Imaging conditioned fear circuitry using awake rodent fMRI

Brydges, Nichola, Whalley, Heather C., Jansen, Maurits A., Merrifield, Gavin D., Wood, Emma R., Lawrie, Stephen M., Wynne, Sara-Madge, Day, Mark, Fleetwood-Walker, Sue, Steele, Douglas, Marshall, Ian, Hall, Jeremy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2737-9009 and Holmes, Megan C. 2013. Imaging conditioned fear circuitry using awake rodent fMRI. PLoS ONE 8 (1) , e54197. 10.1371/journal.pone.0054197

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Abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful method for exploring emotional and cognitive brain responses in humans. However rodent fMRI has not previously been applied to the analysis of learned behaviour in awake animals, limiting its use as a translational tool. Here we have developed a novel paradigm for studying brain activation in awake rats responding to conditioned stimuli using fMRI. Using this method we show activation of the amygdala and related fear circuitry in response to a fear-conditioned stimulus and demonstrate that the magnitude of fear circuitry activation is increased following early life stress, a rodent model of affective disorders. This technique provides a new translatable method for testing environmental, genetic and pharmacological manipulations on emotional and cognitive processes in awake rodent models.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute (NMHRI) Medicine MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics (CNGG)
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Additional Information:	© 2013 Brydges et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Publisher:	Public Library of Science
ISSN:	1932-6203
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	06 May 2023 15:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/75874

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