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The lateral nucleus of the amygdala is the entry point of most sensory inputs into the amygdala. However, the way information is processed and distributed within the lateral nucleus still eludes us. To gain some insight into this issue, we have examined the spatial organization of excitatory and inhibitory connections in the lateral nucleus. To this end, we performed whole-cell recordings of principal lateral amygdala neurons and studied their responses to local pressure applications of glutamate in coronal and horizontal slices of the guinea-pig amygdala. In coronal sections, glutamate puffs performed at a distance from the recorded cells usually evoked inhibitory responses, except when the recorded neuron was adjacent to the external capsule, in which case excitatory responses could be evoked from ejection sites along the external capsule. In contrast, glutamate puffs evoked a mixture of excitatory and inhibitory …