AUTHOR=Olshavsky Megan , Jones Carolyn E., Lee Hongjoo J., Monfils Marie H. TITLE=Appetitive behavioral traits and stimulus intensity influence maintenance of conditioned fear JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience VOLUME=7 YEAR=2013 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00179 DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00179 ISSN=1662-5153 ABSTRACT=
Individual differences in appetitive learning have long been reported, and generally divide into two classes of responses: cue- vs. reward-directed. The influence of cue- vs. reward-directed phenotypes on aversive cue processing, is less well understood. In the current study, we first categorized rats based on their predominant cue-directed orienting responses during appetitive Pavlovian conditioning. Then, we investigated the effect of phenotype on the latency to exit a familiar dark environment and enter an unfamiliar illuminated open field. Next, we examined whether the two phenotypes responded differently to a reconsolidation updating manipulation (retrieval+extinction) after fear conditioning. We report that the rats with a cue-directed (“orienting”) phenotype differentially respond to the open field, and also to fear conditioning, depending on US-intensity. In addition, our findings suggest that, regardless of appetitive phenotype or shock intensity, extinction within the reconsolidation window prevents spontaneous recovery of fear.