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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Nov 19.
Published in final edited form as: Behav Neurosci. 2024 Jun 24;138(4):244–259. doi: 10.1037/bne0000594

Figure 1. Assessing Fear Regulation and Inhibition in Discriminative Fear Conditioning.

Figure 1

Note. When fear is significantly reduced to the conditional stimuli without or with reinforcement (CS− vs. the CS+), this shows there is discriminatory fear behavior between the CS− and CS+, that is, a test for fear discrimination. If fear is also significantly reduced to the compound presentation of the CS− and CS+, this shows there is also conditional inhibition of fear and is referred to as the summation test. If the CS− is subsequently paired with the aversive outcome (e.g., shock) and shows slower development of fear compared to a novel cue paired with shock, it passes the retardation of fear acquisition test and supports the CS− has gained inhibitory properties. To ensure the CS− is not reducing fear during a compound CS+/CS− presentation via external inhibition, a novel cue presented alongside the fear cue should not significantly reduce fear (Sangha, unpublished data shown from seven male rats; *p < .05. **p < .01, repeated measures 1-way ANOVA F(2, 13) = 22.7, p < .0001). ANOVA = analysis of variance.