Behavior fear conditioning

Attentional or cognitive impairments have also been observed in rodent models of nicotine withdrawal. These include impaired performance of a test of sustained attention (Shoaib and Bizarro 2005), disrupted contextual fear conditioning (Davis and Gould 2007 Davis et al. 2005), disrupted operant behaviors (Vann et al. 2006), and decreased prepulse inhibition, a test of selective attention (Semenova et al. 2003). 

Phillips RG, LeDoux JE (1992) Differential contribution of amygdala and hippocampus to cued and contextual fear conditioning. Behav Neurosci 106 274-285 Picciotto MR, Wickman K (1998) Using knockout and transgenic mice to study neurophysiology and behavior. Physiol Rev 78 1131-1163... 

There is strong evidence that function of the brain noradrenergic system is involved in mediating fear conditioning (Rasmussen et al. 1986 Charney and Deutch 1996). Neutral stimuli paired with shock (CS) produce increases in brain NE metabolism and behavioral deficits similar to those elicited by the shock alone (Cassens et al. 1981) as well as increased firing rate of cells in the LC (Rasmussen et al. 1986). An intact noradrenergic system appears... 

Silvestre J, Fernandez AG, Palacios JN (1999) Effects of rolipram on the elevated plus-maze test in rats a preliminary study. J Psychopharmacol 13 274-277 Sousa N, Lukoyanov NV, Madeira MD, Almeida OF, Paula-Barbosa MM (2000) Reorganization of the morphology of hippocampal neurites and synapsed after stress-induced damage correlates with behavioral improvements. Neuroscience 97 253-266 Stanciu M, Radulovic J, Spiess J (2001) Phosphorylated cAMP response element binding protein in the mouse brain after fear conditioning relationship to Fos production. Mol Brain Res 94 15-24... 

In a fear-conditioning experiment, a neutral stimulus, such as a tone or a light, is paired with an aversive stimulus, such as a shock, a loud noise, or an aversive air blast. Following this experience, the formerly neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS-F) and acquires the ability to elicit behaviors and physiological responses formerly only associated with the aversive stimulus, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Enthusiasm for this work derives at least partly from the precise delineation of neural circuits, down to the level of the genome, engaged by environmental components that produce fear conditioning (LeDoux,... 

Several studies postulate that NE plays a central role in consolidation and retrieval of stress-related memory (Hurlemann et al., 2005 Mueller et al., 2008a Ouyang and Thomas 2005 van Stegeren, 2008b). The role of this activity is fear conditioning and extinction. These behavioral effects of NE are probably mediated via hippocampal p2 and a2 receptors, respectively (Davies et al., 2004 Garelick and Storm 2005). NE pathways and their role in nociception, emotions, cognition and behavior are summarized in table 2. 

Contextual fear conditioning (CFC) that depends on fear memory has been established as an animal model of anxiety. During the postadolescent period, rats were exposed to CFC as shown in Fig. 2. Fear-related freezing behavior during... 

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