Fear Conditioning by Proxy: Social Transmission of Fear Between Interacting Conspecifics

We describe a method of social fear transmission to a discrete auditory cue in freely behaving rats. Extending beyond traditional observer/demonstrator paradigms, rats are allowed to physically interact and integrate cues from all sensory modalities. In the protocol described in this article, “observer” rats experience social fear conditioning through a proxy cage mate that serves as a “demonstrator” during retrieval of a cued fear memory. We find that a specific auditory cue can come to elicit fear expression in an animal with no foot shock experience simply by interacting with a conspecific expressing a conditioned response in the presence of an otherwise benign stimulus. In this “fear conditioning by proxy” paradigm, we have demonstrated that some, but not all, rats display conditioned responding (e.g., freezing) to a cue after interacting with a cage mate during fear memory retrieval. The amount of freezing exhibited by this fear conditioned “by proxy” rat 24 hr after learning critically depends on social influences, including social relationships and social interactions during learning. © 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.