Visuocortical tuning to a threat-related feature persists after extinction and consolidation of conditioned fear.

ABSTRACT: Neurons in the visual cortex sharpen their orientation tuning as humans learn aversive contingencies. A stimulus orientation (CS+) that reliably predicts an aversive noise (unconditioned stimulus: US) is selectively enhanced in lower-tier visual cortex, while similar unpaired orientations (CS-) are inhibited. Here, we examine in male volunteers how sharpened visual processing is affected by fear extinction learning (where no US is presented), and how fear and extinction memory undergo consolidation one day after the original learning episode. Using steady-state visually evoked potentials from electroencephalography in a fear generalization task, we found that extinction learning prompted rapid changes in orientation tuning: Both conditioned visuocortical and skin conductance responses to t

SUBMITTER: Antov MI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7054355 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature