More and Less Fear in Serotonin Transporter Knockout Mice.

ABSTRACT: Recent theories suggest that reduced serotonin transporter (5-HTT) function, which increases serotonin (5-HT) levels at the synapse, enhances neural plasticity and affects sensitivity to environmental cues. This may promote learning about emotionally relevant events. However, the boundaries that define such emotional learning remain to be established. This was investigated using 5-HTT knockout (5-HTTKO) mice which provide a model of long-term elevated 5-HT transmission and are associated with increased anxiety. Compared to wild-type controls, 5-HTTKO mice were faster to discriminate between an auditory cue that predicted footshock (CS+) and a cue predicting no footshock (CS-). Notably, this enhanced discrimination performance was driven not by faster learning that the CS+ predicted footsho

SUBMITTER: Lima J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11803413 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature