Observing fear in others (OF) is a form of social stress. In mice, it enhances inhibitory avoidance learning and causes the formation of silent synapses in the prefrontal-amygdala pathway. Here, we report that OF made that pathway prone to facilitation both ex vivo and in vivo. Ex vivo, OF enabled induction of long-term potentiation (LTP), expressed mostly postsynaptically and occluded by inhibitory avoidance training. In vivo, OF enabled facilitation of the dmPFC-BLA pathway by inhibitory avoidance training. The facilitation persisted during the first 4 h after the training when the prefrontal cortex and amygdala are involved in memory consolidation. Thus, the OF-generated silent synapses likely enable plasticity that may enhance the consolidation of inhibitory avoidance memories.

中文翻译：

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观察恐惧促成了前额叶杏仁核的可塑性。

观察他人的恐惧（OF）是一种社会压力。在小鼠中，它增强了抑制性回避学习，并导致前额-杏仁核通路中沉默突触的形成。在这里，我们报告说，OF 使该途径易于在体外和体内促进。离体，OF 能够诱导长时程增强 (LTP)，主要在突触后表达并被抑制性回避训练封闭。在体内，OF 通过抑制性回避训练促进了 dmPFC-BLA 通路。当前额叶皮层和杏仁核参与记忆巩固时，这种促进作用在训练后的前 4 小时内持续存在。因此，OF 产生的沉默突触可能使可塑性能够增强抑制性回避记忆的巩固。