DBA 2 AND C57BL/6 MICE DIFFER IN CONTEXTUAL FEAR BUT NOT AUDITORY FEAR CONDITIONING/

It has been proposed that DBA/2 and C57BL/6 mice perform differently o n some learning and memory tasks because of functional differences in the hippocampal formation. To evaluate this hypothesis, DBA/2 and C57B L/6 mice were tested on 2 forms of conditioned fear: contextual fear c onditioning, which depends on the integrity of the hippocampal formati on, and auditory cue conditioning, which does not. Both mouse strains displayed equivalent conditioning when the auditory cue was paired wit h shock, but DBA/2 mice showed significantly less conditioning to the context in which shock was experienced. These results are consistent w ith the hypothesis that the pattern of spared and impaired performance , which DBA/2 mice display on a variety of learning and memory tasks, is related to impaired hippocampal formation function.