Observational threat conditioning is induced by circa-strike activity burst but not freezing and requires visual attention.

Observational threat conditioning is induced by circa-strike activity burst but not freezing and requires visual attention. Behav Brain Res. 2018 Jul 14;: Authors: Hong EH, Choi JS Abstract Social transmission refers to a process in which an observer (OB) acquires new information about the environment including threat situations, through the action of familiar conspecifics. Recently, a number of studies employing observational threat conditioning (OTC) in which OB mice expressed defensive responses following indirect exposure to pair-housed partner mice (demonstrator: DE) which were receiving repeated footshocks, have produced interesting insights into the social mechanisms of emotional transfer. However, the nature of the transmitted information or the critical cognitive processes involved in OTC is not clear. In a series of experiments, we investigated the key elements involves in triggering socially-induced defensive responses. In Exp.1, we compared the effectiveness in conveying a threat of two different types of defensive reactions of DEs: the circa-strike activity burst (CSAB) vs. freezing. The results show that the CSAB is more effective than freezing in inducing defensive freezing in an OB. In Exp. 2, we investigated different types of the OBs' defensive responses by measuring their change in head orientation or their "gazing" at the DEs, and their temporal synchrony with the DEs' defensive reactions in the form of their CSAB...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research