Enhanced synchronization between prelimbic and infralimbic cortices during fear extinction learning

Abstract

The ability to extinguish aversive memories when they are no longer associated with danger is critical for balancing survival with competing adaptive demands. Previous studies demonstrated that the infralimbic cortex (IL) is essential for extinction of learned fear, while neural activity in the prelimbic cortex (PL) facilitates fear responding and is negatively correlated with the strength of extinction memories. Though these adjacent regions in the prefrontal cortex maintain mutual synaptic connectivity, it has been unclear whether PL and IL interact functionally with each other during fear extinction learning. Here we addressed this question by recording local field potentials (LFPs) simultaneously from PL and IL of awake behaving rats during extinction of auditory fear memories. We found that LFP power in the fast gamma frequency (100–200 Hz) in both PL and IL regions increased during extinction learning. In addition, coherency analysis showed that synchronization between PL and IL in the fast gamma frequency was enhanced over the course of extinction. These findings support the hypothesis that interregional interactions between PL and IL increase as animals extinguish aversive memories.