Conor Ollendike ’26, Ashley Sawtelle ’26, Yamilet Nieves ’26, Rachael Layden ’23, Chris Walsh ’23, Jose Pena ’25, and Shelby Bawden ’23
Posterior Parietal Cortex Dependent Contextual Renewal of Conditioned Positive and Negative Associations
Conor Ollendike ’26, Psychology major, neuroscience certificate
Ashley Sawtelle ’26, Psychology major
Yamilet Nieves ’26, Neuroscience major and Women and Gender Studies minor
Rachael Layden ’23, Psychology major
Christopher Walsh ’23, Biology and Psychology major, neuroscience certificate
Jose Pena ’25, Neuroscience major and Physics minor
Shelby Bawden ’23, Biology and Psychology major, neuroscience certificate
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Victoria Templer, Psychology
Recent work suggests the Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC) is necessary for the renewal of an extinguished conditioned fear response in a novel (ABA), but not a familiar (ABC) context (in ABA/C, slot 1 refers to acquisition; 2- extinction, 3 –renewal). We investigated whether such context-dependent renewal generalizes to positive conditioned stimuli in sham operated control rats and a small cohort of Designer Receptor Activated Only by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) PPC rats after delivery of CNO to inactivate PPC. Control rats renewed positive (light-food) and negative associations (tone-shock) regardless of the renewal context, replicating context dependent renewal in rodents found in previous literature. The positive condition conferred a significantly higher magnitude of renewal compared to the negative condition. When the PPC was deactivated, rats did not renew in both the positive and negative ABC condition but did in the ABA condition. However, when the PPC was active in both the ABC and ABA conditions all subjects renewed both positive and negative associations, matching the sham operated controls. These results suggest the PPC plays a crucial role in renewal of a context dependent conditioned fear response as well as a context dependent conditioned positive response.
Poster Presentation: Wednesday, April 26, 2 – 4 p.m.
