Classical conditioning

Conditioning

Mathematics education

Cognitive psychology

Neuroscience

Biology

Punishment (psychology)

Statistics

Fear conditioning

Cognition

Anterior cingulate cortex

Associative learning

Observational learning

Experiential learning

Developmental psychology

Looming

Cognitive science

Psychology

Mathematics

Internal medicine

Basolateral amygdala

Medicine

Observational study

Amygdala

Pathology

Cell

Observational learning is a powerful survival tool allowing individuals to learn about threat-predictive stimuli without directly experiencing the pairing of the predictive cue and punishment. This ability has been linked to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the basolateral amygdala (BLA). To investigate how information is encoded and transmitted through this circuit, we performed electrophysiological recordings in mice observing a demonstrator mouse undergo associative fear conditioning and found that BLA-projecting ACC (ACC→BLA) neurons preferentially encode socially derived aversive cue information. Inhibition of ACC→BLA alters real-time amygdala representation of the aversive cue during observational conditioning. Selective inhibition of the ACC→BLA projection impaired acquisition, but not expression, of observational fear conditioning. We show that information derived from observation about the aversive value of the cue is transmitted from the ACC to the BLA and that this routing of information is critically instructive for observational fear conditioning.Video AbstracteyJraWQiOiI4ZjUxYWNhY2IzYjhiNjNlNzFlYmIzYWFmYTU5NmZmYyIsImFsZyI6IlJTMjU2In0.eyJzdWIiOiIxYzQ2OWI5NjVhN2U2MjA3MDgwMjQwZTI3NGFlZjM5ZCIsImtpZCI6IjhmNTFhY2FjYjNiOGI2M2U3MWViYjNhYWZhNTk2ZmZjIiwiZXhwIjoxNjc4ODI0MzAwfQ.fBnP-BujihSesAf04OF3479QBETSNrJ2aCmJf0niMAQfd-cdPeg5RZXFKr-1NoBkemlrtuobowqsXWl5soDDo3d6_uRG406k0NTnTqGCHBf2XohwlpuAfe9OECkWiH0GrtD8fS9gAREp_uB0vfzmve945454XfxYPLO32_43Bf0dOInBcTn5Z6gtUx2tiPOxzTlF84_jhnDWZu7plz-q4wsUbBHVRJ37cE1WhsqUzmsFMx5J0dksKZgxQAZ3J4yHhViIkg_JqLqOl7Uq4q1MZFm3lxqSfQIyuCjI5Sy7hJoItz8h1io1OtpQ6DVX4vo9jl1j85_X0P8qRIqP1EBn8w(mp4, (38.83 MB) Download video

Corticoamygdala Transfer of Socially Derived Information Gates Observational Learning