Source Paper
Activity in Prelimbic Cortex Is Necessary for the Expression of Learned, But Not Innate, Fears
Kevin A. Corcoran, Gregory J. Quirk
Journal of Neuroscience • 2007
Fear Conditioning with Tone and Context
Objective: To determine whether prelimbic cortex (PL) activity is necessary for expression of learned fears (tone and context paired with footshock) versus innate fears, and whether PL activity is required for acquisition of fear memories
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Materials1
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Protocol Steps
Fear conditioning with tone and context
Rats undergo classical fear conditioning where a tone and context are paired with footshock
Note: This establishes learned fear associations
View evidence from paper
“a tone and a context that had been previously paired with footshock (learned fear)”
Prelimbic cortex inactivation during fear expression
Tetrodotoxin is used to inactivate PL during testing of learned fears to measure effects on freezing behavior
Note: Inactivation reduces freezing to both tone and context
View evidence from paper
“Inactivation of PL reduced freezing to both a tone and a context that had been previously paired with footshock”
Test innate fear response
Rats are exposed to a cat to measure innate fear freezing behavior
Note: PL inactivation had no effect on innate fear freezing
View evidence from paper
“freezing to a cat (innate fear)”
Prelimbic cortex inactivation before conditioning
Tetrodotoxin is used to inactivate PL before fear conditioning to test effects on memory acquisition
Note: PL inactivation before conditioning did not prevent formation of auditory or contextual fear memories
View evidence from paper
“Inactivation of PL before conditioning, however, did not prevent the formation of auditory or contextual fear memories”
Measure freezing behavior
Freezing responses are measured as the primary outcome to tone, context, and cat stimuli
Note: Freezing is used as indicator of fear expression
View evidence from paper
“Inactivation of PL reduced freezing to both a tone and a context”