The impact of context relevance during extinction learning

Abstract

In two predictive-learning experiments, we investigated the role of the informational value of contexts for the formation of context-specific extinction learning. The contexts were each composed of two elements from two dimensions, A and B. In Phase 1 of each experiment, participants received acquisition training with a target cue Z in context A1B1 (the numbers assign particular values on the context dimensions). In Phase 2, participants were trained with conditional discriminations between two other cues, X and Y, for which only one of the two context dimensions was relevant. In a third phase, participants received extinction trials with cue Z in context A2B2. During a final test phase, we observed that a partial change of the extinction context disrupted extinction performance when the extinction context was changed on the dimension that had been trained as being relevant for the conditional discrimination. However, when the extinction context was changed on the irrelevant context dimension, extinction performance was not affected. Our results are consistent with the idea that relevant contexts receive more attention than do irrelevant contexts, leading to stronger context-specific processing of information learned in the former than in the latter type of contexts.

Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus Participates in Mediating the Renewal Effect Irrespective of Context Salience

“…This overall effect was based solely on the performance change in the SWITCH group, who showed renewal only in the SAL session, while the renewal rates in the REN group were not significantly altered by the context manipulation. The higher renewal rates observed in the SAL session complement behavioral studies (Lucke et al, 2013(Lucke et al, , 2014 by demonstrating that not only a relevant context, but also a particularly conspicuous context without specific informational value has the potential to strengthen context-specific learning. The behavioral results also resemble those of a previous study with a between-subjects design, in which the presentation of the context alone also yielded higher renewal rates (Lissek et al, 2016).…”

“…Correspondingly, attention to a context was found to modulate context-specificity of behavior (Uengoer et al, 2018). Relevant contexts received more attention (in terms of gaze duration), which led to more context-specific learning of humans in a behavioral predictive learning task (Lucke et al, 2013(Lucke et al, , 2014. Conceivably, a context attracting attention by its high visibility will appear more salient and also affect context-specific learning.…”

Enhancing Effects of NMDA-Receptor Blockade on Extinction Learning and Related Brain Activation Are Modulated by BMI

“…Despite obvious differences in processing requirements, previous studies highlighted the parallels between context-related extinction learning with and without a fear component: In both, fear (for review see Bouton, 2002, 2004) and non-fear related extinction (Rosas and Callejas-Aguilera, 2006; Rosas et al, 2006; Ungör and Lachnit, 2006; Üngör and Lachnit, 2008; Lucke et al, 2013, 2014), the renewal effect has been demonstrated. Moreover, recent imaging/lesion studies emphasized involvement of similar brain regions in both types of extinction learning, in animals as well as in humans.…”

“…Its efficiency was demonstrated in several behavioral as well as fMRI studies, which investigated context-dependent extinction learning (Lissek et al, 2013, 2015a,b). Moreover, this study design has previously been adapted to examine variations in renewal (ABA, ABC, AAB) and their manipulations (e.g., context relevance) (Üngör and Lachnit, 2008; Lucke et al, 2014) as well as the effects of pharmacological modulations on extinction and retrieval (e.g., cortisol, dopamine, noradrenalin) (Hamacher-Dang et al, 2013; Lissek et al, 2015a,b). …”

The key role of extinction learning in anxiety disorders

“…Moreover, removal of 'safety signals and behaviors' (such as the presence of other persons, medication, or cell phones) may be another strategy to increase threat expectancies in the short run, but support their violation as the omission of the aversive outcome during extinction training is not associated with the safety signal or behavior (for a critical evaluation see [48,69 && ]). Another target for augmentation results from findings that fear extinction hardly generalizes to different stimuli and contexts, that is, fear likely returns when a different fear stimulus is encountered or if the current context differs from the extinction context [75,76], see also [77]. Different ways of increasing the 'variability' of extinction training may target this crucial issue.…”