Hippocampal formation supports conditioning to memory of a context

It has been proposed that contextual fear conditioning depends on 2 processes: (a) construction of a conjunctive representation of the features that make up the context and (b) association of the representation with shock. Support for this view comes from studies indicating that prior exposure to the conditioning context facilitates contextual fear conditioning supported by immediate shock. Thus, conditioning produced by immediate shock is to the memory representation of the preexposed context, which is activated by retrieval cues associated with this context. The authors ’ experiments support this interpretation and indicate that this process depends on an intact hippocampal formation. These results support the hypothesis that the hippocampal formation supports contextual fear conditioning by storing a conjunctive representation of context. The importance of fear conditioning to the neurobiology of memory emerged when it was reported that fear to the context or place in which shock occurred (contextual fear) and fear to a discrete auditory cue paired with the shock were differentially dependent upon the hippocampal formation (Kim & Fanselow, 1992; Phillips & LeDoux, 1992; Selden, Everitt, Jarrard, & Robbins, 1991). Damage to the hippocampal formation impaired contextual but not auditory-cue fear conditioning. The selectivity of the result suggested that the study of contextual fear conditioning would provide a valuable method for studying the mechanisms by which the hippocampus contributes to memory and is now commonly used for this purpose. Several theorists have argued that contextual fear conditioning depends on two independent learning processes: The rat (a) constructs and stores a conjunctive representation of the independent features of the context and (b) associates that representation wit