The ventral hippocampus also constitutes an important node in the mPFC-BLA-vHPC anxiety-processing network and its role has recently come under increased investigation. Inactivation of vHPC interferes with expression of innate anxiety, fear recall and consolidation of extinction learning (Kjelstrup et al., 2002; Sierra-Mercado et al., 2011). Studies looking at interactions between the BLA, mPFC and vHPC have begun to reveal interesting parallels in the way that information flow between these three areas underlies fear and anxiety. For example, activating region-specific BLA inputs to the vHPC and mPFC increases expression of innate anxiety and learned fear, respectively (Sotres-Bayon et. al., 2012, Senn et. al., 2014, Felix-Ortiz et al., 2013). Conversely, vHPC inputs to both the BLA and mPFC may be important for providing contextual information about emotional content of learned and innate experience. In support of this idea, anxiety-coding mPFC neurons are phase locked to vHPC inputs (Adhikari et. al., 2011) and vHPC inputs to the mPFC are engaged in dampening contextual fear after extinction (Hugues and Garcia, 2007, Sotres-Bayon et. al., 2012). Similarly, vHPC inputs to the BLA become more
