Pretraining Inactivation of the Caudal Pontine Reticular Nucleus Impairs the Acquisition of Conditioned Fear-Potentiated Startle to an Odor, but Not a Light

Eyeblink conditioning using cochlear nucleus stimulation as a conditioned stimulus in developing rats

Previous studies demonstrated that the development of auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) input to the cerebellum may be a neural mechanism underlying the ontogenetic emergence of eyeblink conditioning in rats. The current study investigated the role of developmental changes in the projections of the cochlear nucleus (CN) in the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning using electrical stimulation of the CN as a CS. Rat pups were implanted with a bipolar stimulating electrode in the CN and given six 100-trial training sessions with a 300 ms stimulation train in the CN paired with a 10 ms periorbital shock unconditioned stimulus (US) on postnatal days (P) 17-18 or 24-25. Control groups were given unpaired presentations of the CS and US. Rats in both age groups that received paired training showed significant increases in eyeblink conditioned responses across training relative to the unpaired groups. The rats trained on P24-25, however, showed stronger conditioning relative to the group trained on P17-18. Rats with missed electrodes in the inferior cerebellar peduncle or in the cerebellar cortex did not show conditioning. The findings suggest that developmental changes in the CN projections to the pons, inferior colliculus, or medial auditory thalamus may be a neural mechanism underlying the ontogeny of auditory eyeblink conditioning.

D-cycloserine facilitates extinction the first time but not the second time: an examination of the role of NMDA across the course of repeated extinction sessions

Extinction of learned fear is facilitated by the partial NMDA agonist D-cycloserine (DCS). However, some studies suggest that the involvement of NMDA in learning differs depending on whether learning is for the first or second time. The current study aimed to extend these findings by examining the role of NMDA in extinction for the first and the second time. Specifically, the present series of experiments used Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction paradigms to compare the effect of DCS on extinction of fear to a light CS the first and second time around. As found previously, DCS facilitated extinction of learned fear (Experiment 1). A novel finding, however, was that DCS did not facilitate the re-extinction of fear to this same CS following retraining (Experiments 2A and 2B). Finally, it was demonstrated that the transition from NMDA-dependent to NMDA-independent extinction was stimulus specific (Experiment 3). That is, rats were first trained to fear a CS (light); this fear was then extinguished. Following this, rats were then retrained to fear the same CS (light) or a new CS (white noise). When given a second extinction session, DCS was found to facilitate extinction of the new CS but not the original CS. The results of this series of experiments suggest that the role of NMDA in extinction depends on whether extinction is new learning (first extinction) or retrieval of a previous extinction memory (re-extinction).

Synapses, circuits, and the ontogeny of learning

This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium organized by Mark Stanton and Pamela Hunt and presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology. The purpose of the symposium was to review recent advances in neurobiological and developmental studies of fear and eyeblink conditioning with the hope of discovering how neural circuitry might inform the ontogenetic analyses of learning and memory, and vice versa. The presentations were: (1) Multiple Brain Regions Contribute to the Acquisition of Pavlovian Fear by Michael S. Fanselow; (2) Expression of Learned Fear: Appropriate to Age of Training or Age of Testing by Rick Richardson; (3) Trying to Understand the Cerebellum Well Enough to Build One by Michael D. Mauk; and (4) The Ontogeny of Eyeblink Conditioning: Neural Mechanisms by John H. Freeman. Taken together, these presentations converge on the conclusions that (1) seemingly simple forms of associative learning are governed by multiple "engrams" and by temporally dynamic interactions among these engrams and other circuit elements and (2) developmental changes in these interactions determine when and how learning emerges during ontogeny.

