Selective enhancement of fear learning and resistance to extinction in a mouse model of acute early life trauma

Elizabeth A Sneddon; Collin A Riddle; Kristen M Schuh; Jennifer J Quinn; Anna K Radke

doi:10.1101/lm.052373.120

Selective enhancement of fear learning and resistance to extinction in a mouse model of acute early life trauma

Learn Mem. 2020 Dec 15;28(1):12-16. doi: 10.1101/lm.052373.120. Print 2021 Jan.

Authors

Elizabeth A Sneddon¹, Collin A Riddle¹, Kristen M Schuh¹, Jennifer J Quinn¹, Anna K Radke¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience and Behavior, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056, USA.

Abstract

Early life stress (ELS) experiences can cause changes in cognitive and affective functioning. This study examined the persistent effects of a single traumatic event in infancy on several adult behavioral outcomes in male and female C57BL/6J mice. Mice received 15 footshocks in infancy and were tested for stress-enhanced fear learning, extinction learning, discrimination and reversal learning, and novel object recognition. Infant trauma potentiated fear learning in adulthood and produced resistance to extinction but did not influence other behaviors, suggesting restricted effects of infant trauma on behaviors reliant on cortico-amygdala circuitry.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult Survivors of Child Adverse Events
Age Factors
Animals
Behavior, Animal / physiology*
Discrimination Learning / physiology
Disease Models, Animal
Extinction, Psychological / physiology*
Fear / physiology*
Female
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Psychological Trauma / physiopathology*
Recognition, Psychology / physiology
Reversal Learning / physiology