Cued and contextual fear conditioning in mice.

Contextual and cued fear conditioning is a robust form of learning in which an association is made between stimuli and their aversive consequences. Fear conditioning has been used in laboratory rodents in part because it is a highly conserved form of behavior that is exhibited in both laboratory situations and in normal environments. Training requires only a single trial and this makes it adaptable to genetic, pharmacological, and biochemical studies. Clinically, it is has relevance to human behavior in that fear conditioning can be produced in humans, and damage to the amygdala prevents fear conditioning.