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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Trace Fear Conditioning in Mice
Published on: March 20, 2014
Dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens modulates blocking in fear conditioning
Mihaela D Iordanova1, R Frederick Westbrook, A Simon Killcross
1School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. iordanovamd@cardiff.ac.uk
Abstract:
Associative learning depends on the discrepancy between actual and predicted outcomes. The neurochemical mechanisms involved in regulating this discrepancy in Pavlovian fear conditioning in rats are unknown. We employed the blocking paradigm to show that this learning discrepancy is decreased by heightened activation of dopamine following an accumbal infusion of d-amphetamine, and increased by dopaminegic blockade following an accumbal infusion of cis-(z)-flupenthixol or by combined infusions of the D1 (SCH23390) and D2 (sulpiride) antagonists but not by infusion of either alone.
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