Fear extinction reverses dendritic spine formation induced by fear conditioning in the mouse auditory cortex.

ABSTRACT: Fear conditioning-induced behavioral responses can be extinguished after fear extinction. While fear extinction is generally thought to be a form of new learning, several lines of evidence suggest that neuronal changes associated with fear conditioning could be reversed after fear extinction. To better understand how fear conditioning and extinction modify synaptic circuits, we examined changes of postsynaptic dendritic spines of layer V pyramidal neurons in the mouse auditory cortex over time using transcranial two-photon microscopy. We found that auditory-cued fear conditioning induced the formation of new dendritic spines within 2 days. The survived new spines induced by fear conditioning with one auditory cue were clustered within dendritic branch segments and spatially segregated from

SUBMITTER: Lai CSW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6140524 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature