The conditioned fear paradigm is a behavioral procedure in which rodents are exposed
to electric shocks, a robust stressor, which is believed to constitute a traumatic
experience in these species. Behavioral consequences – particularly contextual and
cue-induced fear as well as fear-potentiated startle – are frequently used to model
symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in the laboratory. The same test, however,
is used to study associative memory, often without reference to the traumatic nature
of the stressor or to post-traumatic stress disorder. A large number of different
conditioned fear protocols were developed in the previous decades, but no clear methodological
differentiations were made between protocols aimed at studying associative memory
and those used to model traumatic events and their psychiatric consequences. Here,
we review the most recent literature in order to (i) clarify practical differentiations
of the two approaches, (ii) characterize conditioned fear as a model of post-traumatic
stress disorder, and (iii) to assess the translational value of the paradigm. Furthermore,
we evaluate how behavioral testing after electric shocks can be diversified such to
increase the scope of this procedure as a model post-traumatic stress disorder.
