Tom Beckers

Pharmacological blockade of opioid receptors in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray does not affect avoidance acquisition or performance in rats

This study tests if opioid receptor blockade in the vlPAG affects avoidance learning in rats, finding no significant impairment in acquisition or performance.

Differential effects of chronic restraint stress on two active avoidance tasks in rats

This study examines how chronic restraint stress affects two active avoidance tasks in rats, finding impaired acquisition in two-way active avoidance but no effect on platform-mediated avoidance or extinction.

The rewarding properties of safety signals established by a two-way active avoidance task in male rats

This study investigates whether safety signals in a two-way active avoidance task acquire reward-like properties by assessing their impact on avoidance learning and approach behavior in male rats.

Generalization and extinction of platform-mediated avoidance in male and female rats

This study modifies a platform-mediated avoidance task to assess fear learning in male and female rats, revealing sex differences in avoidance, generalization, and extinction, and introduces an automated behavioral scoring system.

The impact of systemic blockade of dopamine receptors on the acquisition of two-way active avoidance in rats.

This study investigates the effect of dopamine receptor blockade on avoidance learning in rats, finding that D1R antagonism acutely impairs avoidance but not long-term learning.

High threat intensity increases conditioned fear generalization and makes extinction of a generalization stimulus less effective

This study shows that high threat intensity increases fear generalization and reduces the effectiveness of extinction training using a generalization stimulus.

No evidence that post-training D2R dopaminergic drug administration affects fear generalization in male rats

This study investigates the effect of D2R agonists on fear generalization in male rats and finds no evidence of such an effect.

Overnight fasting facilitates safety learning by changing the neurophysiological response to relief from threat omission

This study shows that overnight fasting reduces excessive avoidance and speeds fear extinction by decreasing brain activation in reward-related regions during threat omissions.

Rats remember: Lack of drug-induced post-retrieval amnesia for auditory fear memories

This study tests drug-induced post-retrieval amnesia for auditory fear memories in rats but finds no evidence of reduced fear memory expression after drug administration.

Apparent Reconsolidation Interference Without Generalized Amnesia

The paper investigates whether drug-induced amnesia after reactivating memories through a generalization stimulus (ABB design) shares features with typical reconsolidation interference, showing it depends on prediction error and GluN2B-NMDA receptor activity.