Circadian disruption impairs fear extinction and memory of conditioned safety in mice

Abstract

Animal models of fear conditioning and fear inhibition are frequently employed in the study of associative learning and commonly derive important human implications. Animal and human studies have demonstrated fear processing abilities are moderated by circadian rhythms, however, the influence of circadian disruption on fear inhibition is not well understood. Here, we examined the effects of circadian disruption on fear inhibition processes (i.e., fear extinction and safety learning) in a pre-clinical model. Adult male C57Bl/6 J mice completed cued fear and safety conditioning in the active phase before undergoing acute shifts in the Light-Dark (LD) cycle. Specifically, the light-phase was ad..