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  • Title: Evidence of contextual fear after lesions of the hippocampus: a disruption of freezing but not fear-potentiated startle.
    Author: McNish KA, Gewirtz JC, Davis M.
    Journal: J Neurosci; 1997 Dec 01; 17(23):9353-60. PubMed ID: 9364080.
    Abstract:
    The roles of the dorsal hippocampus and the central nucleus of the amygdala in the expression of contextual fear were assessed using two measures of conditioned fear: freezing and fear-potentiated startle. A discriminable context conditioning paradigm was developed that demonstrated both conditioned freezing and fear-potentiated startle in a context paired previously with foot shock, relative to a context in which foot shock had never been presented. Post-training lesions of the central nucleus of the amygdala completely blocked both contextual freezing and fear-potentiated startle. Post-training lesions of the dorsal hippocampus attenuated contextual freezing, consistent with previous reports in the literature; however, these same lesions had no effect on fear-potentiated startle, suggesting preserved contextual fear. These results suggest that lesions of the hippocampus disrupt the freezing response but not contextual fear itself.
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