Fear Conditioning with Lesions
Objective: To identify the afferent link in the neural pathway mediating emotional responses conditioned to acoustic stimuli by evaluating whether autonomic and behavioral responses to conditioned acoustic stimuli depend on auditory cortex or medial geniculate nucleus (MG) input
This is a Fear Conditioning with Lesions protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 6 procedural steps, 5 equipment items, 1 materials. Extracted from a 1984 paper published in Journal of Neuroscience.
Model and subjects
rat • Not specified • unknown • Not specified • Not specified
Study window
~2.9 week study window
Core workflow
Neuroanatomical mapping of auditory cortex • Lesion placement • Post-lesion recovery period
Primary readouts
- Mean arterial pressure changes (autonomic conditioned response)
- Heart rate changes (autonomic conditioned response)
- Duration of freezing/immobilization (behavioral conditioned response)
- Drink suppression (behavioral conditioned response)
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.
Neuroanatomical mapping of auditory cortex
Conduct anterograde neuroanatomical tracing studies by injecting HRP into the medial geniculate nucleus to define the rat auditory cortex
Note: This mapping step precedes lesion placement
View evidence from paper
“The rat auditory cortex was defined through anterograde neuroanatomical tracing studies involving the injection of HRP into MG”
Lesion placement
Place lesions in the auditory cortex, medial geniculate nucleus (MG), or inferior colliculus in separate groups of rats
Note: Three lesion groups were tested: auditory cortex, MG, and inferior colliculus
View evidence from paper
“Lesions were then placed in the auditory cortex or in MG”
Post-lesion recovery period
Allow rats to recover following lesion placement before behavioral testing
Note: Recovery period allows stabilization of lesion effects
View evidence from paper
“After 10 to 20 days the rats were subjected to classical fear conditioning trials”
Classical fear conditioning
Subject rats to fear conditioning trials pairing a pure tone acoustic stimulus with electric footshock
Note: Conditioning phase establishes association between tone and footshock
View evidence from paper
“the rats were subjected to classical fear conditioning trials involving the pairing of a pure tone with electric footshock”
Extinction trials with measurement
Present the acoustic conditioned emotional stimulus during extinction trials (without footshock) while measuring autonomic and behavioral responses
Note: Extinction trials test conditioned responses without reinforcement
View evidence from paper
“Changes in mean arterial pressure and heart rate and the duration of immobilization (freezing) and drink suppression elicited by presentation during extinction trials (no footshock) of the acoustic conditioned emotional stimulus were measured”
Unconditioned stimulus response testing
Present electric footshock unconditioned stimulus to measure direct autonomic and somatic responses independent of conditioning
Note: Controls for direct responses to footshock versus conditioned responses
View evidence from paper
“did not affect either autonomic or somatic responses elicited by the footshock unconditioned stimulus”