BDNF signaling potentiates transmission of information from the basolateral amygdala to infralimbic prefrontal cortex during conditioned taste aversion extinction

Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is a form of associative learning in which a palatable taste [e.g., saccharin; conditioned stimulus (CS)] is paired with a toxic unconditioned stimulus (e.g., injection of lithium chloride), resulting in a reduced preference for the CS. Extinction is a form learning in which a conditioned response to the CS is weakened through repetitive presentations of the CS alone. A recent report by Xin et al. (2014) in The Journal of Neuroscience examines the importance of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling in CTA extinction.