Figure 4.

Infralimbic (IL) inactivation impairs fear and safety cue discrimination and recall of fear extinction. (a) Reduced freezing in the presence of the safety cue under drug-free conditions. Freezing was significantly higher during the fear cue compared with all other cues (*p<0.05). (b) During session 4, saline-treated rats froze significantly more to the fear cue than to any other cue (*p<0.05). Freezing was not significantly different during presentations of either the fear cue or compound fear+safety cue during IL inactivation. (c) Significant within-session extinction of freezing behavior to the fear cue under drug-free conditions. (d) During extinction recall, saline-treated rats showed a significant reduction in freezing to the fear cue compared with the beginning of extinction acquisition (*p<0.05). IL inactivation resulted in freezing levels to the fear cue similar to the beginning of extinction acquisition, demonstrating poor fear extinction recall.