Failure to escape traumatic shock.

Seligman, Martin E. P.; Maier, Steven F.

doi:10.1037/h0024514

Cited by 1,607 publications

(868 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The subjects did not learn to escape or avoid after the initial classical conditioning, an unpredicted finding. Of course, the shock during classical conditioning was inescapable, and Seligman and Maier [40] attempted to determine whether this aspect of the initial classical conditioning was resposible for producing the later failure to learn, and it was. This 1967 study, along with a report that control reduced the impact of the stressor on ulcer formation [49] began the study of stressor controllability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of prior stressor controllability and the dorsal raphé nucleus in sucrose preference and social exploration

Christianson

Paul

Irani

et al. 2008

Behavioural Brain Research

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Research investigating how control over stressors affects behavior often utilizes freezing and shuttle escape learning as the behavioral endpoints. These endpoints have been argued to reflect anxious or depressed states, but these descriptions are problematic. The present study sought to determine the impact of stressor controllability and the dorsal raphé nucleus (DRN) on sucrose preference and juvenile social exploration, putative measures of anhedonia and anxiety that are commonly used in studies of stress per se. In Experiment 1 rats were exposed to escapable (ES) or yoked-inescapable (IS) tailshocks. In Experiment 2 ES or IS was given 7 days before all rats received IS. In Experiment 3 the DRN was inactivated during IS by microinjection of 8-OH-DPAT. Sucrose preference and social exploration were tested for several days after stress. A fourth experiment confirmed that juvenile social exploration is sensitive to traditional β-carboline and benzodiazepine manipulations. Both ES and IS reduced sucrose preference, but only IS reduced social exploration. Prior treatment with ES prevented the effect of IS on social exploration but did not prevent the effect of IS on sucrose preference and inactivation of the DRN prevented the effect of IS on social exploration but did not change sucrose preference. The present results indicate that social exploration but not sucrose preference is sensitive to prior stressor controllability, and that DRN activation mediates the effect of IS on social exploration. We argue that DRN-5-HT activation mediates a state of generalized anxiety produced by uncontrollable stress and that juvenile social exploration is a useful behavioral endpoint in stressor controllability studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of prior stressor controllability and the dorsal raphé nucleus in sucrose preference and social exploration

Christianson

Paul

Irani

et al. 2008

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…One possibility is to study the USPEE in active avoidance learning, in which previous exposures to inescapable shock (US pre-exposures) interfere with subsequent avoidance learning. This effect, sometimes also referred to as learned helplessness (within the context of aversive instrumental learning), can readily take place even when pre-exposures to inescapable shock and avoidance learning were conducted in separate apparatus (Seligman and Maier, 1967;Seligman et al, 1975). Thus, if amphetamine can interfere with the USPEE within avoidance learning, it will provide further support to the drug's effect on the USPEE that is beyond its known effect on Kamin blocking.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expression of the CS- and US-Pre-Exposure Effects in the Conditioned Taste Aversion Paradigm and Their Abolition Following Systemic Amphetamine Treatment in C57BL6/J Mice

Meyer

Chang

Feldon

et al. 2004

Neuropsychopharmacol

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In classical conditioning, pre-exposures to either the to-be-conditioned stimulus (CS) or unconditioned stimulus (US) can retard subsequent conditioning between the CS and US. The present experiment evaluated the expression of these two pre-exposure effects in mice of the C57BL6/J strain, one of the most common background strains for genetically altered mice. We tested whether their expression would be disrupted by amphetamine treatment (2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) in a conditioned taste aversion paradigm with sucrose as the CS and lithium chloride-induced gastric malaise as the US. We found that one pre-exposure (PE) to either the CS or the US reduced aversion to sucrose solution in the controls following conditioning, but no such tendency was evident in the amphetamine-treated mice. The present study represents the first report of amphetamine-induced disruption of the CS-PE effect (ie latent inhibition) in mice, and the first attempt to compare it directly with the US-PE effect in any species. It extended previous reports in rats and humans, suggesting that the sensitivity of latent inhibition to amphetamine is largely comparable across species, thereby lending credence to the use of the latent inhibition effect as a behavioral assay for psychotic-like phenotype in transgenic mice. The parallel observation in the US-PE effect further indicates that its expression, at least in the present conditioned taste aversion paradigm, may also be under similar influence of the dopaminergic system.

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“…This model developed from a series of experiments conducted by Overmier, Seligman and Maier in the mid-1960s (Overmier and Seligman, 1967;Seligman and Maier, 1967). In the experiments, animals were exposed to aversive shocks or other stressors and tested later on their ability to learn a new task in which escape from a mild footshock was possible.…”

Section: Helplessness Behavior In the Female Ratmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estrogen-mediated effects on depression and memory formation in females

Shors

Leuner

2003

Journal of Affective Disorders

158

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Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression as men. It has been proposed that the ovarian hormones estrogen and progesterone contribute to the higher incidence of this potentially debilitating disorder. Depression can also be accompanied by a loss of cognitive performance. Here we review estrogen-mediated effects on depression and memory formation in females. We propose that changes in levels of estrogen are associated with sex differences in learning as well as changes in affect prior to menses, immediately after pregnancy and during perimenopause and the menopausal transition. Finally, we discuss the animal model of depression known as 'learned helplessness' and describe research from our laboratory demonstrating that exposure to an acute stressful experience compromises a female's later ability to acquire certain types of new memories. This response to stressful experience is opposite to that observed in males and is dependent on the presence of estrogen, and more specifically-changing levels of estrogen. This observation indicates that females and males can use different hormonal and neural mechanisms to respond to the same emotional event and underscore the importance of studying the unique and changing biology of females, especially when considering treatment strategies for depression and stress-related illness.

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Failure to escape traumatic shock.

Cited by 1,607 publications

References 6 publications

The role of prior stressor controllability and the dorsal raphé nucleus in sucrose preference and social exploration

The role of prior stressor controllability and the dorsal raphé nucleus in sucrose preference and social exploration

Expression of the CS- and US-Pre-Exposure Effects in the Conditioned Taste Aversion Paradigm and Their Abolition Following Systemic Amphetamine Treatment in C57BL6/J Mice

Estrogen-mediated effects on depression and memory formation in females

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