Ventrolateral periaqueductal gray single-single unit activity during multi-cue fear discrimination in rats

These data were collected from the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray of 6 adult male, Long Evans rats using 16 – wire drivable microelectrode bundles. Data include 245 single units recorded from 88 behavior sessions. Fear discrimination sessions consisted of 32 trials with a mean ITI of 3.5 min. Auditory cues were 10 s in duration and consisted of repeating motifs of a broadband click, phaser, or trumpet. Each cue was associated with a unique probability of foot shock (0.5 mA, 0.5 s): danger, p = 1.00; uncertainty, p = 0.375; and safety, p = 0.00. Auditory identity was counterbalanced across rats. Foot shock was administered 2 s following the termination of the auditory cue on danger and uncertainty shock trials. The order of trial type presentation was randomly determined by the behavioral program, and differed for each rat, each session. After each discrimination session with recording, electrodes were advanced either 0.042 mm or 0.084 mm to record from new units during the following session. For four of the six rats, the electrode bundle was centered at -7.62 +/- 0.06 mm from Bregma, the other two rats had electrodes centered at -7.98 +0.06 mm from Bregma.
Data included are the result of spike sorting. Sample scripts used to visualize firing and behavior data from our main data file have been provided, as well as a sample regression which we have use to analyze the dataset. These data are currently under review and the complete methods will be available with that publication, which is:
Wright KM and McDannald MA. (2019); Ventrolateral periaqueductal gray neurons prioritize threat probability over fear output. eLife.