Journal of neurophysiology
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1. Intracellular current-clamp recordings were obtained from neurons of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) in an in vitro slice preparation from control and kindled animals. Postsynaptic potentials, elicited by stimulation of the stria terminalis (ST) or lateral amygdaloid nucleus (LA), were used to investigate the role of excitatory and inhibitory amino acid transmission in kindling-induced epileptiform activity. ⋯ In the same BLA neurons, direct GABAergic inhibition via stimulation of the LA was not affected by kindling. 7. The enhanced glutamatergic transmission was not due to disinhibition, because, in the presence of BMI (and CNQX to prevent BMI-induced bursting), the s-EPSP amplitude was still greater in kindled than in control neurons. 8. These results provide evidence that the epileptiform activity observed in BLA neurons after kindling results from an increase in excitatory NMDA- and non-NMDA-receptor-mediated glutamatergic transmission and a decrease in inhibitory gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-receptor-mediated transmission; the enhanced excitatory transmission cannot be accounted for by reduced inhibition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)