Open AccessPrefrontal neuronal circuits of contextual fear conditioning
Author(s) -
Rozeske R. R.,
Valerio S.,
Chaudun F.,
Herry C.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
genes, brain and behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1601-183X
pISSN - 1601-1848
DOI - 10.1111/gbb.12181
Subject(s) - prefrontal cortex , neuroscience , fear processing in the brain , fear conditioning , psychology , extinction (optical mineralogy) , hippocampus , biological neural network , context (archaeology) , neuronal circuits , generalization , cognitive psychology , expression (computer science) , amygdala , cognition , computer science , biology , paleontology , mathematical analysis , mathematics , programming language
Over the past years, numerous studies have provided a clear understanding of the neuronal circuits and mechanisms involved in the formation, expression and extinction phases of conditioned cued fear memories. Yet, despite a strong clinical interest, a detailed understanding of these memory phases for contextual fear memories is still missing. Besides the well‐known role of the hippocampus in encoding contextual fear behavior, growing evidence indicates that specific regions of the medial prefrontal cortex differentially regulate contextual fear acquisition and storage in both animals and humans that ultimately leads to expression of contextual fear memories. In this review, we provide a detailed description of the recent literature on the role of distinct prefrontal subregions in contextual fear behavior and provide a working model of the neuronal circuits involved in the acquisition, expression and generalization of contextual fear memories.