Safety learning allows the identification of non-threatening situations, a learning process instrumental for survival and psychic health. In contrast to fear learning, in which a sensory cue (conditioned stimulus, CS) is temporally linked to a mildly aversive stimulus (US), safety learning is studied by presenting the CS and US in an explicitly unpaired fashion. This leads to conditioned inhibition of fear responses, in which sensory cues can acquire a safety meaning (CS-).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is a common belief that memories, over time, become progressively independent of the hippocampus and are gradually stored in cortical areas. This view is mainly based on evidence showing that prefrontal cortex (PFC) manipulations impair the retrieval of remote memories, while hippocampal inhibition does not. More controversial is whether activity in the medial PFC is required immediately after learning to initiate consolidation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEndocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are chemicals that can interfere with homeostatic processes. They are a major concern for public health, and they can cause adverse long-term effects such as cancer, intellectual impairment, obesity, diabetes, and male infertility. The endocrine system is a complex machinery, with the estrogen (E), androgen (A), and thyroid hormone (T) modes of action being of major importance.
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