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One-trial backward excitatory fear conditioning transfers across contexts
1Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003.
Behaviour Research and Therapy
|September 1, 1992
Summary
One-trial backward fear conditioning in rats can transfer across different environments. This finding supports the idea that this type of conditioning may contribute to the development of human phobias.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Animal Models of Fear
Background:
- Human phobias often generalize across contexts.
- Previous animal studies on one-trial backward fear conditioning have not demonstrated this contextual transfer.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if one-trial backward fear conditioning in rats exhibits contextual transfer.
- To assess the role of one-trial backward fear conditioning in phobia development.
Main Methods:
- Used a lick-suppression procedure with 84 male albino rats.
- Employed a factorial design crossing two conditioning contexts (O and V) with two test contexts (O and V).
- Rats received either a single backward-paired tone-shock or an explicitly unpaired tone.
Main Results:
- Rats demonstrated discrimination between the conditioning contexts O and V.
- Despite context discrimination, one-trial backward fear conditioning transferred across contexts.
- Fear was assessed by suppression of licking behavior.
Conclusions:
- One-trial backward fear conditioning can transfer across contexts in rats.
- These findings strengthen the hypothesis that one-trial backward fear conditioning may underlie human phobias.