Analyze cued freezing, contextual freezing, and conditioning-minus-neutral generalisation from animal-level fear conditioning scores.
| Animal | Group | pre_CS_% | CS_% | post_CS_% | shock_mA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
When to use
Do not use for
If baseline freezing is already high before the tone, the CS minus pre-CS score can be small even when total CS freezing is high.
Neutral context freezing should be low. Change odor, floor texture, wall pattern, lighting, and chamber shape when possible.
Conditioning-context freezing measures fear memory strength. Generalisation compares that response against freezing in a neutral context.
Cued freezing equals mean CS freezing percent minus mean pre-CS freezing percent. Contextual freezing is the conditioning-context freezing percent. Generalisation equals conditioning-context freezing percent minus neutral-context freezing percent. Group SEM uses sample standard deviation divided by square root of n.
Last validated 2026-04-30. Calculations are designed for planning and documentation support; verify procurement decisions against manufacturer specifications or institutional SOPs.
ConductScience Fear Conditioning Analyzer (v1.0). ConductScience, Inc. 2026. Available at: https://conductscience.com/tools/fear-conditioning-analyzer
This tool computes descriptive statistics from user-entered freezing percentages. It does not score raw video, define welfare parameters, or replace protocol-specific statistical analysis.
Fear conditioning is a Pavlovian learning paradigm in which a neutral cue or context becomes associated with an aversive event. In rodent studies, the unconditioned stimulus is usually a brief mild foot shock, and the behavioral readout is percent time freezing.
A complete analysis usually separates cued fear from contextual fear. Cued freezing asks whether the animal freezes more during the tone than before the tone. Contextual freezing asks whether the animal freezes in the conditioning chamber when no tone or shock is presented.
Cued freezing is computed as CS freezing percent minus pre-CS baseline freezing percent. Contextual freezing is reported as the raw percent freezing in the conditioning context. Generalisation index is conditioning-context freezing percent minus neutral-context freezing percent.
Group charts summarize animal-level values as mean +/- SEM. The tool does not run hypothesis tests because factorial designs, repeated CS trials, sex, drug dose, and batch effects usually need a planned statistical model.
Report tone duration, shock intensity, shock duration, pairing count, inter-trial intervals, context A and context B differences, and freezing detection criteria. Keep baseline freezing low in the cued test by making the neutral context truly distinct.
Review locomotor activity if a treatment changes freezing. Drugs that reduce movement can inflate apparent freezing even when associative fear learning is unchanged.
Conditioning chamber for cued and contextual rodent fear assays
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