Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females
Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress, are more prevalent in women and are characterized by impaired inhibition of learned fear and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) dysfunction. Here we examined sex differences in fear extinction and mPFC activity in rats. Females showed more learned fear...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29248/ |
| _version_ | 1848793746017091584 |
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| author | Fenton, G.E. Pollard, Amelia K. Halliday, D.M. Mason, Rob Bredy, Timothy W. Stevenson, Carl W. |
| author_facet | Fenton, G.E. Pollard, Amelia K. Halliday, D.M. Mason, Rob Bredy, Timothy W. Stevenson, Carl W. |
| author_sort | Fenton, G.E. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress, are more prevalent in women and are characterized by impaired inhibition of learned fear and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) dysfunction. Here we examined sex differences in fear extinction and mPFC activity in rats. Females showed more learned fear expression during extinction and its recall, but not fear conditioning. They also showed more spontaneous fear recovery and more contextual fear before extinction and its recall. Moreover, enhanced learned fear expression in females was associated with sustained prelimbic (PL) cortex activity. These results suggest that sex differences in learned fear expression may involve persistent PL activation. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:05:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-29248 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:05:11Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-292482020-05-04T20:15:18Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29248/ Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females Fenton, G.E. Pollard, Amelia K. Halliday, D.M. Mason, Rob Bredy, Timothy W. Stevenson, Carl W. Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress, are more prevalent in women and are characterized by impaired inhibition of learned fear and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) dysfunction. Here we examined sex differences in fear extinction and mPFC activity in rats. Females showed more learned fear expression during extinction and its recall, but not fear conditioning. They also showed more spontaneous fear recovery and more contextual fear before extinction and its recall. Moreover, enhanced learned fear expression in females was associated with sustained prelimbic (PL) cortex activity. These results suggest that sex differences in learned fear expression may involve persistent PL activation. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 2014-02 Article PeerReviewed Fenton, G.E., Pollard, Amelia K., Halliday, D.M., Mason, Rob, Bredy, Timothy W. and Stevenson, Carl W. (2014) Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females. Learning and Memory, 21 (2). pp. 55-60. ISSN 1072-0502 http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/21/2/55.long doi:10.1101/lm.033514.113 doi:10.1101/lm.033514.113 |
| spellingShingle | Fenton, G.E. Pollard, Amelia K. Halliday, D.M. Mason, Rob Bredy, Timothy W. Stevenson, Carl W. Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females |
| title | Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females |
| title_full | Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females |
| title_fullStr | Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females |
| title_full_unstemmed | Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females |
| title_short | Persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females |
| title_sort | persistent prelimbic cortex activity contributes to enhanced learned fear expression in females |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29248/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29248/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29248/ |