Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is an adaptive behavior that benefits survival of animals including humans and also serves as a powerful model to study the neural mechanisms of learning. Memory formation is a necessary component of CTA learning and involves neural processing and regulation of gene expression in the amygdala. Many studies have been focused on the identification of intracellular signaling cascades involved in CTA, but not late responsive genes underlying the long-lasting behavioral plasticity. In this study, we explored in silico experiments to identify persistent changes in gene expression associated with CTA in rats. We used oligonucleotide microarrays to identify 248 genes in the amygdala regulated by CTA. Pathway Studio and IPA software analyses showed that the differentially expressed genes in the amygdala fall in diverse functional categories such as behavior, psychological disorders, nervous system development and function, and cell-to-cell signaling. Conditioned taste aversion is a complex behavioral trait which involves association of visceral and taste inputs, consolidation of taste and visceral information, memory formation, retrieval of stored information, and extinction phase. In silico analysis of differentially expressed genes is therefore necessary to manipulate specific phase/stage of CTA to understand the molecular insight. 1. Introduction Taste is a unique sensory system as it provides neural information leading to the establishment and strengthening of taste preferences via associations with postingestion signals from visceral organs. Conditional taste aversion (CTA) learning is a behavioral paradigm whereby an animal, including humans, develops an aversion to a food previously associated with visceral malaise [1]. On fundamental level, the resultant gustatory memory is used in making a decision on whether the food stuff is ingested or rejected. The identification of the genes and network pathways involved in CTA will be crucial in understanding processes necessary for the initiation and maintenance of long-term taste memory, as well as how the brain extracts meaning from the sensory stream that can promote or discourage consumption. The amygdala is a forebrain region that has been extensively studied in the context of CTA learning and memory [2–9]. Lesion studies demonstrate a prominent role for the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) but are not in full agreement regarding the effects of damage to the central nucleus (CeA). Some studies unveiled no effect of CeA lesions on CTA [2, 5, 10], while others have
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