Fear-potentiated startle in two strains of inbred mice.
- 1 January 1997
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Behavioral Neuroscience
- Vol. 111 (4) , 855-861
- https://doi.org/10.1037//0735-7044.111.4.855
Abstract
The fear-potentiated startle paradigm has been used with great success to examine conditioned fear in both rats and humans. The purpose of this study was to examine fear-potentiated startle in inbred mice. One-month-old C57BL/6J (C57) and DBA/2J (DBA) mice were given tone + foot shock training trials. The amplitude of the acoustic startle reflex was measured in the presence and absence of the tone both before and after training. Both strains showed fear-potentiated startle after training as evidenced by larger startle amplitudes in the presence of the tone than in its absence. However, the magnitude of fear-potentiated startle was greater in DBA mice than in C57 mice. These results not only demonstrate fear-potentiated startle in mice for the first time but also suggest that fear-potentiated startle can be influenced by characteristics of the mouse strain.Keywords
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