AX+, BX- Discrimination Learning in the Fear-Potentiated Startle Paradigm: Possible Relevance to Inhibitory Fear Learning in Extinction

Learning and Memory - Tập 11 Số 4 - Trang 464-475 - 2004
Karyn M. Myers1, Michael Davis1
1Departments of Psychology and2 Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,3 Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA

Tóm tắt

The neural mechanisms of fear suppression most commonly are studied through the use of extinction, a behavioral procedure in which a feared stimulus (i.e., one previously paired with shock) is nonreinforced repeatedly, leading to a reduction or elimination of the fear response. Although extinction is perhaps the most convenient index of fear inhibition, a great deal of behavioral work suggests that postextinction training conditioned stimuli are both excitatory and inhibitory, making it difficult to determine whether a neural manipulation affects inhibition, excitation, or some combination thereof. For this reason we sought to develop a behavioral procedure that would render a stimulus primarily inhibitory while at the same time avoiding some of the issues raised by the traditional conditioned inhibition paradigm, namely second-order conditioning, external inhibition, and configural learning. Using the fear-potentiated startle paradigm, we adapted an AX+, BX- training procedure in which stimuli A and X were presented simultaneously and paired with shock, and stimuli B and X were presented simultaneously in the absence of shock. In testing, high levels of fear-potentiated startle were seen in the presence of A and AX and much lower levels were seen in the presence of B and AB, as would be predicted if stimulus B were a conditioned inhibitor. We believe this method is a viable alternative to the traditional conditioned inhibition training procedure and will be useful for studying the neural mechanisms of fear inhibition.

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Learning and Memory

Tập 11 Số 4

464-475

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