Contextual Fear Conditioning
Objective: Assessment of contextual fear conditioning as a measure of hippocampal-dependent learning and memory, specifically to evaluate the contribution of adult-born hippocampal neurons to this behavior
This is a Contextual Fear Conditioning protocol using mouse as the model organism. The procedure involves 7 procedural steps, 3 equipment items. Extracted from a 2006 paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Model and subjects
mouse • Not specified in provided text • Not specified in provided text • Not specified in provided text • Not specified in provided text • Not specified in provided text
Study window
Estimated timing pending
Core workflow
Hippocampal neurogenesis ablation - Method 1 • Hippocampal neurogenesis ablation - Method 2 • Contextual fear conditioning
Primary readouts
- Contextual fear conditioning performance (impaired by ablation)
- Cued fear conditioning performance (not impaired by ablation)
- Morris water maze performance (not impaired by ablation)
- Y maze performance (not impaired by ablation)
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
Use the page like this
- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Hippocampal neurogenesis ablation - Method 1
Focal X irradiation of the hippocampus to ablate hippocampal neurogenesis
Note: This is one of two independent methods used to ablate hippocampal neurogenesis
View evidence from paper
“focal X irradiation of the hippocampus or genetic ablation of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive neural progenitor cells impaired contextual fear conditioning”
Hippocampal neurogenesis ablation - Method 2
Genetic ablation of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive neural progenitor cells to ablate hippocampal neurogenesis
Note: This is one of two independent methods used to ablate hippocampal neurogenesis
View evidence from paper
“focal X irradiation of the hippocampus or genetic ablation of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive neural progenitor cells impaired contextual fear conditioning”
Contextual fear conditioning
Subjects are exposed to a context paired with an unconditioned stimulus to assess hippocampal-dependent learning and memory
Note: This task was impaired by both ablation procedures
View evidence from paper
“focal X irradiation of the hippocampus or genetic ablation of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive neural progenitor cells impaired contextual fear conditioning but not cued conditioning.”
Cued fear conditioning
Subjects are exposed to a cue paired with an unconditioned stimulus to assess non-hippocampal dependent learning
Note: This task was NOT impaired by ablation procedures, indicating specificity of the effect
View evidence from paper
“focal X irradiation of the hippocampus or genetic ablation of glial fibrillary acidic protein-positive neural progenitor cells impaired contextual fear conditioning but not cued conditioning.”
Morris water maze task
Hippocampal-dependent spatial learning task to assess spatial memory
Note: This task was unaffected by ablation procedures
View evidence from paper
“Hippocampal-dependent spatial learning tasks such as the Morris water maze and Y maze were unaffected.”
Y maze task
Hippocampal-dependent spatial learning task to assess spatial memory
Note: This task was unaffected by ablation procedures
View evidence from paper
“Hippocampal-dependent spatial learning tasks such as the Morris water maze and Y maze were unaffected.”
Long-term potentiation recording in dentate gyrus
Electrophysiological assessment of synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus in vitro
Note: Long-term potentiation elicited in the dentate gyrus in the absence of GABA blockers requires the presence of new neurons
View evidence from paper
“long-term potentiation elicited in the dentate gyrus in the absence of GABA blockers requires the presence of new neurons, as it is eliminated by each of our ablation procedures.”