Archival ReportLong-Lasting Incubation of Conditioned Fear in Rats
Section snippets
Subjects and Apparatus
Male Long-Evans rats (total n = 155, 250–370 g) (Charles River, Wilmington, Massachusetts) were individually housed in a colony room under a reverse 12-hour/12-hour light-dark cycle with lights off at 9:30 am or 9 am (after a move to a new building). The rats were maintained at 85% of free-feeding body weight, with free access to water. All procedures followed the guidelines outlined in the “Principles of Laboratory Animal Care” (National Institutes of Health publication no. 85-23) and were
Training
During training, the rats showed an increase in fear over the first four daily sessions, followed by a decline [Training Session: F(9,432) = 7.4, p < .01] (Figure 1B).
Conditioned Fear Testing
Conditioned fear increased over days with higher levels on incubation days 31 and 61 than on days 2 and 15 (Figures 2A and 2B), with only a brief increase in fear on the first trial on Day 15. The statistical analysis included the between-subjects factor of Incubation Day (days 2, 15, 31, and 61) and the within-subjects factor of
Discussion
We described a procedure in which reliable and long-lasting fear incubation is observed for up to 2 months after training for fear conditioning. This fear incubation is also observed, albeit to a lesser degree, when rats are repeatedly tested. A critical variable for the emergence of fear incubation is the duration of fear conditioning training: sustained fear incubation is not reliably observed after short (1 day) training, an observation in agreement with previous reports (16, 18). We also
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