# Fear and Natural Risky Decisions in Rats

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2020 · $386,195

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Basic fear research largely employs the Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm in rodents. While this model
systems approach simplifies behavioral and biological analyses of acquisition, maintenance and expression
mechanisms of conditioned fear memories, fear conditioning studies cannot address the fact that animals and
humans rely on a multitude of actions and decisions to survive the breadth of risky situations in the real world.
Hence, there is a need to complement fear conditioning studies with ecologically-relevant fear research that
can lead to novel translational insights. This renewal application will continue to employ and enhance our
‘approach food-avoid predator’ paradigm to investigate the naturalistic workings of the brain’s fear system.
Specifically, in Aim 1, we will examine how rats adapt their fear responses, risk-assessment and foraging
decisions to more realistic and diverse risky situations by simulating hidden versus visible threats and
terrestrial versus aerial predators. We will also determine the functions of fear conditioning, which has never
been analyzed in a naturalistic setting, under realistic prey-predator interaction scenarios. In Aim 2, we will
utilize pharmacology, single unit recordings and optogenetics to further elaborate the neural mechanisms of
fear in naturalistic risky conditions. Based on our earlier work, we hypothesize that the dorsal periaqueductal
gray-amygdala pathway signals impending threats to elicit innate fear, that the reciprocal medial prefrontal
cortex-amygdala circuits serve risk proximity assessment functions, and that the amygdala-hippocampal
pathway provides the safety-danger boundary information for adaptive foraging decisions and strategies. This
ethologically relevant project is significant (i) from a basic scientific perspective because it will advance a more
naturalistic view of the fear system that will fill gaps in knowledge and predict new results, and (ii) from an
applied perspective because it can lead to novel insights to develop more effective treatments for generalized
anxiety, panic, phobia and posttraumatic stress disorders.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9878918
- **Project number:** 5R01MH099073-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Jeansok John Kim
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $386,195
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-07-15 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9878918

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9878918, Fear and Natural Risky Decisions in Rats (5R01MH099073-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9878918. Licensed CC0.

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