title: Pavlovian fear conditioning in mice anesthetized with halothane.
abstract: Pavlovian fear conditioning was employed to investigate learning during general anesthesia. Mice were given three CS-UCS presentations while anesthetized with halothane. The CS was a 10-s tone and the UCS a 0.4-mA shock delivered intramuscularly to the hindlimbs via needle electrodes. Anesthetized control groups received either CS only, UCS only, or CS followed by a 3-min delayed UCS. Strength of fear conditioning was assessed by measuring duration of suppression of drinking induced by tone presentation in a test session conducted 24 h after training. Results showed that mice trained under anesthesia exhibited a significant amount of conditioned suppression relative to the anesthetized control groups. These results show that Pavlovian fear conditioning can occur under halothane anesthesia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, New York University Medical Center, New York 10010, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Turndorf
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Quartermain
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000758:Anesthesia; D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000187:drug effects; D004597:Electroshock; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D006221:Halothane; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D051379:Mice
chemical_list: D006221:Halothane