Takahashi Lorey K, Chan Megan M, Pilar Mark L
Psychobiology Laboratory, University of Hawaii, 2430 Campus Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008 Sep;32(7):1218-27. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.06.001. Epub 2008 Jun 5.
Predator odor fear conditioning involves the use of a natural unconditioned stimulus, as opposed to aversive electric foot-shock, to obtain novel information on the neural circuitry associated with emotional learning and memory. Researchers are beginning to identify brain sites associated with conditioned contextual fear such as the ventral anterior olfactory nucleus, dorsal premammillary nucleus, ventrolateral periaqueductal gray, cuneiform nucleus, and locus coeruleus. In addition, a few studies have reported an involvement of the basolateral and medial nucleus of the amygdala and hippocampus in fear conditioning. However, several important issues concerning the effectiveness of different predator odor unconditioned stimuli to produce fear conditioning, the precise role of brain nuclei in fear conditioning, and the general relation between the current predator odor and the traditional electric foot-shock fear conditioning procedures remain to be satisfactorily addressed. This review discusses the major behavioral results in the current predator odor fear conditioning literature and introduces two novel contextual and auditory fear conditioning models using cat odor. The new models provide critical information on the acquisition of conditioned fear behavior during training and the expression of conditioned responses in the retention test. Future studies adopting fear conditioning procedures that incorporate measures of both unconditioned and conditioned responses during training may lead to broad insights into predator odor fear conditioning and identify specific brain nuclei mediating conditioned stimulus-predator odor unconditioned stimulus associations.
捕食者气味恐惧条件反射涉及使用自然的非条件刺激，而非厌恶的电击足部刺激，以获取与情绪学习和记忆相关的神经回路的新信息。研究人员开始确定与条件性情境恐惧相关的脑区，如腹侧前嗅核、背侧乳头前核、腹外侧导水管周围灰质、楔形核和蓝斑。此外，一些研究报告杏仁核基底外侧核和内侧核以及海马体参与恐惧条件反射。然而，关于不同捕食者气味非条件刺激产生恐惧条件反射的有效性、脑核在恐惧条件反射中的精确作用以及当前捕食者气味与传统电击足部恐惧条件反射程序之间的一般关系等几个重要问题仍有待令人满意地解决。本综述讨论了当前捕食者气味恐惧条件反射文献中的主要行为结果，并介绍了两种使用猫气味的新的情境和听觉恐惧条件反射模型。新模型提供了关于训练期间条件性恐惧行为的习得以及在记忆测试中条件反应的表达的关键信息。未来采用在训练期间纳入非条件和条件反应测量的恐惧条件反射程序的研究，可能会对捕食者气味恐惧条件反射有更广泛的见解，并确定介导条件刺激 - 捕食者气味非条件刺激关联的特定脑核。
