Immunohistochemical Analyses of Long-Term Extinction of Conditioned Fear in Adolescent Rats

Adolescence is a period of heightened emotional reactivity and vulnerability to poor outcomes (e.g., suicide, anxiety, and depression). Recent human and animal neuroimaging studies suggest that dramatic changes in prefrontal cortical areas during adolescence are involved in these effects. The present study explored the functional implications of prefrontal cortical changes during adolescence by examining conditioned fear extinction in adolescent rats. Experiment 1 showed that preadolescent (i.e., postnatal day [P] 24), adolescent (P35), and adult (P70) rats express identical extinction acquisition following 3 white-noise conditioned stimulus (CS) and shock pairings. When tested the next day, however, adolescent rats showed almost complete failure to maintain extinction of CS-elicited freezing compared with P24 and P70 rats. It was observed in experiment 2 that following extinction, P24 and P70 rats express significantly elevated levels of phosphorylated mitogen-activated protein kinase (pMAPK) in the infralimbic cortex (IL) compared with adolescent rats. Interestingly, adolescent rats successfully exhibited long-term extinction if the amount of extinction training was doubled (experiment 3). More extinction training also led to increased phosphorylation of MAPK in the IL in these rats. These findings suggest that adolescents are less efficient in utilizing prefrontal areas, which may lead to an impairment in the maintenance of extinguished behavior.