Enhancement of auditory fear conditioning after housing in a complex environment is attenuated by prior treatment with amphetamine. Academic Article

abstract

• Prior exposure to drugs of abuse has been shown to occlude the structural plasticity associated with living in a complex environment. Amphetamine treatment may also occlude some cognitive advantages normally associated with living in a complex environment. To test this hypothesis we examined the influence of prior exposure to amphetamine on fear conditioning in rats housed in either a standard or complex environment. Housing in a complex environment facilitated fear learning to an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS), but not to the training context, relative to animals housed singly or in a social group. Prior treatment with amphetamine eliminated this effect. These results indicate that living in a complex environment facilitates conditional freezing to an auditory CS, and that this effect is abolished by pretreatment with amphetamine.

authors

• Maren, Stephen

published proceedings

• Learn Mem

author list (cited authors)

• Briand, L. A., Robinson, T. E., & Maren, S.

citation count

• 12

complete list of authors

• Briand, Lisa A||Robinson, Terry E||Maren, Stephen

publication date

• November 2005

publisher

• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory  Publisher

published in

• Learning and Memory  Journal

keywords

• Acoustic Stimulation
• Adaptation, Physiological
• Amphetamine
• Animals
• Association Learning
• Central Nervous System Stimulants
• Conditioning, Classical
• Environment
• Fear
• Freezing Reaction, Cataleptic
• Housing, Animal
• Male
• Rats
• Social Environment

PubMed Central ID

• 16287722

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1101/lm.95905

start page

• 553

end page

• 556

volume

• 12

issue

• 6