Fear-Potentiated Startle
Objective: Measurement of startle response magnitude in the presence of conditioned fear cues to assess fear acquisition and extinction, specifically examining the role of hippocampal BDNF in extinction of aversive memories
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Equipment1
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Materials2
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Software1
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Protocol Steps
Viral injection into dorsal hippocampus
Bilateral injection of lentivirus expressing Cre recombinase into the dorsal hippocampus of adult mice floxed at the BDNF locus
Note: Control animals received lenti-GFP-infected virus
View evidence from paper
“we injected a lentivirus expressing Cre recombinase bilaterally into the dorsal hippocampus in adult mice floxed at the BDNF locus”
Baseline startle measurement
Measurement of baseline startle response to assess baseline anxiety and locomotion
Note: No significant effects of BDNF deletion on baseline startle were observed
View evidence from paper
“Behaviorally, there were no significant effects of BDNF deletion on locomotion or baseline anxiety measured with startle”
Fear conditioning
Conditioning procedure to establish fear response to conditioned cues
Note: No effects on acquisition or expression of fear were observed
View evidence from paper
“Although there were no effects on the acquisition or expression fear”
Fear-potentiated startle measurement
Measurement of startle response magnitude in presence of conditioned fear cues to assess fear acquisition and extinction
Note: Animals with BDNF deletions showed significantly reduced extinction of conditioned fear
View evidence from paper
“animals with BDNF deletions show significantly reduced extinction of conditioned fear as measured both with fear-potentiated startle and freezing”