Neural Mechanisms of Escape From Fear Learning

逃避恐惧学习的神经机制

• 批准号: 7110533
• 负责人: Christopher Kenneth Cain
• 金额: $ 4.88万
• 依托单位: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-05-08 至 2009-05-07
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7110533
• 关键词: amygdala; conditioning; corpus striatum; electrophysiology; escape reaction; fear; laboratory rat; learning; neural plasticity; neuroanatomy; neurophysiology; nucleus accumbens; postdoctoral investigator; single cell analysis

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pavlovian conditioned fear is widely used to study the neural mechanisms of associative learning and anxiety. Conditioned fear is typically induced by pairing a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) with an aversive unconditioned stimulus. Subsequent presentations of the CS elicit fear reactions. While this research is important, it neglects a class of learning with direct relevance to fear pathology and coping in humans: fear-motivated instrumental learning. The Escape From Fear (EFF) task was developed to study this learning separately from fear acquisition. In EFF, animals are presented with fear-eliciting CSs that terminate when they make a specific response. Thus, CS-termination is contingent upon active responding, or more formally, conditioned negative reinforcement supports response learning. This proposal outlines an investigation of the neural circuits responsible for EFF learning using an optimized EFF procedure, lesions, inactivations and single-unit recordings. The initial focus will be interactions between the amygdala, a nucleus critical for fear conditioning, and striatum, a region linked to instrumental learning. The results should further our understanding of fear learning with potentially important implications for human treatment.

描述（由申请人提供）：巴甫洛夫条件恐惧被广泛用于研究联想学习和焦虑的神经机制。条件性恐惧通常是通过将中性条件刺激（CS）与厌恶性非条件刺激配对来诱导的。随后的CS演示会引起恐惧反应。虽然这项研究很重要，但它忽略了一类与人类恐惧病理学和应对直接相关的学习：恐惧动机的工具性学习。逃避恐惧（EFF）任务的开发是为了研究这种学习与恐惧获得分开。在EFF中，动物呈现出引起恐惧的CS，当它们做出特定反应时，CS终止。因此，CS-终止取决于主动反应，或者更正式地说，条件性负强化支持反应学习。该提案概述了使用优化的EFF程序，病变，失活和单单位记录负责EFF学习的神经回路的调查。最初的重点将是杏仁核（对恐惧条件反射至关重要的核团）和纹状体（与工具性学习相关的区域）之间的相互作用。这些结果将进一步加深我们对恐惧学习的理解，对人类治疗具有潜在的重要意义。