Fear can be an adaptive emotion that helps defend against potential danger. Classical
conditioning models elegantly describe how animals learn which stimuli in the environment …

Changing the strength of connections between neurons is widely assumed to be the
mechanism by which memory traces are encoded and stored in the central nervous system …

Despite the obvious importance of emotion to human existence, scientists concerned with
human nature have not been able to reach a consensus about what emotion is and what …

▪ Abstract Learning the relationships between aversive events and the environmental stimuli
that predict such events is essential to the survival of organisms throughout the animal …

The learning and remembering of fearful events depends on the integrity of the amygdala,
but how are fear memories represented in the activity of amygdala neurons? Here, we …

After a few pairings of a threatening stimulus with a formerly neutral cue, animals and
humans will experience a state of conditioned fear when only the cue is present …

The lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) is the first site in the amygdala where the plasticity
underlying fear conditioning could occur. We simultaneously recorded from multiple LA …

■ Abstract Mammalian associative learning is organized into separate anatomically defined
functional systems. We illustrate the organization of two of these systems, Pavlovian fear …

Learning and memory involve the storage of specific sensory experiences. However, until
recently the idea that the primary sensory cortices could store specific memory traces had …

Previous studies have shown that the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (AL) is essential in
auditory fear conditioning and that neurons in the AL respond to auditory stimuli. The goals …