Human fear conditioning and extinction: Timing is everything…or is it?

Prenoveau, Jason M.; Craske, Michelle G.; Liao, Betty; Ornitz, Edward M.

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.02.005

Cited by 41 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Hence, although extinction was not expressed within the reactivation session, it actually took place. This in line with reports both in rodents (Plendl and Wotjak 2010) and humans (Prenoveau et al 2013), showing that reduction of fear responding during reexposure to conditioned stimuli is not necessary for or indicative of the strength of extinction learning when evaluated after 24 h.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 77%

An appetitive experience after fear memory destabilization attenuates fear retention: involvement GluN2B-NMDA receptors in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex

et al. 2016

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It is known that a consolidated memory can return to a labile state and become transiently malleable following reactivation. This instability is followed by a restabilization phase termed reconsolidation. In this work, we explored whether an unrelated appetitive experience (voluntary consumption of diluted sucrose) can affect a contextual fear memory in rats during the reactivation-induced destabilization phase. Our findings show that exposure to an appetitive experience following reactivation can diminish fear retention. This effect persisted after 1 wk. Importantly, it was achieved only under conditions that induced fear memory destabilization. This result could not be explained as a potentiated extinction, because sucrose was unable to promote extinction. Since GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors in the basolateral amygdala complex (BLA) have been implicated in triggering fear memory destabilization, we decided to block pharmacologically these receptors to explore the neurobiological bases of the observed effect. Intra-BLA infusion with ifenprodil, a GluN2B-NMDA antagonist, prevented the fear reduction caused by the appetitive experience. In sum, these results suggest that the expression of a fear memory can be dampened by an unrelated appetitive experience, as long as memory destabilization is achieved during reactivation. Possible mechanisms behind this effect and its clinical implications are discussed.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 77%

An appetitive experience after fear memory destabilization attenuates fear retention: involvement GluN2B-NMDA receptors in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex

et al. 2016

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“…Post-extinction phenomena indicating that extinguished CRs can be recovered (e.g., spontaneous recovery, renewal, reinstatement, and reacquisition) support the idea of extinction representing an inhibitory learning process (see Bouton, 2002, for a review). Extinction theory is typically based on laboratory experiments with rodents, but there is also a wealth of evidence for extinction in human adults (e.g., Hygge & Öhman, 1978;Milad, Orr, Pitman, & Rauch, 2005;Prenoveau, Craske, Liao, & Ornitz, 2012). Laboratory fear extinction can be viewed as an experimental model of exposure-based therapies for anxiety disorders (Bouton, Mineka, & Barlow, 2001;Davey, 1997;Mineka, 1985;Mineka & Zinbarg, 2006), and hence the effectiveness of extinction procedures for reducing vicariously learned fears is an important topic for investigation with far-reaching clinical implications .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reductions in Children’s Vicariously Learnt Avoidance and Heart Rate Responses Using Positive Modeling

Reynolds

Field

Askew

2016

Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology

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Recent research has indicated that vicarious learning can lead to increases in children’s fear beliefs and avoidance preferences for stimuli and that these fear responses can subsequently be reversed using positive modeling (counterconditioning). The current study investigated children’s vicariously acquired avoidance behavior, physiological responses (heart rate), and attentional bias for stimuli and whether these could also be reduced via counterconditioning. Ninety-six (49 boys, 47 girls) 7- to 11-year-olds received vicarious fear learning for novel stimuli and were then randomly assigned to a counterconditioning, extinction, or control group. Fear beliefs and avoidance preferences were measured pre- and post-learning, whereas avoidance behavior, heart rate, and attentional bias were all measured post-learning. Control group children showed increases in fear beliefs and avoidance preferences for animals seen in vicarious fear learning trials. In addition, significantly greater avoidance behavior, heart rate responding, and attentional bias were observed for these animals compared to a control animal. In contrast, vicariously acquired avoidance preferences of children in the counterconditioning group were significantly reduced post-positive modeling, and these children also did not show the heightened heart rate responding to fear-paired animals. Children in the extinction group demonstrated comparable responses to the control group; thus the extinction procedure showed no effect on any fear measures. The findings suggest that counterconditioning with positive modelling can be used as an effective early intervention to reduce the behavioral and physiological effects of vicarious fear learning in childhood

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“…Notably, a number of threat conditioning and extinction studies have shown that the level of fear (or freezing in rodents) at the end of extinction training is not predictive of fear/freezing at retest [e.g., Rescorla, 2006;Plendl and Wotjak, 2010;Prenoveau et al, 2013]. In fact, 'extinction failure' versus 'extinction success' groups of rodents, defined by responding at retest, showed identical patterns of extinction training freezing [Peters et al, 2010].…”

Section: Mechanisms Of Exposure Therapy: Inhibitory Model Of Extinctionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Optimizing Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: An Inhibitory Learning and Inhibitory Regulation Approach

Craske¹

2015

Verhaltenstherapie

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Exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy is the treatment of choice for anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, many individuals fail to benefit from treatment or demonstrate a return of fear. Inhibitory learning and inhibitory regulation models provide a parsimonious and unifying framework from which to situate exposure therapy and provide useful strategies to augment exposure therapy, especially as individuals with anxiety disorders show inhibitory deficits. This paper provides an overview of our application of inhibitory learning from the science of extinction, and inhibitory regulation from the neuroscience of emotion regulation, to exposure therapy for anxiety disorders.

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Human fear conditioning and extinction: Timing is everything…or is it?

Cited by 41 publications

References 34 publications

An appetitive experience after fear memory destabilization attenuates fear retention: involvement GluN2B-NMDA receptors in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex

An appetitive experience after fear memory destabilization attenuates fear retention: involvement GluN2B-NMDA receptors in the Basolateral Amygdala Complex

Reductions in Children’s Vicariously Learnt Avoidance and Heart Rate Responses Using Positive Modeling

Optimizing Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: An Inhibitory Learning and Inhibitory Regulation Approach

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