Body Temperature as a Conditional Response Measure for Pavlovian Fear Conditioning
- 1Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095–1563, USA; 2 Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095–1761, USA; 3Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program in Neuroscience, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095–1761, USA
Abstract
On six days rats were exposed to each of two contexts. They received an electric shock in one context and nothing in the other. Rats were tested later in each environment without shock. The rats froze and defecated more often in the shock-paired environment; they also exhibited a significantly larger elevation in rectal temperature in that environment. The rats discriminated between each context, and we suggest that the elevation in temperature is the consequence of associative learning. Thus, body temperature can be used as a conditional response measure in Pavlovian fear conditioning experiments that use footshock as the unconditional stimulus.
Footnotes
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↵3 Corresponding author.
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EMAIL godsil{at}lifesci.ucla.edu; FAX (310) 206-5895.
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Article and publication are at www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.32800.
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- Received April 25, 2000.
- Accepted July 26, 2000.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
