Publications by authors named "Emmett Bergeron"
Article Synopsis
- - Pavlovian fear conditioning research has primarily focused on male rodents and the freezing response, but new findings reveal that female rodents exhibit a different response called "darting," characterized by rapid escape movements.
- - Darting females (Darters) show less freezing than males and Non-darters, and they move faster when exposed to foot shocks, raising questions about the underlying mechanisms of these responses.
- - Further investigation showed that Darters are not more sensitive to aversive stimuli compared to Non-darters and males; instead, they might be less reactive in certain cases, highlighting the need to consider individual responses in fear conditioning studies.
Pavlovian fear conditioning is a widely used tool that models associative learning in rodents. For decades the field has used predominantly male rodents and focused on a sole conditioned fear response: freezing. However, recent work from our lab and others has identified darting as a female-biased conditioned response, characterized by an escape-like movement across a fear conditioning chamber.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPavlovian fear conditioning is a prevalent tool in the study of aversive learning, which is a key component of stress-related psychiatric disorders. Adult rats can exhibit various threat-related behaviors, including freezing, motor responses, and ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). While these responses can all signal aversion, we know little about how they relate to one another.
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