Development and validation of an unsupervised scoring system (Autonomate) for skin conductance response analysis.

The skin conductance response (SCR) is increasingly being used as a measure of sympathetic activation concurrent with neuroscience measurements. We present a method of automated analysis of SCR data in the contexts of event-related cognitive tasks and nonspecific responding to complex stimuli. The primary goal of the method is to accurately measure the classical trough-to-peak amplitude of SCR in a fashion closely matching manual scoring.

Revealing context-specific conditioned fear memories with full immersion virtual reality.

The extinction of conditioned fear is known to be context-specific and is often considered more contextually bound than the fear memory itself (Bouton, 2004). Yet, recent findings in rodents have challenged the notion that contextual fear retention is initially generalized. The context-specificity of a cued fear memory to the learning context has not been addressed in the human literature largely due to limitations in methodology.

Human fear conditioning conducted in full immersion 3-dimensional virtual reality.

Fear conditioning is a widely used paradigm in non-human animal research to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying fear and anxiety. A major challenge in conducting conditioning studies in humans is the ability to strongly manipulate or simulate the environmental contexts that are associated with conditioned emotional behaviors. In this regard, virtual reality (VR) technology is a promising tool.

Circadian activity rhythms in selectively bred ethanol-preferring and nonpreferring rats.

Chronic alcohol intake is associated with dramatic disruptions in sleep and other circadian biological rhythms in both humans and experimental animals. In human alcoholics, these disruptions persist during extended abstinence and appear to promote relapse to drinking. Whereas chronic ethanol intake alters fundamental properties of the circadian pacemaker in unselected rats, nothing is known concerning circadian pacemaker function in selectively bred ethanol-preferring and nonpreferring rats, which are the most widely accepted animal models of genetic predisposition to alcoholism.

Chronic ethanol intake alters circadian period-responses to brief light pulses in rats.

Although chronic alcohol intake is associated with widespread disruptions of sleep-wake cycles and other daily biological rhythms in both human alcoholics and experimental animals, the extent to which the chronobiological effects of alcohol are mediated by effects on the underlying circadian pacemaker remains unknown. Nevertheless, recent studies indicate that both adult and perinatal ethanol treatments may alter the free-running period and photic responsiveness of the circadian pacemaker. The present experiment was designed to further characterize the effects of chronic ethanol intake on the response of the rat circadian pacemaker to brief light pulses.

Effects of ethanol intake and ethanol withdrawal on free-running circadian activity rhythms in rats.

Chronic alcohol intake and alcohol withdrawal are associated with dramatic disruptions of daily (circadian) biological rhythms in both human alcoholics and experimental animals. The extent to which these observations are due to pharmacological effects on the underlying circadian pacemaker is not known, however, since no human studies and very few animal studies have been conducted under free-running conditions. In the present study, free-running circadian activity (wheel-running) rhythms of rats were monitored before, during and after exposure to either 10% or 20% ethanol solution as the only drinking fluid.