Source Paper
Facilitation of Conditioned Fear Extinction by Systemic Administration or Intra-Amygdala Infusions of d-Cycloserine as Assessed with Fear-Potentiated Startle in Rats
David L. Walker, Kerry J. Ressler, Kwok-Tung Lu, Michael Davis
Journal of Neuroscience • 2002
Intra-Amygdala D-Cycloserine Infusion
Objective: To evaluate the ability of d-cycloserine (DCS) administered via intra-amygdala infusion to facilitate conditioned fear extinction as assessed with fear-potentiated startle in rats
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Protocol Steps
Fear conditioning
Rats received fear conditioning with paired light and footshock presentations
Note: 10 pairings of light and footshock
View evidence from paper
“Rats received 10 pairings of a 3.7 sec light and a 0.4 mA footshock (fear conditioning)”
Baseline fear-potentiated startle measurement
Fear-potentiated startle was measured before extinction training to establish baseline response
Note: Measured as increased startle in presence vs absence of light
View evidence from paper
“Fear-potentiated startle (increased startle in the presence vs the absence of the light) was subsequently measured before and after”
Intra-amygdala d-cycloserine infusion
d-Cycloserine was infused directly into the amygdala before extinction training
Note: 10 μg/side dose used in this experiment
View evidence from paper
“The effect of systemic administration was mimicked by intra-amygdala DCS (10 μg/side) infusions”
Extinction training
Rats received non-reinforced light presentations without footshock to extinguish conditioned fear
Note: 30 presentations produced modest extinction; 60 or 90 presentations produced nearly complete extinction
View evidence from paper
“30, 60, or 90 presentations of the light without shock (extinction training)”
Post-extinction fear-potentiated startle measurement
Fear-potentiated startle was measured after extinction training to assess extinction learning
Note: Compared to baseline measurements
View evidence from paper
“Fear-potentiated startle (increased startle in the presence vs the absence of the light) was subsequently measured before and after”