Beyond Freezing: New Behavioral Insights into Observational Fear Learning

Animals can acquire information not only through direct experience, but also through the experience of others, a process known as social learning, which carries important adaptive value by allowing individuals to avoid exposure to potentially dangerous stimuli. In rodents, one of the paradigms most widely used to study the neurobiological mechanisms underlying social learning is the observational fear learning paradigm, in which an individual witnesses an aversive experience -a fear conditioning session- received by a conspecific. This type of paradigm is commonly used not only to study the formation of long-term observational memories, but also, given its aversive nature, to study empathy-like behaviors, particularly during the acquisition phase, when the learning process itself takes place. However, the behavioral variable most commonly analyzed in both cases is freezing behavior, widely used in rodents to assess fear-related responses. In this work, we explore additional behavioral variables that allow for a more detailed characterization of animal behavior, based on pose estimation tools.