Temporary inactivation of dorsal hippocampus attenuates explicitly nonspatial, unimodal, contextual fear conditioning.

Full Abstract

The current study examined the effects of temporary inactivation of the DH on freezing, rearing, ambulating, grooming, and whisking behavior in an explicitly nonspatial contextual fear conditioning paradigm in which olfactory stimuli served as temporally and spatially diffuse contexts. Prior either to training, testing, or both, male Sprague-Dawley rats received bilateral microinfusions of saline or the GABA(A) agonist muscimol into the DH. Results indicate that temporary inactivation of DH produced both anterograde and retrograde deficits in contextually conditioned freezing, while sparing the acquisition and expression of freezing to a discrete auditory or olfactory CS. These data suggest that there is a decidedly nonspatial component to the role of DH in contextual conditioning, and that olfactory contextual conditioning is a fruitful means of further exploring this function.

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Author information

Author/s: Parsons, Teresa Camille (TC); Otto, Tim (T);

Affiliation: Program in Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA.

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Neurobiology of learning and memory (Neurobiol Learn Mem), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 90 (issue 1) : pp 261-8

Dates: Created 2008/06/10; Completed 2008/09/03;

PMID: 18485754, 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.

Acoustic Stimulation
Animals
Conditioning, Classical - drug effects; physiology
Fear - physiology
Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic - drug effects; physiology
GABA Agonists - pharmacology
Hippocampus - drug effects; physiology

Male
Muscimol - pharmacology
Odors
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Smell - physiology
Space Perception - drug effects; physiology

Associated Chemicals: GABA Agonists (0) ; Muscimol (2763-96-4)

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