Neural Substrates of Emotional Memory
Emotions are an integral part of our psychological life. For years, neuroscientists have largely ignored emotion, in part because it was believed that emotions were difficult to objectively define and measure, and therefore were outside the realm of legitimate scientific investigation. In recent years, however, great strides have been made in our understanding the brain pathways and structures underlying one especially important emotion: fear. In particular, much has been learned about how the brain learns to fear an object or situation, how learned fears can guide the acquisition of behaviors that are instrumental in avoiding danger, and how fear can augment the strength of memory formation of significant life events.
Classical Fear Conditioning
The fear learning system of the brain has been most extensively studied in the laboratory rat using a simple, robust form of associative learning known as classical or Pavlovian fear conditioning (LeDoux, 2000; 2002). In this behavioral paradigm, an animal learns to respond defensively to an initially neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus ; CS) after it has been associated or paired with a noxious stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus ; US). In rats, presentation of the CS after conditioning elicits defensive behavior (freezing) and supporting autonomic and endocrine adjustments.
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