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Differential involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex across variants of contextual fear conditioning.
Learn Mem. 2017 08; 24(8):322-330.LM

Abstract

The context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE) is a contextual fear conditioning paradigm in which learning about the context, acquiring the context-shock association, and retrieving/expressing contextual fear are temporally dissociated into three distinct phases. In contrast, learning about the context and the context-shock association happens concurrently in standard contextual fear conditioning (sCFC). By infusing the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol into medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in adolescent Long-Evans rats, the current set of experiments examined the functional role of the mPFC in each phase of the CPFE and sCFC. In the CPFE, the mPFC is necessary for the following: acquisition and/or consolidation of context memory (Experiment 1), reconsolidation of a context memory to include shock (Experiment 2), and expression of contextual fear memory during a retention test (Experiment 3). In contrast to the CPFE, inactivation of the mPFC prior to conditioning in sCFC has no effect on acquisition, consolidation, or retention of a contextual fear memory (Experiment 4). Interestingly, the mPFC is not required for acquiring a context-shock association (measured by post-shock freezing) in the CPFE or sCFC (Experiment 2b and 4). Taken together, these results indicate that the mPFC is differentially recruited across stages of learning and variants of contextual fear conditioning (CPFE versus sCFC). More specifically, separating out learning about the context and the context-shock association necessitates activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during early learning and/or consolidation.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.

Robinson-Drummer PA

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.

MeSH

AnimalsConditioning, ClassicalElectroshockFearFemaleFreezing Reaction, CatalepticGABA-A Receptor AgonistsMaleMemory ConsolidationMuscimolNeuropsychological TestsPrefrontal CortexRats, Long-EvansReceptors, GABA-A

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Language

eng

PubMed ID

28716952

Citation

Heroux, Nicholas A., et al. "Differential Involvement of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Across Variants of Contextual Fear Conditioning." Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), vol. 24, no. 8, 2017, pp. 322-330.

Heroux NA, Robinson-Drummer PA, Sanders HR, et al. Differential involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex across variants of contextual fear conditioning. Learn Mem. 2017;24(8):322-330.

Heroux, N. A., Robinson-Drummer, P. A., Sanders, H. R., Rosen, J. B., & Stanton, M. E. (2017). Differential involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex across variants of contextual fear conditioning. Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), 24(8), 322-330. https://doi.org/10.1101/lm.045286.117

Heroux NA, et al. Differential Involvement of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Across Variants of Contextual Fear Conditioning. Learn Mem. 2017;24(8):322-330. PubMed PMID: 28716952.

* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case

TY - JOUR T1 - Differential involvement of the medial prefrontal cortex across variants of contextual fear conditioning. AU - Heroux,Nicholas A, AU - Robinson-Drummer,Patrese A, AU - Sanders,Hollie R, AU - Rosen,Jeffrey B, AU - Stanton,Mark E, Y1 - 2017/07/17/ PY - 2017/02/10/received PY - 2017/05/12/accepted PY - 2017/7/19/entrez PY - 2017/7/19/pubmed PY - 2018/4/10/medline SP - 322 EP - 330 JF - Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) JO - Learn Mem VL - 24 IS - 8 N2 - The context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE) is a contextual fear conditioning paradigm in which learning about the context, acquiring the context-shock association, and retrieving/expressing contextual fear are temporally dissociated into three distinct phases. In contrast, learning about the context and the context-shock association happens concurrently in standard contextual fear conditioning (sCFC). By infusing the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol into medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in adolescent Long-Evans rats, the current set of experiments examined the functional role of the mPFC in each phase of the CPFE and sCFC. In the CPFE, the mPFC is necessary for the following: acquisition and/or consolidation of context memory (Experiment 1), reconsolidation of a context memory to include shock (Experiment 2), and expression of contextual fear memory during a retention test (Experiment 3). In contrast to the CPFE, inactivation of the mPFC prior to conditioning in sCFC has no effect on acquisition, consolidation, or retention of a contextual fear memory (Experiment 4). Interestingly, the mPFC is not required for acquiring a context-shock association (measured by post-shock freezing) in the CPFE or sCFC (Experiment 2b and 4). Taken together, these results indicate that the mPFC is differentially recruited across stages of learning and variants of contextual fear conditioning (CPFE versus sCFC). More specifically, separating out learning about the context and the context-shock association necessitates activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during early learning and/or consolidation. SN - 1549-5485 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/28716952/Differential_involvement_of_the_medial_prefrontal_cortex_across_variants_of_contextual_fear_conditioning_ L2 - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/28716952/ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -