Vagus nerve stimulation reverses the extinction impairments in a model of PTSD with prolonged and repeated trauma.

We have shown that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) enhances extinction of conditioned fear and reduces anxiety in rat models of PTSD using moderate stress. However, it is still unclear if VNS can be effective in enhancing extinction of severe fear after prolonged and repeated trauma. Severe fear was induced in adult male rats by combining single prolonged stress (SPS) and protracted aversive conditioning (PAC).

The M-Maze task: An automated method for studying fear memory in rats exposed to protracted aversive conditioning.

Background: Fear conditioning (FC) in rodents is the most used animal model to investigate the neurobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although research using FC has generated a better understanding of fear memories, studies often rely on mild or moderate FC training and behavioral analysis generally focuses on measuring freezing responses within few test sessions.

New Method: We introduce the M-Maze task, a system that measures extinction of conditioned fear using suppression of operant behavior.