The basolateral amygdala (BLA) plays essential roles in behaviors motivated by stimuli with either positive or negative valence, but how it processes motivationally opposing information and participates in establishing valence-specific behaviors remains unclear. Here, by targeting Fezf2-expressing neurons in the BLA, we identify and characterize two functionally distinct classes in behaving mice, the negative-valence neurons and positive-valence neurons, which innately represent aversive and rewarding stimuli, respectively, and through learning acquire predictive responses that are essential for punishment avoidance or reward seeking. Notably, these two classes of neurons receive inputs from separate sets of sensory and limbic areas, and convey punishment and reward information through projections to the nucleus accumbens and olfactory tubercle, respectively, to drive negative and positive reinforcement. Thus, valence-specific BLA neurons are wired with distinctive input–output structures, forming a circuit framework that supports the roles of the BLA in encoding, learning and executing valence-specific motivated behaviors.

基底外侧杏仁核 (BLA) 在由具有正价或负价的刺激激发的行为中起着重要作用，但它如何处理动机相反的信息并参与建立特定价的行为仍不清楚。在这里，通过针对Fezf2- 在 BLA 中表达神经元，我们在行为小鼠中识别和表征两个功能不同的类别，即负价神经元和正价神经元，它们天生分别代表厌恶和奖励刺激，并通过学习获得对以下行为至关重要的预测反应避免惩罚或寻求奖励。值得注意的是，这两类神经元从不同的感觉和边缘区域接收输入，并通过投射分别传递惩罚和奖励信息到伏隔核和嗅结节，以驱动负强化和正强化。因此，特定效价的 BLA 神经元连接有独特的输入-输出结构，形成一个电路框架，支持 BLA 在编码、学习和执行特定效价的动机行为中的作用。