Fear: Differential contribution of amygdala and hippocampust to cued and contextual fear conditioning

PsycARTICLES - Behavioral Neuroscience - Vol 106 Iss 2 Page 274: "Lesions of the amygdala interfered with the conditioning of fear responses to both the cue and the context, whereas lesions of the hippocampus interfered with conditioning to the context but not to the cue. The amygdala is thus involved in the conditioning of fear responses to simple, modality-specific conditioned stimuli (CS) as well as to complex, polymodal stimuli, whereas the hippocampus is only involved in fear conditioning situations involving complex, polymodal events. Findings suggest an associative role for the amygdala and a sensory relay role for the hippocampus in fear conditioning. "

This research demonstrates that the amygdala associates the event with the appropriate emotion, while the hippocampus provides a sensory relay for the context of the emotional event.