RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Predicting Aversive Events and Terminating Fear in the Mouse Anterior Cingulate Cortex during Trace Fear Conditioning
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 1082
OP 1095
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5566-11.2012
VO 32
IS 3
A1 Hendrik W. Steenland
A1 Xiang-Yao Li
A1 Min Zhuo
YR 2012
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/3/1082.abstract
AB A variety of studies have implicated the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in fear, including permanent storage of fear memory. Recent pharmacological and genetic studies indicate that early synaptic plasticity in the ACC may also contribute to certain forms of fear memory at early time points. However, no study has directly examined the possible changes in neuronal activity of ACC neurons in freely behaving mice during early learning. In the present study, we examined the neural responses of the ACC during trace fear conditioning. We found that ACC putative pyramidal and nonpyramidal neurons were involved in the termination of fear behavior (“un-freezing”), and the spike activity of these neurons was reduced during freezing. Some of the neurons were also found to acquire un-freezing locked activity and change their tuning. The results implicate the ACC neurons in fear learning and controlling the abolition of fear behavior. We also show that the ACC is important for making cue-related fear memory associations in the trace fear paradigm as measured with tone-evoked potentials and single-unit activity. Collectively, our findings indicate that the ACC is involved in predicting future aversive events and terminating fear during trace fear.