EN
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of pervasive developmental disorder. All of them have been developing from birth, accompanying human through whole life and have strong influence on social functioning, communication as well as cognitive abilities. Neurobiological research (e.g. neuroimaging) indicate that patients with ASD demonstrate impairments of amygdala structure and functioning. It is worth to compare if previous results in human may be observed in animals. The aim of this study was display that lesion of amygdala nuclei may indicate behaviors diagnostic for ASD. For that purpose on a group of male Wistar rats (n=40) was conducted an electrolytic lesion of basolateral (BLA) or centromedial (CeA) amygdala. Animals were divided into groups separately for BLA and CeA: control (without operation), sham (operation, without lesion) and lesioned. After convalescence rats were observed in different behavioral tests which measured social functioning (social interactions), anxiety (elevated plus maze), spatial memory (water maze) and communication (smell preference). Obtain results suggest that amygdala lesion decreased social functioning or anxiety (BLA and CeA), communication (BLA), motor activity (CeA). In spite of this spatial memory increased (BLA). On the base of behavioral results it is likely that lesion of amygdala nuclei may be perceive animal model for further studies. (support: NN303 819040).