Fig. 1.

Schematic representation of the fear‐conditioning paradigm for contextual and cued fear memory (C‐C experiment). (A) Following habituation (180 s), 5 tone‐shock pairings were delivered. At the end of the 20‐s tone (conditioned stimulus, CS), an electric shock of 0.7 mA for a duration of 1 s (unconditioned stimulus, US) was delivered. The interval between each tone‐shock pairing was 80 s. After the last shock, rats were left in the conditioning chamber for an additional 100 s. (B) The schedule of the fear‐conditioning test. On the first day of the experiment, we performed a conditioning in (A). On the second day, we performed a contextual test in the same chamber (600 s). From the third day to the sixth day, the same tones as the first day were delivered to the rats in a different chamber with a different shape and context (cued test and fear extinction).