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An Immediate-Shock Freezing Deficit With Discrete Cues: A Possible Role for Unconditioned Stimulus Processing Mechanisms
Journal article   Peer reviewed

An Immediate-Shock Freezing Deficit With Discrete Cues: A Possible Role for Unconditioned Stimulus Processing Mechanisms

K. Matthew Lattal and Ted Abel
Journal of experimental psychology. Animal behavior processes, Vol.27(4), pp.394-406
10/2001
DOI: 10.1037/0097-7403.27.4.394
PMID: 11676088

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Abstract

Five experiments with C57BL/6 mice ( Mus musculus ) investigated whether failures in shock processing might contribute to deficits in freezing that occur after an animal receives a shock immediately on exposure to a conditioning context. Experiment 1 found that more contextual freezing resulted from delayed shocks than from immediate shocks across 4 shock intensities. Experiment 2 extended the immediate-shock freezing deficit to discrete stimuli. Experiment 3 found that preexposure to the to-be-conditioned cue did not facilitate immediate cued conditioning. Experiment 4 found that context preexposure enhanced context-evoked fear after an immediate shock. Experiment 5 found that context preexposure also enhanced immediate cued conditioning. These findings are problematic for current theories of the immediate-shock freezing deficit that focus exclusively on processing of the conditioned stimulus, and they suggest that failures in shock processing may contribute to the deficit.

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