Body temperature as a conditional response measure for pavlovian fear conditioning

On six days rats were exposed to each of two contexts. They received an electric shock in one context and nothing in the other. Rats were tested later in each environment without shock. The rats froze and defecated more often in the shock-paired environment; they also exhibited a significantly large...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2000-09, Vol.7 (5), p.353-356
Main Authors: Godsil, B P, Quinn, J J, Fanselow, M S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Body Temperature
Conditioning, Classical - physiology
Defecation
Discrimination (Psychology)
Electroshock
Environment
Fear - physiology
Hindlimb
Male
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Rectum - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:On six days rats were exposed to each of two contexts. They received an electric shock in one context and nothing in the other. Rats were tested later in each environment without shock. The rats froze and defecated more often in the shock-paired environment; they also exhibited a significantly larger elevation in rectal temperature in that environment. The rats discriminated between each context, and we suggest that the elevation in temperature is the consequence of associative learning. Thus, body temperature can be used as a conditional response measure in Pavlovian fear conditioning experiments that use footshock as the unconditional stimulus.
ISSN:1072-0502
1549-5485
DOI:10.1101/lm.32800