Mild Deficits in Fear Learning: Evidence from Humans and Mice with Cerebellar Cortical Degeneration.

Functional brain imaging studies in humans suggest involvement of the cerebellum in fear conditioning but do not allow conclusions about the functional significance. The main aim of the present study was to examine whether patients with cerebellar degeneration show impaired fear conditioning and whether this is accompanied by alterations in cerebellar cortical activations. To this end, a 2 d differential fear conditioning study was conducted in 20 cerebellar patients and 21 control subjects using a 7 tesla (7 T) MRI system.

The cerebellum contributes to context-effects during fear extinction learning: A 7T fMRI study.

The cerebellum is involved in the acquisition and consolidation of learned fear responses. Knowledge about its contribution to extinction learning, however, is sparse. Extinction processes likely involve erasure of memories, but there is ample evidence that at least part of the original memory remains.

Interaction of Fear Conditioning with Eyeblink Conditioning Supports the Sensory Gating Hypothesis of the Amygdala in Men.

Inhibition of the amygdala slows down acquisition of conditioned eyeblink responses (CRs). Based on the two-stage or two-factor theory of aversive conditioning, amygdala-dependent conditioned fear is a necessary prerequisite to acquire eyeblink CRs but is no longer needed after eyeblink CRs are attained. According to the sensory gating hypothesis of the amygdala, on the other hand, the amygdala modulates the salience of unconditioned stimuli (USs) and conditioned stimuli (CSs) in eyeblink conditioning.

The cerebellum is involved in processing of predictions and prediction errors in a fear conditioning paradigm.

Prediction errors are thought to drive associative fear learning. Surprisingly little is known about the possible contribution of the cerebellum. To address this question, healthy participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm during 7T magnetic resonance imaging.

A Protective Function of IL-22BP in Ischemia Reperfusion and Acetaminophen-Induced Liver Injury.

Acute liver injury can be secondary to a variety of causes, including infections, intoxication, and ischemia. All of these insults induce hepatocyte death and subsequent inflammation, which can make acute liver injury a life-threatening event. IL-22 is a dual natured cytokine which has context-dependent protective and pathogenic properties during tissue damage.

Magnetic resonance imaging for precise radiotherapy of small laboratory animals.

Aims: Radiotherapy of small laboratory animals (SLA) is often not as precisely applied as in humans. Here we describe the use of a dedicated SLA magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner for precise tumor volumetry, radiotherapy treatment planning, and diagnostic imaging in order to make the experiments more accurate.

Methods And Materials: Different human cancer cells were injected at the lower trunk of pfp/rag2 and SCID mice to allow for local tumor growth.