Fig. 5: Female rats treated with hormonal contraceptive (HC) exhibit impaired extinction consolidation, which can be rescued with systemic losartan.

Mean (±SEM) freezing levels are shown across the fear conditioning, extinction, and extinction recall sessions. a No significant differences in freezing were found between HC- and vehicle-treated gonadally intact females during fear conditioning. b A main effect of HC treatment was found during extinction, where HC-treated females had significantly higher freezing levels compared with vehicle-treated controls. c HC-treated females displayed significantly higher levels of freezing compared with vehicle-treated control females during extinction recall. d Losartan treatment alone had no effect on freezing during extinction in high estradiol vehicle-treated control females. e Losartan treatment alone had no effect on freezing during extinction recall in high estradiol vehicle-treated control females. f Losartan treatment did not affect freezing levels during extinction in HC-treated females. g The 10 mg/kg dose of losartan significantly reduced freezing during extinction recall in HC-treated females compared with HC-treated females in the 0 mg/kg losartan group. ***p = 0.001; *p < 0.05