Context-Dependent Encoding of Fear and Extinction Memories in a Large-Scale Network Model of the Basal Amygdala
Figure 7
(A) Spiking activity of fear (amber), extinction (cyan) and inhibitory (dark amber) neurons during extinction and renewal (gray shaded region). (B) Average firing rate of fear (amber) and extinction (cyan) neurons. (C) Average firing rate of inhibitory neurons. (D) Free membrane potential of fear and extinction neurons (cf. Caption Fig. 5 for more details). (E) Average firing rates of fear and extinction neurons during extinction and renewal (gray shaded region). (F) Evolution of synaptic strengths of CS afferents onto fear (amber) and the extinction (cyan) neurons. (G) Evolution of synaptic strengths of afferents onto fear (amber) and
afferents onto the extinction (cyan) neurons. Switching context after extinction led to an instantaneous switch of activities between fear and extinction neurons (shaded gray regions in panels (A,B,E). In the initial conditioning
fear neurons dominated (due to
specific additional excitatory drive) and suppressed extinction neurons. Note that there was no change of weights during renewal (gray shaded area in panels F,G) revealing that the switch of activity was purely a network effect.