The involvement of amygdala nucleus in chronic stress induced changes on ingestive behavior of wistar rats.
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Date
2011-07
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Abstract
Organisms are constantly subjected to stimuli that can be construed as stressors.
Stress regulation is a highly integrated process controlled largely by the brain. The role of
amygdala in stress tolerance has attracted continued interest because of its central role in
processing emotional information. In the present study, the Wistar albino rats were subjected to
chronic swimming (physical) stress and chronic immobilization (psychological) stress for 60 days
with or without bilateral lesions of the nucleus of amygdala. Their food intake, water intake and
body weight were measured. Exposure to stressors significantly decreased the body weight, food
and water intake whereas amygdala lesioning significantly increased the body weight (P<0.001),
food intake (P<0.001) and water intake (P<0.001).However, the stress induced decrease observed
in the body weight and food intake of the amygdala lesioned groups was significantly more
(P<0.001) during immobilization stress than swimming stress. It can be concluded that amygdala
nucleus appears to play a prominent role in minimizing the stress induced changes in the food
intake and body weight; and this role was more evident in immobilization stress than a physical
stress. Thus, the present study support the notion that the amygdala nucleus play a definite role in
minimizing stress induced changes in the ingestive behavior and its role in psychological stress is
more prominent.
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Keywords
immobilization, swimming, amygdala, physical stress, psychological stress
Citation
Nayanatara A K, Tripathi Y, Nagaraja H S, Jeganathan P S, Ramaswamy C, Ganaraja B, Kamath Asha. The involvement of amygdala nucleus in chronic stress induced changes on ingestive behavior of wistar rats. International Journal of Applied Biology and Pharmaceutical Technology. 2011 Jul-Sept; 2(3): 339-346.