Activation of the noradrenergic system contributes to stress-induced anxiety on the elevated plus maze (Cecchi, SFN 2000). We have also demonstrated, however, that pretreatment with the anxiogenic adrenergic autoreceptor antagonist yohimbine induces a paradoxical anxiolytic response to stress (Khoshbouei, SFN 1999). We hypothesize that this is due to release of galanin in the central amygdala (CeA), induced by amplifying stress-activation of the noradrenergic system. We thus investigated the role of galanin in CeA in modulating stress-induced anxiety after amplifying the noradrenergic response with yohimbine. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were pretreated with vehicle or yohimbine (2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) 20 min before bilateral microinjections into CeA of vehicle, the galanin antagonist M40 [1 or 4 nmole/0.2 ul], galanin [1 nmole] or M40 followed by galanin. After microinjections, controls were returned to their cage, while stressed rats were exposed to 5 min immobilization stress then 15 min recovery before plus maze...