Hippocampal-prelimbic coupling during context-dependent extinction retrieval in rats.

ABSTRACT: After fear conditioning, repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus (CS) alone produces a context-dependent extinction of learned fear. The hippocampus has a critical role in this process, but the mechanism by which contextual information encoded by the hippocampus leads to fear suppression is unknown. We hypothesize that contextual information encoded by the dorsal hippocampus supports the recall of extinction memory by the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the oscillatory coherence and directional coupling of the hippocampus and mPFC during context-dependent extinction retrieval in a previously published experiment. In this experiment, male and female rats were subjected to auditory fear conditioning followed by fear extinction and extinction r

SUBMITTER: Mourao FAG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12247864 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature