1. Perirhinal cortex inactivation produces retrieval deficits in fear extinction to a discontinuous visual stimulus.
- Author
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Potter NM, Calub CA, and Furtak SC
- Subjects
- Animals, Extinction, Psychological drug effects, Fear drug effects, GABA-A Receptor Agonists administration & dosage, Male, Mental Recall drug effects, Muscimol administration & dosage, Perirhinal Cortex drug effects, Photic Stimulation, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Visual Perception drug effects, Conditioning, Classical drug effects, Conditioning, Classical physiology, Extinction, Psychological physiology, Fear physiology, Mental Recall physiology, Perirhinal Cortex physiology
- Abstract
Several studies suggest that the perirhinal cortex (PER) may function to unitize stimulus components across time or modalities. While the PER has been shown to be critical for fear acquisition to discontinuous stimuli, the role of the PER in fear extinction memory has not been evaluated. The current study assessed the involvement of the PER during fear extinction training to a continuous or discontinuous conditioned stimulus (CS). Rats were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups based on 2 factors: the CS type (a continuous or discontinuous light) and a pretesting PER manipulation (muscimol inactivation or saline). Results showed that PER inactivation impaired fear memory to both CS types; however, PER inactivation had only impaired extinction memory to the discontinuous light. These results suggest the role of the PER in stimulus unitization extends to supporting the acquisition of fear extinction memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
- Published
- 2020
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