Switching from contextual to tone fear conditioning and vice versa: the key role of the glutamatergic hippocampal-lateral septal neurotransmission

Learn Mem. 2010 Aug 26;17(9):440-3. doi: 10.1101/lm.1859810. Print 2010 Sep.

Abstract

The aim of the present experiment was to directly assess the role of the glutamatergic hippocampal-lateral septal (HPC-LS) neurotransmission in tone and contextual fear conditioning. We found that pretraining infusion of glutamatergic acid into the lateral septum promotes tone conditioning and concomitantly disrupts contextual conditioning. Infusion of glutamatergic antagonist, on the contrary, promotes contextual conditioning to the detriment of tone fear conditioning. These findings highlight the direct contribution of the glutamatergic HPC-LS neurotransmission to the adaptive selection among environmental stimuli of those that best predict the occurrence of the aversive event.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Conditioning, Classical
  • Fear / physiology*
  • Glutamine / metabolism
  • Hippocampus / physiology*
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Neural Pathways / physiology*
  • Septal Nuclei / physiology*
  • Synaptic Transmission / physiology*

Substances

  • Glutamine