accepted: Safety signals in the OFC

Congratulations to Mary & Allie for a nice piece of work. This line of thinking began with Anna V at CU--we didn't have it right then, but it started a seed that became Mary's Honor's Thesis. Inactivation of the ventrolateral orbitofrontal cortex impaired rat's performance in a danger/safety discrimination task (Panel D, higher discrimination index means rats were more sensitive to the danger cues than safe cues). Abnormalities in OFC function are related to a number of stress and fear related psychiatric conditions. This could cause people with PTSD, for example, to rely more on danger associated cues even when safety signals are present. Hopefully future work will illuminate better treatments for these symptoms. In this figure: CS+ is a danger stimulus, CS- is a safe stimulus). Full paper coming soon to Neuroscience.