Fig. 1

Prior observation of fear conditioning enhances subsequent self-experienced learning of contextual fear. a Experimental procedures for behavioral experiments. b A representative photo showing observation of fear conditioning. c Prior observation of fear conditioning enhanced subsequent learning of contextual fear. Enhancement of freezing only occurred when the test mice received fear conditioning in the same context where the demonstrator mice received fear conditioning. Context: n = 7, Obs: n = 7, FC: n = 8, dFC: n = 7, Obs + FC: n = 9, Obs + dFC: n = 8. Tukey’s test after one-way ANOVA, F_5,40 = 29.59, P < 0.0001. **P < 0.01 vs. Obs + FC vs. other groups. Values are reported as mean ± SEM