Tone discrimination is a behavioral task to investigate learning and memory processes in rodents. Additional punishment (aP) can be applied to enhance discrimination abilities; however, some animals have difficulties learning the task with aP. To understand this effect, we conducted auditory fMRI in Mongolian gerbils throughout discrimination training with rising (GO) and falling (noGo) frequency-modulated (FM) tones in ten daily sessions (S), enforced through foot shocks for “Miss”; a second group additionally received aP for “False‑Alarm”. Gerbils of each training group were divided into “good” and “bad” learners (GL and BL) by average learning scores. Prior, after 3S and 10S, fMRI was performed on anesthetized gerbils at 9.4T, presenting GO, noGo and control tones. Applying aP did not affect the overall learning score, but significantly lowered Hit and False‑Alarm-rates (Fig.A). Whole-brain activation pattern progression (Fig.B) occurred similarly for all GL, featuring additional activation in thalamus, retrosplenial and prefrontal cortex after 3S, and return to initial activation after 10S, indicating memory consolidation. BL without aP showed comparable activation after 3S, but further increase after 10S. BL with aP showed less activation after 3S; after 10S they reached similar activation levels to BL without aP. Furthermore, with aP much higher correlation between individual performance and activation occurred in fear and memory related brain areas at time of reinforcement. With auditory fMRI, we were able to record significant brain activation changes in gerbils through tone discrimination training, with differences in activation patterns dependent on performance and on application of aP.