People with OCD often suffer from more than one neurological affliction. For example, there is a high comorbidity of OCD and anxiety-related disorders. This may offer an important clue about the underpinnings of OCD. Some scientists have proposed anxiety and obsessions/compulsions may be psychophysically linked. This project aims to understand how the striatum receives and integrates inputs from brain regions involved in anxiety (i.e. the amygdala). We will use techniques similar to those described in Project 1 to examine how cues from the amygdala affect striatal excitability, synaptic integration and synaptic plasticity. The behavioral consequences of this interaction in normal and disease states will be examined.