Article
Neurosciences
Miriam Kampa, Andrea Hermann, Rudolf Stark, Tim Klucken
Summary: Anxiety disorders can be effectively treated with exposure therapy based on the extinction of Pavlovian fear conditioning. Animal studies suggest that the timing of extinction and test are important factors in reducing the return of fear, but human research is inconsistent. In this neuroimaging study, immediate extinction resulted in greater retention of fear memory and a trend towards greater fear return, while early test groups generally showed higher fear return. The delayed extinction group showed greater activation in the nucleus accumbens during the test, suggesting that they may benefit more from it as a new learning opportunity.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
K. L. Purves, G. Krebs, T. McGregor, E. Constantinou, K. J. Lester, T. J. Barry, M. G. Craske, K. S. Young, G. Breen, T. C. Eley
Summary: Anxiety disorders are prevalent and often develop early in life. Understanding the factors that contribute to the onset and recovery of these disorders is crucial for prevention and treatment. This study used a fear conditioning paradigm to investigate the genetic and environmental influences on fear acquisition and extinction in twins. The results showed that fear acquisition and extinction are heritable traits, with some shared genetic influences.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Philipp Bierwirth, Martin I. I. Antov, Ursula Stockhorst
Summary: Fear extinction is affected by the interval between fear acquisition and extinction, with shorter intervals impairing extinction recall. However, research on this Immediate Extinction Deficit (IED) phenomenon is limited in humans. In this study, we investigated the IED and its neurophysiological correlates using EEG, SCRs, ECG, and subjective ratings. The findings suggest that SCR responses exhibit an IED, but other fear measures and neurophysiological markers are not affected by extinction timing.
Article
Immunology
Orlando Torres-Rodriguez, Yesenia Rivera-Escobales, Yesenia Castillo-Ocampo, Bethzaly Velazquez, Maria Colon, James T. Porter
Summary: Clinical evidence suggests a link between increased peripheral pro-inflammatory cytokines and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, it is still unclear whether inflammation contributes to or is a consequence of PTSD. Previous research has shown that stress can activate purinergic P2X7 receptors (P2X7Rs) on microglia to induce inflammation and behavioral changes.
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMMUNITY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Xinrui Jiang, Steven G. Greening
Summary: Imagery-based extinction procedures have been used in the treatment of fear-related conditions, with this study showing that imagery can help extinguish conditioned fear responses to perceptual stimuli.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Eleni P. Papagianni, William G. Warren, Helen J. Cassaday, Carl W. Stevenson
Summary: Recent studies have shown that cannabidiol, a non-psychotropic component of cannabis, has potential as a treatment for anxiety-related disorders. It can prevent spontaneous fear recovery after extinction and improve extinction resistance caused by immediate extinction.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Augustin C. Hennings, Samuel E. Cooper, Jarrod A. Lewis-Peacock, Joseph E. Dunsmoor
Summary: This review suggests that reliance on traditional univariate analysis of fMRI has hindered translational neuroimaging efforts in the field of threat conditioning and extinction. Multivariate pattern analyses (MVPA) provide a more sensitive analysis tool by leveraging the information present in spatial patterns of activity. The use of MVPA has successfully bridged rodent models of amygdala, hippocampus, and mPFC function during Pavlovian learning in human fMRI studies.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Christian J. Merz, Oliver T. Wolf
Summary: Stress hormones have an impact on the processing of fear, anxiety, and related memory mechanisms. Recent laboratory findings highlight the timing-dependent effects of stress on extinction learning and retrieval. This has implications for clinical intervention approaches, such as exposure therapy, and the administration of stress hormone cortisol.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Khadijah Shanazz, Rebecca Nalloor, Almira Vazdarjanova
Summary: This study investigated the impact of stress-induced anxiety on fear learning and extinction behavior in female rats, showing that even mild stress can have subtle long-term effects on behavior. The findings suggest that short-term anxiety resolution does not necessarily indicate the absence of long-term behavioral changes induced by stress.
FRONTIERS IN BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Immunology
Robert J. Pawlik, Liubov Petrakova, Alexandra Cueillette, Katharina Krawczyk, Nina Theysohn, Sigrid Elsenbruch, Harald Engler
Summary: Inflammation may affect the formation and persistence of interoceptive fear and hypervigilance, which is relevant to psychiatric disorders and chronic pain. Two studies were conducted to analyze the effects of inflammation on fear learning and extinction, using endotoxemia as a model and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Despite robust inflammatory and emotional responses, no direct effects of inflammation on fear ratings or the formation/extinction of conditioned fear were observed. However, inflammation during fear acquisition enhanced neural responses to interoceptive but not exteroceptive stimuli during extinction learning, and resulted in enhanced negative valence ratings for interoceptive stimuli during unexpected re-exposure.
BRAIN BEHAVIOR AND IMMUNITY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Christoph Szeska, Heino Mohrmann, Alfons O. Hamm
Summary: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy uses eye movements to reduce distress during fear exposure. This study tested the neural mechanism underlying these effects by manipulating eye movements in a fear conditioning and extinction paradigm. The results suggest that saccadic eye movements facilitate the extinction of fear responses.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Mehrsa Rahimi-Danesh, Mohammad-Ali Samizadeh, Amir-Ehsan Sajadi, Tara Rezvankhah, Salar Vaseghi
Summary: This study investigated the effects of lithium on freezing behavior and pain perception in a fear-conditioning model in rats. The results showed that lithium had no effect on freezing behavior and pain subthreshold in all rats. Extinction training decreased freezing behavior, with more efficacy in females. Gender differences were also observed in the effects of extinction training.
PHARMACOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY AND BEHAVIOR
(2024)
Article
Neurosciences
Annalise N. Binette, Jianfeng Liu, Hugo Bayer, Kennedi L. Crayton, Laila Melissari, Samantha O. Sweck, Stephen Maren
Summary: Stress has a significant impact on fear extinction and affects the activity of PV interneurons in the mPFC. PV interneurons regulate extinction learning under stress in a sex-dependent manner, and this effect is mediated by amygdaloprefrontal projections.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Khadijah Shanazz, Rachael Dixon-Melvin, Rebecca Nalloor, Riya Thumar, Almira I. Vazdarjanova
Summary: According to animal experiments, there are differences in the expression of fear memories between female and male rats. Female rats tend to express fear memories through active motor responses, which is referred to as "Anxioescapic" behavior strategy. There is no significant difference in fear learning between female and male rats.
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Philipp Bierwirth, Ursula Stockhorst
Summary: Fear extinction is a crucial learning mechanism that inhibits fear responses towards cues or contexts that no longer predict threat. Noradrenaline and corticotropin releasing hormone (CRF) have been identified as important regulators of fear extinction. Excessive noradrenaline transmission and CRF can impede successful fear extinction.
NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Sarah A. Stern, Katherine R. Doerig, Estefania P. Azevedo, Elina Stoffel, Jeffrey M. Friedman
MOLECULAR PSYCHIATRY
(2020)
Article
Neurosciences
Jingchu Hu, Zijie Wang, Xiaoyi Feng, Cheng Long, Daniela Schiller
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2019)
Article
Neurosciences
Estefania P. Azevedo, Lisa Pomeranz, Jia Cheng, Marc Schneeberger, Roger Vaughan, Sarah A. Stem, Bowen Tan, Katherine Doerig, Paul Greengard, Jeffrey M. Friedman
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Johannes Bjorkstrand, Daniela Schiller, Jian Li, Per Davidson, Jorgen Rosen, Johan Martensson, Ulrich Kirk
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2019)
Article
Biology
Estefania P. Azevedo, Bowen Tan, Lisa E. Pomeranz, Violet Ivan, Robert Fetcho, Marc Schneeberger, Katherine R. Doerig, Conor Liston, Jeffrey M. Friedman, Sarah A. Stern
Review
Neurosciences
Sarah A. Stern, Cynthia M. Bulik
TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES
(2020)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Agnes Norbury, Hannah Brinkman, Mary Kowalchyk, Elisa Monti, Robert H. Pietrzak, Daniela Schiller, Adriana Feder
Summary: The study tested two competing hypotheses about how differences in causal inference might be related to trauma-related psychopathology, finding that individuals with more severe post-traumatic stress disorder were more likely to attribute observations from conditioning and extinction stages to a single underlying cause, suggesting a primary deficit in discriminative learning in these individuals.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Review
Neurosciences
Estefania P. Azevedo, Violet J. Ivan, Jeffrey M. Friedman, Sarah A. Stern
Summary: The neural control of appetite is crucial for understanding eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and obesity, which are linked to maladaptive eating behaviors and serious health issues. The hypothalamus plays a central role in regulating appetite by integrating genetic, physiological, and environmental factors detected by specific neuronal populations. Connections between the hypothalamus and higher-order brain regions are important for coordinating feeding behaviors based on emotional states and environmental cues.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Megan E. Speer, Sandra Ibrahim, Daniela Schiller, Mauricio R. Delgado
Summary: Positively reinterpreting negative memories adaptively updates them, leading to enhanced positive emotion and content at future retrieval, which remains even after two months.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Editorial Material
Psychology, Biological
Paula L. Croxson, Liz Neeley, Daniela Schiller
Summary: Reading scientific papers is important for research, but poor writing can hinder communication. We argue that narrative writing in scientific papers can help mitigate information overload and achieve the primary purpose of publication: communication.
NATURE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Nachshon Korem, Or Duek, Ziv Ben-Zion, Antonia N. Kaczkurkin, Shmuel Lissek, Temidayo Orederu, Daniela Schiller, Ilan Harpaz-Rotem, Ifat Levy
Summary: Individuals with PTSD show lower amygdala response to pain, correlated with emotional numbing symptoms.
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Editorial Material
Neurosciences
Matthew Schafer, Daniela Schiller
NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Ifat Levy, Daniela Schiller
Summary: This special issue presents interdisciplinary research on decision-making and learning under uncertainty. Thirty-one research and review papers report the findings of the behavioral, neural, and computational bases of coping with uncertainty, as well as changes of these mechanisms in development, aging, and psychopathology. Overall, this special issue provides existing research, identifies gaps in our knowledge, and offers paths for future directions.
COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
German Todorov, Karthikeyan Mayilvahanan, Christopher Cain, Catarina Cunha
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Neurosciences
Lindsay C. Laughlin, Danielle M. Moloney, Shanna B. Samels, Robert M. Sears, Christopher K. Cain