Fear Learning Enhances Neural Responses to Threat-Predictive Sensory Stimuli
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: The central nervous system rapidly learns that particular stimuli predict imminent danger. This learning is thought to involve associations between neutral and harmful stimuli in cortical and limbic brain regions, though associative neuroplasticity in sensory structures is increasingly appreciated. We observed the synaptic output of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) in individual mice before and after they learned that a particular odor indicated an impending foot shock. OSNs are the first cells in the olfactory system, physically contacting the odor molecules in the nose and projecting their axons to the brain's olfactory bulb. OSN output evoked by the shock-predictive odor was selectively facilitated after fear conditioning. These results indicate that affective information about a stimulus can be encoded in its very earliest representation in the nervous system.
Source: Science
Institution: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Relating Synaptic Plasticity to Changes in Odor Representation and Perception, How Fear Learning Alters Sensory Representations of Threat Predictive Stimuli, G5025671862, Relating Synaptic Plasticity to Changes in Odor Representation and Perception, Cognitive modulation of primary sensory processing in olfactory receptor neurons, G8203370629, G8205066456
OpenAlex ID: W2028863083