Emotion and motivation: the role of the amygdala, ventral striatum, and prefrontal cortex.

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) appears to be required for a Pavlovian conditioned stimulus to gain access to the current value of the specific unconditioned stimulus (US) that it predicts, while the central nucleus of the amygdala acts as a controller of brainstem arousal and response systems, and subserves some forms of stimulus-response Pavlovia conditioning.