Reacquisition of a Conditioned Emotional Response to Visual and Auditory Stimuli following Simple or Compound Extinction Procedures: An Investigation of Theoretical and Therapeutic Implications of the Rescorla-Wagner Learning Theory

1978 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 839-845
Author(s):  
Vincent J. Monastra ◽  
David A. Sisemore
Keyword(s):  
Associative Strength ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Conditioned Emotional Response ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Relative Efficacy ◽  
Therapeutic Implications ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Specific Learning

The rate of reacquisition of a conditioned emotional response (conditioned suppression) to visual and auditory stimuli after extinction to the stimuli individually or in compound was investigated to assess the relative efficacy of “simple”- and “compound”-extinction procedures in the elimination of conditioned fear in rats. Results indicated that compound-extinction procedures significantly retarded reacquisition of fear to stimuli of low associative strength and tended to facilitate the re-establishment of fear to stimuli of high associative strength. Also, it was noted that following compound extinction the degree of “retardation” or “acceleration” of fear reacquisition tended to increase with the difference between the associative strengths of the two stimuli extinguished in compound. Over-all, current findings were consistent with theoretical deductions derived from the Rescorla-Wagner learning theory and the implications for developing a more efficacious fear-elimination technique based on a specific learning theory were discussed.

scholarly journals Hippocampal disinhibition reduces contextual and elemental fear conditioning while sparing the acquisition of latent inhibition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart A Williams ◽  
Miriam Gwilt ◽  
Rebecca Hock ◽  
Charlotte Taylor ◽  
Joanna Loayza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Latent Inhibition ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Conditioned Emotional Response ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Aversive Conditioning ◽  
Neural Circuitry ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Gaba A ◽  
Flashing Light

Hippocampal neural disinhibition, i.e. reduced GABAergic inhibition, is a key feature of schizophrenia pathophysiology. The hippocampus is an important part of the neural circuitry that controls fear conditioning and can also modulate prefrontal and striatal mechanisms, including dopamine signalling, which play a role in salience modulation. Therefore, hippocampal neural disinhibition may contribute to impairments in fear conditioning and salience modulation reported in schizophrenia. To test this hypothesis, we examined the effect of ventral hippocampus (VH) disinhibition in male rats on fear conditioning and salience modulation, as reflected by latent inhibition (LI), in a conditioned emotional response procedure (CER). A flashing light was used as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and conditioned suppression was used to index conditioned fear. In Experiment 1, VH disinhibition via infusion of the GABA-A receptor antagonist picrotoxin prior to CS pre-exposure and conditioning markedly reduced fear conditioning to both the CS and context; LI was evident in saline-infused controls, but could not be detected in picrotoxin-infused rats due to the low level of fear conditioning to the CS. In Experiment 2, VH picrotoxin infusions prior to CS pre-exposure only did not affect the acquisition of fear conditioning or LI. Together, these findings indicate that VH neural disinhibition disrupts contextual and elemental fear conditioning, without affecting the acquisition of LI. The disruption of fear conditioning resembles aversive conditioning deficits reported in schizophrenia and may reflect disruption of neural processing within the hippocampus and its projection sites.

Effects of Amobarbital on the Conditioned Emotional Response and Conditioned Avoidance Response

1966 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis K. Kamano ◽  
Louis K. Martin ◽  
Michael E. Ogle ◽  
Barbara J. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Avoidance Response ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Conditioned Emotional Response ◽  
Conditioned Avoidance ◽  
Conditioned Avoidance Response

The Speed of Auditory Low-Side Suppression

2005 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel van der Heijden ◽  
Philip X. Joris
Keyword(s):  
Traveling Wave ◽  
Auditory Nerve ◽  
Control Mechanism ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Integration Time ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Cochlear Gain ◽  
Millisecond Accuracy ◽  
Group Delays

The nonlinear cochlear phenomenon of two-tone suppression is known to be very fast, but precisely how fast is unknown. We studied the timing of low-side suppression in the auditory nerve of the cat using multitone complexes as auditory stimuli. An evalution of the group delays of the responses to these complexes allowed us to measure the timing of the responses with sub-millisecond accuracy for a large number of fibers with characteristic frequencies (CFs) between 2 and 40 kHz. In particular, we measured the delays with which the same below-CF tone complexes affected the response either as an excitor (when presented alone) or as a suppressor (when combined with a CF probe). For CFs <10 kHz, we found that the delay of suppression was larger than the delay of excitation by several hundred microseconds. The difference between the delay of suppression and that of excitation decreased with increasing CF, becoming negligible for CFs >15 kHz. The results are analyzed in terms of traveling-wave delays and a purported cochlear gain control. The data suggest that suppression originates from a gain-control mechanism with an integration time in the order of two cycles of CF.

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