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Behavioral and brain mechanisms mediating conditioned flight behavior in rats.

Michael S Totty1, Naomi Warren1, Isabella Huddleston1

  • 1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, 301 Old Main Dr., College Station, TX, 77843-3474, USA.

Scientific Reports
|April 16, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Animals use environmental context to select defensive behaviors, like flight responses. This study shows contextual fear drives flight behavior, involving the amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Animal Behavior
  • Behavioral Ecology

Background:

  • Environmental context influences animal defensive behaviors.
  • The role of context in biasing defensive behavior selection is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate context-dependent flight responses in rats using a Pavlovian serial-compound stimulus (SCS) paradigm.
  • To determine if contextual fear influences the expression of flight behavior.
  • To identify the neural mechanisms underlying context-dependent flight responses.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a Pavlovian serial-compound stimulus (SCS) paradigm in rats.
  • Manipulated contextual fear through shock association and extinction.
  • Administered pharmacological inactivation to the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST).

Main Results:

  • Rats displayed context-dependent flight-like behavior in the SCS paradigm.
  • Flight behavior was contingent on contextual fear and reduced after context extinction.
  • Pharmacological inactivation of the CeA and BNST attenuated both contextual fear and flight responses.
  • Effects were consistent across male and female rats.

Conclusions:

  • Contextual fear summation with cued and innate fear drives high fear states.
  • This summation facilitates transitions in defensive modes from post-encounter to circa-strike.
  • The amygdala and BNST are critical for expressing context-dependent fear and flight behaviors.