In a standard fear-conditioning experiment, the subject is presented with an auditory conditional stimulus.
The contextual and cued fear conditioning test is one of the most widely used paradigms to assess learning and memory.
This test is a form of Pavlovian conditioning in which an association is made between a context and/or a conditioned stimulus (auditory cue) and an aversive stimulus (electric footshock).
In typical fear conditioning studies, a rat or rodent is not presented with the aversive stimulus in the home cage.
The animal is then placed in a novel environment, provided aversive stimuli, e.g. mild electrical shock in the foot, and subsequently removed.
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