In the present study, footshock, which produces a powerful aversive emotional response was used in a Pavlovian conditioning experiment as an unconditioned stimulis (UCS), and was paired with the presentation of a light used as a conditioned stimulis (CS). There is an accumulation of evidence that supports the assertion that dopaminergic (DA) neurons within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are active in processes that contribute to the amygdala-based circuitry involved in regulating emotionally salient responses. To build upon findings implicating VTA DA, excitatory glutamate (Glu), NMDA and AMPA receptors, were examined with respect to their role in Pavlovian conditioned fear responding. Fear potentiated startle (FPS) was used to assess the effects of intra-VTA infused AP5, and intra-VTA infused CNQX on conditioned fear responding in laboratory rats. The administration of the NMDA receptor antagonist AP5 (at 1.0, 2.5, and 5.0ug doses), blocked the ability of a conditioned stimulus (CS) previously paired with footshock to become conditioned to the UCS. Similarly, administration of the AMPA receptor antagonist CNQX (at 1.0, 2.5, 5.0ug doses), inhibited the ability of the CS to become conditioned to the UCS. The results of this study indicate the VTA is an important site for synaptic modifications associated with fear learning, and that activation of excitatory Glutamatergic receptors in the VTA play a necessary part of the processing underlying fear conditioning. Measures of shock reactivity demonstrated that the infusion of AP5 and CNQX into the VTA did not inhibit baseline startle amplitudes. The administration of AP5 and CNQX did not suppress the perception of footshock as an aversive stimulus. This study provides further definition to established knowledge surrounding the neural processes whereby neutral environmental cues gain negative emotional salience as occurs in fear conditioning. It was hypothesised that the action of excitatory glutamatergic transmission within the VTA acts on NMDA and AMPA receptors is to assist in the acquisition of Pavlovian conditioned fear, possibly through the same synaptic mechanisms that govern LTP.

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Fear is one of the oldest and most basic of human emotions. In this thesis, I will explore the topic of fear in relation to literature, both a staple of the horror genre as well as a device in literary works, as well as in my own writings. In addition, I will use Sigmund Freud's theory of the “uncanny” as a possible device to examine the complexities of fear and its effects both on the mind and body through the medium of literature, and, more specifically, where and how these notions are used within my own short stories. By exploring how and why certain fears are generated, we may be able to better examine our own reactions in this regard.

The purpose of this study is to obtain a better understanding of what people fear might happen to them when being outside after dark. A lot of quantitative studies have been made on the subject of fear of crime to generalize and quantify people’s fears, but lacks any in-depth information about their fears and experiences. I have chosen to research about just that. Theories used are Doing gender and Ideal victims and I have interviewed 8 individuals about what they fear, why they fear it, where they think this fear comes from and other feeling and experiences associated with it. In my analysis we can see that there is a big difference in what individuals fear between men and women. The women in this study are more scared than the men to the point that they do not really venture outside after dark. Men on the other hand feel a bit more unsafe after dark, but never enough to avoid going outside. I also found that women feel shame over their pre-conceptions of men’s crime towards women. Men were mostly scared of assault and robbery while women are mostly scared of sexual assault, and their fears mostly derive from media and experiences people close to them have had. / Syftet med denna studie är att få en bättre förståelse över var människor är rädda kan hända dem om de är ute när det är mörkt. Många kvantitativa studier har genomförts angående rädsla för brott för att kunna kvantifiera samt generalisera resultaten till en hel population. Detta resulterar i en förlust av djupet i individers rädslor kring att bli utsatta för brott. Jag har valt att forska om just det. Valda teorier är ”göra genus” och ”ideella offer” och jag har intervjuat 8 individer angående vad de är rädda för, varför de är rädda för det, vart de tror denna rädsla kommer ifrån samt andra känslor associerade med det. I min analys kan vi se att det finns en stor skillnad mellan vad män och kvinnorna i denna studie är rädda för. Kvinnorna var räddare än män till den punkten att de avstod från att gå ut under kvällar och nätter. Männen å andra sidan kände sig lite osäkrare när det var mörkt, men aldrig tillräckligt för att avstå från att gå ut. Jag fann även att kvinnor upplevde skam över deras fördomar mot mäns brott mot kvinnor. Män var främst rädda för misshandel och rån medan kvinnor var rädda för sexuella brott, och deras rädslor härstammade från media och erfarenheter individer nära dem hade upplevt.

Pavlov (1927) first reported that following appetitive conditioning of multiple stimuli, extinction of one CS attenuated responding to others which had not undergone direct extinction. Four experiments with rat subjects investigated potential mechanisms of this secondary extinction effect. Experiment 1 assessed whether secondary extinction would be more likely to occur with target CSs that have themselves undergone some prior extinction. Two CSs were initially paired with shock. One CS was subsequently extinguished before the second CS was tested. The target CS was partially extinguished for half the rats and not extinguished CS for the other half. A robust secondary extinction effect was obtained with the non-extinguished target CS. Experiment 2 investigated whether secondary extinction occurs if the target CS is tested outside the context where the first CS is extinguished. Despite the context switch secondary extinction was observed. Extinction of one CS was also found to thwart renewal of suppression to a second CS when it was tested in a neutral context. Experiment 3 examined whether secondary extinction can be attributed to mediated generalization caused by association of the CSs with a common US during conditioning. Rats received conditioning with three CSs and then extinction with one of them. Secondary extinction was observed with a shock-associated CS when the extinguished CS had been associated with either food pellets or shock, suggesting that secondary extinction is not US-specific and is thus not explained by this mediated generalization mechanism. Experiment 4 examined whether intermixing trials with the two stimuli during conditioning is necessary for secondary extinction to occur. Rats were either conditioned with intermixed trials as in Experiments 1-3, or with blocked trials of each CS presented in conditioning sessions separated by a day. Secondary extinction was observed only in the former condition. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that CSs must be associated with a common temporal context for secondary extinction to occur.

