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Fear conditioning
is a process in which a neutral
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stimulus
(conditioned stimulus, CS) is paired with an
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aversive
stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US), so that
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the CS comes to
predict an aversive outcome, eliciting
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fear behaviors
even in the absence of the US.
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Fear conditioning
can be found in a large range of
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animals, from
rodents to rabbits to humans.
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As early as the
1920s, fear conditioning was
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demonstrated in
infants. A white rat presented to an
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infant does not
innately elicit fear, but pairing the rat with
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an aversive
noise, produces crying and attempts to crawl
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away, even when
the rat was presented without the
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noise.
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