Fear extinction in rodents

Abstract

Pavlovian conditioning paradigms have become important model systems for understand- ing the neuroscience of behavior. In particular, studies of the extinction of Pavlovian fear responses are yielding important information about the neural substrates of anxiety dis- orders, such as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in humans. These studies are germane to understanding the neural mechanisms underlying behavioral in- terventions that suppress fear, including exposure therapy in anxiety disorders. This unit describes detailed behavioral protocols for examining the nature and properties of fear extinction in laboratory rodents. Curr. Protoc. Neurosci. 47:8.23.1-8.23.17. ⃝C 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.