The effect of temporary amygdala inactivation on extinction and reextinction of fear in the developing rat: unlearning as a potential mechanism for extinction early in development

It is well accepted that fear extinction does not cause erasure of the original conditioned stimulus (CS)-unconditioned stimulus association in the adult rat because the extinguished fear often returns (e.g., renewal and reinstatement). Furthermore, extinction is NMDA and GABA dependent, showing that extinction involves new inhibitory learning. We have recently observed each of these extinction-related phenomena in 24-d-old but not in 17-d-old rats. These results suggest that different neural processes mediate extinction early in development. However, the neural processes underlying extinction in the developing rat are unknown. Therefore, the present study investigated amygdala involvement in extinction and reextinction during development. In experiment 1, temporary inactivation of the amygdala (using bupivacaine, a sodium channel modulator) during extinction training impaired extinction of conditioned fear in 17- and 24-d-old rats. In experiment 2, 17- and 24-d-old rats were conditioned, extinguished, and then reconditioned to the same CS. After reconditioning, the CS was reextinguished; at this time, some rats at each age had their amygdala temporarily inactivated. Reextinction was amygdala independent in 24-d-old rats, as previously shown in adult rats. However, reextinction was still amygdala dependent in 17-d-old rats. In Experiment 3, the age at conditioning, reconditioning, reextinction, and test was held constant, but the age of initial extinction varied across groups; reextinction was found to be amygdala independent if initial extinction occurred at 24 d of age but amygdala dependent if it occurred at 17 d of age. Consistent with previous findings, these results show that there are fundamental differences in the neural mechanisms of fear extinction across development.

The expression of fear-potentiated startle during development: Integration of learning and response systems

Relative to freezing, fear-potentiated startle (FPS) is developmentally delayed. Rats trained on Postnatal Day (PD) 18 expressed conditioned stimulus learning on PD 19 in freezing but not in FPS, whereas rats trained on PD 24 and tested on PD 25 expressed both freezing and FPS (Experiment 1). According to a neural maturation hypothesis, this delay results from functional immaturity of pathways mediating FPS. When rats were trained on PD 18, neither delaying the FPS test, allowing FPS pathways to develop, nor administrating the "reminder" treatment, the expression of FPS was promoted (Experiments 1, 2, and 2A). PD 18 learning was expressed in FPS on PD 25 when nontarget conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus training occurred prior to the test, and this effect was modality dependent (Experiments 3 and 4). The authors conclude that engaging mechanisms of associative encoding when FPS pathways are functional is a critical condition for integrating learning and FPS response systems in development.

CS-US preexposure effects on trace eyeblink conditioning in young rats: Potential implications for functional brain development

Recent studies of delay eyeblink conditioning (EBC) in young rats have demonstrated different effects of various conditioned and unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) preexposure conditions on learning at different ages. The present study extends this research to trace EBC. Subjects experienced 1 of 3 preexposure conditions (paired CS-US, unpaired CS-US, or no stimuli) at either 20 or 24 days of age. Four days later, they were conditioned using either trace (Experiment 1) or delay (Experiment 2) EBC parameters. Results were similar at both ages tested. Paired preexposure facilitated acquisition of delay but not trace relative to context preexposure. Unpaired preexposure impaired acquisition of both delay and trace. These behavioral findings provide a foundation for hypotheses about the functional maturation of cerebellar, hippocampal, and entorhinal learning circuits.

Behavioral expression of learned fear: Updating of early memories

The expression of learned fear emerges in a response-specific sequence where freezing occurs before fear potentiated startle (FPS) to an odor conditioned stimulus (CS; Postnatal Day [PN] 16 vs. PN 23; e.g., Hunt, 1997; Richardson, Paxinos, & Lee, 2000). Studies have shown that learned fear is expressed in a manner appropriate to the animal's age at training and not its age at test (Richardson & Fan, 2002; Richardson et al., 2000). Specifically, animals trained with an odor CS at PN 16 exhibit avoidance but not FPS when tested at PN 23. The present study shows that subsequent training with a different CS can "update" an early memory, allowing it to be expressed in a manner appropriate to the animal's age at test. This updating effect appears to be modality specific, whereby the subsequent training must involve a CS of the same sensory modality as the original training.