Master of Science / Department of Animal Sciences and Industry / Janice C. Swanson / Canine thunderstorm phobia is a common, frustrating, and complex problem that, due to the often severe nature of the clinical signs, can lead to canine relinquishment to shelters. Although a potentially treatable disorder, existing treatment options have several limitations and variable success rates. Three survey-based studies were conducted to increase the knowledge base for canine thunderstorm phobia. The first study distributed 1445 surveys through 16 Kansas veterinary clinics to determine the prevalence and characteristics of thunderstorm phobic dogs and assess differences between affected and non-affected dogs. Of 463 dogs surveyed, 240 were thunderstorm phobic as assessed by their owners. Severe weather warning systems may play a role in thunderstorm phobia. Thunderstorm phobic dogs were more fearful when exposed to tornado sirens, both during actual storms and siren testing, indicating a possible effect of classical conditioning. No differences were noted regarding sex, breed, pedigree, or neuter status. Most affected dogs preferred to be indoors remaining near their owners. The second study distributed 1600 surveys through eight Kansas animal shelters to determine the prevalence of relinquished dogs with thunderstorm phobia. Other reasons for relinquishment were also assessed. A fear of thunder was among the least common behavioral problems leading to relinquishment in dogs. Only a quarter of owners had visited a veterinarian for assistance with behavioral problems. The third study involved the administration of dog appeasing pheromone (DAP) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial to assess its efficacy as a sole treatment for thunderstorm phobia. Data was collected from 60 dog owners using behavioral assessment questionnaires. In dogs given the placebo, six behaviors significantly improved, with another eleven showing a numerical trend toward improvement. However, in dogs given DAP, significant improvement was seen in three of these same behaviors. Consequently, these results do not indicate the potential use of DAP for reducing fearful behaviors associated with thunderstorm phobia when compared to negative controls. Information gained from these studies allows veterinarians and behavioral researchers to better understand the extent of this behavioral disorder and hopefully stimulates future research to find new and more effective ways to treat it.

Thesis advisor: John P. Christianson / Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often show impaired ability to discriminate between “danger” and “safety” cues. Women are more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with PTSD as compared to men; however, translational research has largely relied on the use of male subjects despite evidence of sex differences in fear-motivated behaviors. Serotonergic activity, originating in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) of the central nervous system (CNS), has been found to modulate fear discrimination in males and may contribute to sex differences observed in a Pavlovian fear discrimination paradigm. In this study, male and intact female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to fear conditioning with (CS+/CS-) or without (CS+) a safe conditioned stimulus, then subsequently sacrificed for immunohistochemical analysis of serotonergic activity via quantification of tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) and Fos in the DRN. Females exhibited more rapid and robust discrimination between the CS+ danger cue and CS- safety cue as compared to males. Regardless of condition, females had more double-labeled TPH+Fos cells compared to males, but males had larger variation in TPH+Fos expression compared to females. A parabolic function for TPH+Fos counts predicted fear discrimination in males, but not females, reinforcing the view that serotonin is a modulator of safety-related behavior in males. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Arts and Sciences Honors Program. / Discipline: Biology.

Thesis advisor: Gorica D. Petrovich / Thesis advisor: Christina Reppucci / We are interested in exploring the instances in which environmental controls can override physiologic or homeostatic cues, and additionally the areas of the brain that might be implicated in such behavioral effects. For this study, we replicated a previously established behavioral finding in which male and female rats show fear-cue induced inhibition of eating, and that female rats take longer than male rats to extinguish this behavior. We assessed brain activation via Fos-expression in the NTS and DMX in the brainstem and found that males had higher brainstem activation than females during extinction of fear-cue induced inhibition of eating. Additionally, female experimental rats had suppressed activity in the caudal NTS compared to female control rats. The data from this study support our hypotheses that there are distinct activation patterns in the brainstem during the extinguishing of inhibition of eating, and that there are sex differences in these activation patterns. / Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology Honors Program. / Discipline: Psychology.

This dissertation studies the cultural traces of the experience of fear in relation to the social and cultural legacies of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship. By applying the theoretical and narratological insights afforded by the horror genre and through the figure of the monster, the research identifies and analyzes alternative memories of the traumatic past, exploring the experience of fear within film and literature to reveal and claim an unrecognized approach to the representation of the war, with key critical findings and implications regarding the shaping and interpretation of the Spanish social imaginary of this event in this most persistent of cultural debates. Chapter II, explores the maquis in Luna de lobos (1985) by Julio Llamazares, tracing the human involution of a group of men that seeking refuge from Francoist repression become monstrous shells of themselves. It pursues this degradation to rethink the locus of the monster, finding it in the monstrous policies of the regime, that demands the exorcism of the resistance movement—the ultimate Other—rendering it ghostly by community and family as the cornerstone foundational violence of a new society. Chapter III, delves into the cinematographic representation of monsters and monstrous elements in Pa negre (2010) by Agustí Villaronga. It studies the competing narratives in postwar Spain that turn a child of the defeated into a monstrous regime supporter, a process that suggests the origins of contemporary society as the monstrous traces of Francoist society. It analyzes the features that render its protagonist, first, a monster in the eyes of the new regime—along the lines of the classical monster—to later on, through disappointment, shame and betrayal, a monster to his family and social class—thus becoming a modern monster. Chapter IV tackles a cinematographic allegorical representation of the past in Balada triste de trompeta (2010) by Álex de la Iglesia, a tour de force that attempts to be a total narrative of the war, a collage of historical memory through the monstrous moments that define Francoism. The fusion of elements from “esperpento”, horror and melodramatic national romance render a unique postnational satire.