Resume

• 2013.

  Organized and hosted the annual Pavlovian Society meeting in Austin

  Texas at the Hilton Garden Inn-Downtown

  September 26-29

  President-Elect

  President

  and Past-President

  Pavlovian Society

  English

  Distinguished Scientist Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology

  The APA Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology honor early career scientists for contributions in the first nine years post-PhD.\n\nCitation: \"With an ability to move seamlessly between multiple levels of analysis

  from cognitive to behavioral to synaptic

  Stephen A. Maren has provided important insight into the synaptic mechanisms underlying learning and memory for emotional events.\"

  American Psychological Association

• 1989

  PhD

  Graduate research with Dr. Richard F. Thompson

  Neurobiology

  University of Southern California

• 1985

  BS

  Honors research with Dr. Michael Gabriel; graduate cum laude with Distinction in Psychology

  Psychology

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• 1982

  Tennis

  Naperville Central High School

• 1981

  Tennis

  Research partnership at UTHSCSA

  James Madison High School

• Maren * Konorski Symposium 2013 * \"Reciprocal Circuits for Excitation and Inhibition of Fear in the Brain\"

  This is \"Maren * Konorski Symposium 2013 * \"Reciprocal Circuits for Excitation and Inhibition of Fear in the Brain\"\" by Steve Maren on Vimeo

  the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

  Neuroscience

  Animal Models

  In Vivo

  Science

  Biochemistry

  Physiology

  University Teaching

  Experimental Design

  Research

  Pharmacology

  Confocal Microscopy

  Immunohistochemistry

  Psychology

  Life Sciences

  Cell Culture

  Statistics

  Teaching

  Electrophysiology

  Lifesciences

  Neurophysiology

  Ensemble coding of context-dependent fear memory in the amygdala

  After fear conditioning

  presenting the conditioned stimulus (CS) alone yields a context-specific extinction memory; fear is suppressed in the extinction context

  but renews in any other context. The context-dependence of extinction is mediated by a brain circuit consisting of the hippocampus

  prefrontal cortex (PFC) and amygdala. In the present work

  we sought to determine at what level of this circuit context-dependent representations of the CS emerge. To explore this question

  we used cellular compartment analysis of temporal activity by fluorescent in situ hybridization (catFISH). This method exploits the intracellular expression profile of the immediate early gene (IEG)

  Arc

  to visualize neuronal activation patterns to two different behavioral experiences. Rats were fear conditioned in one context and extinguished in another; 24 h later

  they were sequentially exposed to the CS in the extinction context and another context. Control rats were also tested in each context

  but were never extinguished. We assessed Arc mRNA expression within the basal amygdala (BA)

  lateral amygdala (LA)

  ventral hippocampus (VH)

  prelimbic cortex (PL) and infralimbic cortex (IL). We observed that the sequential retention tests induced context-dependent patterns of Arc expression in the BA

  LA

  and IL of extinguished rats; this was not observed in non-extinguished controls. In general

  non-extinguished animals had proportionately greater numbers of non-selective (double-labeled) neurons than extinguished animals. Collectively

  these findings suggest that extinction learning results in pattern separation

  particularly within the BA

  in which unique neuronal ensembles represent fear memories after extinction.

  Ensemble coding of context-dependent fear memory in the amygdala

  Brandon Aragona

  Although fear directs adaptive behavioral responses

  how aversive cues recruit motivational neural circuitry is poorly understood. Specifically

  while it is known that dopamine (DA) transmission within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is imperative for mediating appetitive motivated behaviors

  its role in aversive behavior is controversial. It has been proposed that divergent phasic DA transmission following aversive events may correspond to segregated mesolimbic dopamine pathways; however

  this prediction has never been tested. Here

  we used fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to examine real-time DA transmission within NAc core and shell projection systems in response to a fear-evoking cue. In male Sprague Dawley rats

  we first demonstrate that a fear cue results in decreased DA transmission within the NAc core

  but increased transmission within the NAc shell. We examined whether these changes in DA transmission could be attributed to modulation of phasic transmission evoked by cue presentation. We found that cue presentation decreased the probability of phasic DA release in the core

  while the same cue enhanced the amplitude of release events in the NAc shell. We further characterized the relationship between freezing and both changes in DA as well as local pH. Although we found that both analytes were significantly correlated with freezing in the NAc across the session

  changes in DA were not strictly associated with freezing while basic pH shifts in the core more consistently followed behavioral expression. Together

  these results provide the first real-time neurochemical evidence that aversive cues differentially modulate distinct DA projection systems.

