Fear-potentiated startle in mice

Pavlovian fear conditioning is frequently used to assess the behavioral, physiological, genetic and molecular correlates of learning and memory. In the typical Pavlovian conditioned fear procedure a neutral stimulus, such as a tone, is paired with a mildly aversive stimulus such as a foot shock. The tone conditioned stimulus (CS) comes to elicit a variety of behaviors that are indicative of learned fear. One of the more prominent of these behaviors is a potentiated acoustic startle response. While fear-potentiated startle in mice is qualitatively similar to that in rats, the stimulus parameters and procedures for producing optimum fear-potentiated startle in mice differ considerably from those used in rats. Procedures outlined in this unit include initial assessment of startle, fear conditioning and fear-potentiated startle testing. Special attention is paid to the parameters that affect the magnitude of fear-potentiated startle and procedures designed to systematically examine these parameters are included.