Measuring Pavlovian fear with conditioned freezing and conditioned suppression reveals different roles for the basolateral amygdala.

ABSTRACT: In Pavlovian fear conditioning, pairing a neutral cue with aversive foot shock endows a cue with fear-eliciting properties. Studies of Pavlovian fear conditioning measuring freezing have demonstrated the basolateral amygdala (BLA) to be critical to both fear learning and memory. The nucleus accumbens core (NAc), while not important to freezing, is important to the enhancement of instrumental responding by cues paired with food reward. In the present study we investigated the role of the BLA and the NAc in another property of fear cues, the ability to suppress instrumental responding for food rewards (conditioned suppression). Sham, BLA and NAc-lesioned rats received a fear discrimination procedure in which one visual cue (CS+) predicted foot shock while a second cue (CS-) did not. Conditio

SUBMITTER: McDannald MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3031723 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature