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Environmental complexity affects contextual fear conditioning following hippocampal lesions in rats

Environmental complexity affects contextual fear conditioning following hippocampal lesions in rats Contextual fear conditioning has become a benchmark measure for hippocampal function, even though several studies report successful acquisition in hippocampal‐damaged rodents. The current study examined whether environmental complexity may account for these discrepancies. We directly compared single‐session contextual fear conditioning in rats in a simple vs. complex environment. Hippocampal lesions led to reduced fear conditioning in both contexts, as measured by freezing, but the effect was significantly greater in the complex context. As well, lesions led to generalized fear when the complex context was paired with shock, but not when the simple context was paired. We suggest that the representation of the simple context formed by rats with hippocampal lesions was adequate to support associative learning, but the representation of the complex context, which depended to a greater extent on relational learning, was not. The results were interpreted as consistent with theories of hippocampal function that emphasize its role in integrating multiple stimulus elements in a memory trace. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Hippocampus Wiley

Environmental complexity affects contextual fear conditioning following hippocampal lesions in rats

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References (28)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2007 Wiley Subscription Services
ISSN
1050-9631
eISSN
1098-1063
DOI
10.1002/hipo.20275
pmid
17415748
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Contextual fear conditioning has become a benchmark measure for hippocampal function, even though several studies report successful acquisition in hippocampal‐damaged rodents. The current study examined whether environmental complexity may account for these discrepancies. We directly compared single‐session contextual fear conditioning in rats in a simple vs. complex environment. Hippocampal lesions led to reduced fear conditioning in both contexts, as measured by freezing, but the effect was significantly greater in the complex context. As well, lesions led to generalized fear when the complex context was paired with shock, but not when the simple context was paired. We suggest that the representation of the simple context formed by rats with hippocampal lesions was adequate to support associative learning, but the representation of the complex context, which depended to a greater extent on relational learning, was not. The results were interpreted as consistent with theories of hippocampal function that emphasize its role in integrating multiple stimulus elements in a memory trace. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Journal

HippocampusWiley

Published: Jan 1, 2007

Keywords: ; ; ; ;

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