海马结构在条件化情景恐惧过程中的作用

The Role of Hippocampus in Contextual Fear Conditioning

多年的研究发现背根海马具有空间加工和记忆功能,腹侧海马则在情绪加工和调节中扮演着重要角色。但是这一结果在使用条件化情景恐惧范式进行的研究中却争议不断。文章从损毁方式、失活方式、训练程序、以及对背侧和腹侧海马的划分等多方面进行综述,发现不同的永久性损毁方式、可逆性失活方式自身的特点,训练时电击次数,一次性完成一定次数的电击训练还是有间隔的分次完成,对腹侧和背根脑区划分的随意引用等都影响着研究结果。或许选用更为可靠、有效、精准的研究方式才有可能突破传统研究手段的瓶颈。

Substantial evidence suggests the dorsal hippocampus play an important role in spatial learning and memory formation. Whereas, the ventral hippocampus is related with stress, emotion and affect. However, studies in the contextual fear conditioning paradigm always produce inconsistent findings. This article discussed the effect of different study methods such as damage or inactivation ways, training procedures as well as the boundary of the dorsal hippocampus and ventral zone. The present review shows that the discrepancy about the function of the hippocampus in the contextual fear conditioning paradigm might be caused by different lesion and inactivation methods, the number of shocks, all training in one session or scattered over a series of sessions, as well as the boundary of dorsal and ventral hippocampus. The way to break through the bottleneck of traditional research is to find out a more reliable, effective and accurate method.