Involvement and role of HPA axis in multiple stress-induced enhancement of conditioned fear.

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530909
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: YAMADA Kazuo 筑波大学, 人間系, 准教授 (30282312)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ICHITANI Yukio 筑波大学, 人間系, 教授 (80176289)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: PTSD / ラット / HPA系 / 動物モデル / グルココルチコイド受容体 / アドレナリン受容体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Exposure to stressful events affects subsequent sensitivity to fear. The stress-induced enhancement of conditioned fear response is thought of as an useful animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, we investigated whether hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis involved in the stress-induced enhancement of conditioned fear response in rats by using multiple stress (forced swimming and foot shocks) paradigm. As the results, the observation of the conditioned stress response after treatments of a variety of drugs having effects on HPA function have clarified that the complementary interaction of glucocorticoid receptors and adrenergic receptors could facilitate the stress-induced enhancement of conditioned fear response.

Free Research Field

実験心理学・行動神経科学