Fear‐Potentiated Startle in Mice

Abstract Pavlovian fear conditioning is frequently used to assess the behavioral, physiological, genetic and molecular correlates of learning and memory. In the typical Pavlovian conditioned fear procedure a neutral stimulus, such as a tone, is paired with a mildly aversive stimulus such as a foot shock. The tone conditioned stimulus (CS) comes to elicit a variety of behaviors that are indicative of learned fear. One of the more prominent of these behaviors is a potentiated acoustic startle response. While fear‐potentiated startle in mice is qualitatively similar to that in rats, the stimulus parameters and procedures for producing optimum fear‐potentiated startle in mice differ considerably from those used in rats. Procedures outlined in this unit include initial assessment of startle, fear conditioning and fear‐potentiated startle testing. Special attention is paid to the parameters that affect the magnitude of fear‐potentiated startle and procedures designed to systematically examine these parameters are included.