA-to-BNST pathways for appropriate anxiety expression with ongoing environmental demands.

了解不同的功能回路如何协调以微调情绪和行为至关重要。在这里，我们观察到，在从基底外侧杏仁核（BLA）到终纹床核（BNST）的密集投射中，有两条功能上相反的通路精心策划，以使雄性小鼠能够根据情境适当地表达焦虑样行为。具体来说，前 BLA 神经元主要支配前背侧 BNST (adBNST)，而后侧 BLA 神经元则将大量纤维发送至椭圆形 BNST (ovBNST)，并具有中度至 adBNST。前部和后部 BLA 输入的光遗传学激活分别通过释放和接合抑制性 ovBNST-to-adBNST 微电路，反向调节 adBNST 神经元的活动和焦虑样行为。重要的是，这两条通路对抗焦虑和致焦虑刺激表现出同步但相反的反应，部分原因是它们在 BLA 内的相互抑制以及它们收到的不同输入。这些发现揭示了两种 BLA-to-BNST 通路之间的协同相互作用，可以根据持续的环境需求适当地表达焦虑。