Contextual fear conditioning differs for infant, adolescent, and adult rats.

Full Abstract

Contextual fear conditioning was tested in infant, adolescent, and adult rats in terms of Pavlovian-conditioned suppression. When a discrete auditory-conditioned stimulus (CS) was paired with footshock (unconditioned stimulus, US) within the largely olfactory context, infants and adolescents conditioned to the context with substantial effectiveness, but adult rats did not. When unpaired presentations of the CS and US occurred within the context, contextual fear conditioning was strong for adults, weak for infants, but about as strong for adolescents as when pairings of CS and US occurred in the context. Nonreinforced presentations of either the CS or context markedly reduced contextual fear conditioning in infants, but, in adolescents, CS extinction had no effect on contextual fear conditioning, although context extinction significantly reduced it. Neither CS extinction nor context extinction affected responding to the CS-context compound in infants, suggesting striking discrimination between the compound and its components. Female adolescents showed the same lack of effect of component extinction on response to the compound as infants, but CS extinction reduced responding to the compound in adolescent males, a sex difference seen also in adults. Theoretical implications are discussed for the development of perceptual-cognitive processing and hippocampus role.

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Author information

Author/s: Esmorís-Arranz, Francisco J (FJ); Méndez, Cástor (C); Spear, Norman E (NE);

Affiliation: Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain. fesmoris(-atsign-)usc.es

Grants: 5R37 MH35219 (Agency:United States NIMH)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Behavioural processes (Behav Processes), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 78 (issue 3) : pp 340-50

Dates: Created 2008/05/12; Completed 2008/08/12;

PMID: 18343048, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Aging - psychology
Animals
Association Learning - physiology
Auditory Perception - physiology
Cognition - physiology
Conditioning, Classical - physiology
Discrimination Learning - physiology
Electroshock - methods
Extinction, Psychological - physiology

Fear - physiology; psychology
Female
Hippocampus - physiology
Humans
Infant
Male
Mental Recall - physiology
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Reinforcement (Psychology)
Sex Characteristics
Startle Reaction - physiology

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