  Aversive stimuli differentially modulate real-time dopamine transmission dynamics within the nucleus accumbens core and shell

  Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction are very different disorders

  both are characterized by hyperreactivity to trauma- or drug-related cues

  respectively. We investigated whether an appetitive conditioning task

  Pavlovian conditioned approach

  which predicts vulnerability to reinstatement of cocaine-seeking

  also predicts fear incubation

  which may be a marker for vulnerability to PTSD. We classified rats based on whether they learned to approach and interact with a food predictive cue (sign-trackers)

  or

  whether upon cue presentation they went to the location of impending food delivery (goal-trackers). Rats were then exposed to extensive Pavlovian tone-shock pairings

  which causes the fear response to increase or \"incubate\" over time. We found that the fear incubation effect was only present in sign-trackers. The behavior of goal-trackers was more consistent with a normal fear response-it was most robust immediately after training and decayed slowly over time. Sign-trackers also had lower levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein in the prefrontal cortex than goal-trackers. These results indicate that

  while many factors likely contribute to the disproportionate co-occurrence of PTSD and substance abuse

  one such factor may be a core psychological trait that biases some individuals to attribute excessive motivational significance to predictive cues

  regardless of the emotional valence of those cues. High levels of BDNF in the prefrontal cortex may be protective against developing excessive emotional and motivational responses to salient cues.

  Sign-tracking to an appetitive cue predicts incubation of conditioned fear in rats

  Whereas fear memories are rapidly acquired and enduring over time

  extinction memories are slow to form and are susceptible to disruption. Consequently

  behavioral therapies that involve extinction learning (e.g.

  exposure therapy) often produce only temporary suppression of fear and anxiety. This review focuses on the factors that are known to influence the relapse of extinguished fear. Several phenomena associated with the return of fear after extinction are discussed

  including renewal

  spontaneous recovery

  reacquisition

  and reinstatement. Additionally

  this review describes recent work

  which has focused on the role of psychological stress in the relapse of extinguished fear. Recent developments in behavioral and pharmacological research are examined in light of treatment of pathological fear in humans.

  Animal Models of Fear Relapse

  K. Luan Phan

  Contexts surround and imbue meaning to events; they are essential for recollecting the past

  interpreting the present and anticipating the future. Indeed

  the brain’s capacity to contextualize information permits enormous cognitive and behavioural flexibility. Studies of Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction in rodents and humans suggest that a neural circuit including the hippocampus

  amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex is involved in the learning and memory processes that enable context-dependent behaviour. Dysfunction in this network may be involved in several forms of psychopathology

  including post-traumatic stress disorder

  schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders.

  The contextual brain: Implications for fear conditioning

  extinction

  and psychopathology

  Federal grant (R01MH065961) from the National Institutes of Health now in year 15.

  Stephen

  Maren

  UCLA

  Texas A&M University

  University of Michigan

  Elsevier

  Ann Arbor

  Michigan

  Taught courses in Biological Psychology and Neuroscience

  directed the Neuroscience Graduate Program

  trained undergraduate and graduate students in the Emotion and Memory Systems laboratory.

  Professor

  University of Michigan

  College Station

  Texas

  Serve as the United States Editor for domestic and international submissions of scientific work to Behavioural Brain Research

  an academic journal focusing on publishing original research in all areas of neuroscience that aim to uncover the brain mechanisms of behavior.

  Editor-in-Chief

  Behavioural Brain Research

  Elsevier

  College Station

  Texas

  Research and teaching in the neurobiology of learning and memory.

  Professor

  Texas A&M University

  Research on the neural mechanisms of fear conditioning.

  Postdoctoral Fellow

  Greater Los Angeles Area

  UCLA