Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats
Recognizing and responding to threat cues is essential to survival. Freezing is a predominant threat behavior in rats. We have recently shown that a threat cue can organize diverse behaviors beyond freezing, including locomotion (Chu et al., 2024). However, that experimental design was complex, requ...
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eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2025-03-01
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| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/102782 |
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| author | David C Williams Amanda Chu Nicholas T Gordon Aleah M DuBois Suhui Qian Genevieve Valvo Selena Shen Jacob B Boyce Anaise C Fitzpatrick Mahsa Moaddab Emma L Russell Liliuokalani H Counsman Michael A McDannald |
| author_facet | David C Williams Amanda Chu Nicholas T Gordon Aleah M DuBois Suhui Qian Genevieve Valvo Selena Shen Jacob B Boyce Anaise C Fitzpatrick Mahsa Moaddab Emma L Russell Liliuokalani H Counsman Michael A McDannald |
| author_sort | David C Williams |
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| description | Recognizing and responding to threat cues is essential to survival. Freezing is a predominant threat behavior in rats. We have recently shown that a threat cue can organize diverse behaviors beyond freezing, including locomotion (Chu et al., 2024). However, that experimental design was complex, required many sessions, and had rats receive many foot shock presentations. Moreover, the findings were descriptive. Here, we gave female and male Long Evans rats cue light illumination paired or unpaired with foot shock (eight total) in a conditioned suppression setting using a range of shock intensities (0.15, 0.25, 0.35, or 0.50 mA). We found that conditioned suppression was only observed at higher foot shock intensities (0.35 mA and 0.50 mA). We constructed comprehensive temporal ethograms by scoring 22,272 frames across 12 behavior categories in 200-ms intervals around cue light illumination. The 0.50 mA and 0.35 mA shock-paired visual cues suppressed reward seeking, rearing, and scaling, as well as light-directed rearing and light-directed scaling. These shock-paired visual cues further elicited locomotion and freezing. Linear discriminant analyses showed that ethogram data could accurately classify rats into paired and unpaired groups. Using complete ethogram data produced superior classification compared to behavior subsets, including an immobility subset featuring freezing. The results demonstrate diverse threat behaviors – in a short and simple procedure – containing sufficient information to distinguish the visual fear conditioning status of individual rats. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-bd6f7802c80b4a7e896b7ce8b1d8c4e0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
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| spelling | doaj-art-bd6f7802c80b4a7e896b7ce8b1d8c4e02025-08-20T03:41:15ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-03-011410.7554/eLife.102782Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in ratsDavid C Williams0Amanda Chu1Nicholas T Gordon2Aleah M DuBois3Suhui Qian4Genevieve Valvo5Selena Shen6Jacob B Boyce7Anaise C Fitzpatrick8Mahsa Moaddab9Emma L Russell10Liliuokalani H Counsman11Michael A McDannald12https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8525-1260Boston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesBoston College Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Chestnut Hill, United StatesRecognizing and responding to threat cues is essential to survival. Freezing is a predominant threat behavior in rats. We have recently shown that a threat cue can organize diverse behaviors beyond freezing, including locomotion (Chu et al., 2024). However, that experimental design was complex, required many sessions, and had rats receive many foot shock presentations. Moreover, the findings were descriptive. Here, we gave female and male Long Evans rats cue light illumination paired or unpaired with foot shock (eight total) in a conditioned suppression setting using a range of shock intensities (0.15, 0.25, 0.35, or 0.50 mA). We found that conditioned suppression was only observed at higher foot shock intensities (0.35 mA and 0.50 mA). We constructed comprehensive temporal ethograms by scoring 22,272 frames across 12 behavior categories in 200-ms intervals around cue light illumination. The 0.50 mA and 0.35 mA shock-paired visual cues suppressed reward seeking, rearing, and scaling, as well as light-directed rearing and light-directed scaling. These shock-paired visual cues further elicited locomotion and freezing. Linear discriminant analyses showed that ethogram data could accurately classify rats into paired and unpaired groups. Using complete ethogram data produced superior classification compared to behavior subsets, including an immobility subset featuring freezing. The results demonstrate diverse threat behaviors – in a short and simple procedure – containing sufficient information to distinguish the visual fear conditioning status of individual rats.https://elifesciences.org/articles/102782fearethogramassociativelocomotionflightfreezing |
| spellingShingle | David C Williams Amanda Chu Nicholas T Gordon Aleah M DuBois Suhui Qian Genevieve Valvo Selena Shen Jacob B Boyce Anaise C Fitzpatrick Mahsa Moaddab Emma L Russell Liliuokalani H Counsman Michael A McDannald Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats eLife fear ethogram associative locomotion flight freezing |
| title | Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats |
| title_full | Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats |
| title_fullStr | Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats |
| title_short | Ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats |
| title_sort | ethograms predict visual fear conditioning status in rats |
| topic | fear ethogram associative locomotion flight freezing |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/102782 |
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