Trace and contextual fear conditioning are impaired following unilateral microinjection of muscimol in the ventral hippocampus or amygdala, but not the medial prefrontal cortex.

ABSTRACT: Trace fear conditioning, in which a brief empty "trace interval" occurs between presentation of the CS and UCS, differs from standard delay conditioning in that contributions from both the hippocampus and prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex (PL mPFC) are required to form a normal long term memory. Little is currently known about how the PL interacts with various temporal lobe structures to support learning across this temporal gap between stimuli. We temporarily inactivated PL along with either ventral hippocampus or amygdala in a disconnection design to determine if these structures functionally interact to acquire trace fear conditioning. Disconnection (contralateral injections) of the PL with either the ventral hippocampus or amygdala impaired trace fear conditioning; however, ipsilatera

SUBMITTER: Gilmartin MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3358523 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature