Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms

@article{Schiller2010PreventingTR,
  title={Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms},
  author={Daniela Schiller and Marie H Monfils and Candace M. Raio and David C. Johnson and Joseph E LeDoux and Elizabeth A. Phelps},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2010},
  volume={463},
  pages={49-53}
}
Recent research on changing fears has examined targeting reconsolidation. During reconsolidation, stored information is rendered labile after being retrieved. Pharmacological manipulations at this stage result in an inability to retrieve the memories at later times, suggesting that they are erased or persistently inhibited. Unfortunately, the use of these pharmacological manipulations in humans can be problematic. Here we introduce a non-invasive technique to target the reconsolidation of fear… 
View on Nature
europepmc.org
1,018 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
84
Background Citations
390
Methods Citations
93
Results Citations
65

1,018 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Reconsolidation in a human fear conditioning study: A test of extinction as updating mechanism
TLDR
It is found that extinction learning within the reconsolidation window did not prevent the recovery of fear on multiple indices of conditioned responding (startle response, skin conductance response and US-expectancy), and conflicting results ask for further critical testing.
Disrupting Reconsolidation Attenuates Long-Term Fear Memory in the Human Amygdala and Facilitates Approach Behavior
TLDR
It is concluded that memory activation immediately preceding exposure attenuates the neural and behavioral expression of decades-old fear memories and that, similar to experimentally induced fear memories, the basolateral amygdala is crucially involved in this process.
Are fear memories erasable?–reconsolidation of learned fear with fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli
TLDR
It is found that a single reminder exposure prior to extinction training did not prevent the return of extinguished fear responding using either fear-relevant or fear-irrelevant CSs, pointing to the need to further study the specific parameters that enable disruption of reconsolidation.
Human fear extinction and return of fear using reconsolidation update mechanisms: The contribution of on-line expectancy ratings
TLDR
Results show that the inclusion of US-expectancy measures strengthens the CS-US association to provide enhanced fear conditioning and maintenance of fear memories over the experimental sessions and reduces reinstatement of fear-potentiated startle to both previously reinforced CS+'s, as compared to the extinction as usual group.
Targeting memory reconsolidation to prevent the return of fear in patients with fear of flying
TLDR
It is suggested that memory reactivation prior to exposure therapy did not have an impact on clinical measures but may enhance the effect of exposure therapy at the physiological level.
Updating Fearful Memories with Extinction Training during Reconsolidation: A Human Study Using Auditory Aversive Stimuli
TLDR
This study replicated Schiller et al., (2010) behavioral manipulation and extended it to an auditory fear conditioning paradigm based on auditory aversive stimuli instead of electric shock and demonstrated that only the conditioned stimulus that was reminded 10 minutes before extinction training did not reinstate a fear response after a reminder trial consisting of the presentation of the unconditioned stimuli.
Memory reconsolidation with fear-relevant stimuli and self-reported fear of spiders
• Reconsolidation is the updating of memories during retrieval. Previously, it had been theorized that once a labile memory trace was encoded into long term memory, or consolidated, it was in a…
Reconsolidation Allows Fear Memory to Be Updated to a Less Aversive Level through the Incorporation of Appetitive Information
TLDR
Reconolidation allows for a ‘re-signification’ of unwanted fear memories through the incorporation of appetitive information, which brings a new promising cognitive approach to treat fear-related disorders.
Harnessing reconsolidation to weaken fear and appetitive memories: A meta-analysis of post-retrieval extinction effects.
TLDR
Findings to date support the continued translation of postretrieval extinction research to human and clinical applications, with particular application to the treatment of anxiety, traumatic stress, and substance use disorders.
Disrupting reconsolidation: pharmacological and behavioral manipulations.
TLDR
It is demonstrated that disrupting reconsolidation by pharmacological manipulations, although selective, undermines the generalization of fear, a key feature of anxiety disorders.
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 40 REFERENCES
Extinction-Reconsolidation Boundaries: Key to Persistent Attenuation of Fear Memories
TLDR
A behavioral design is described in which a fear memory in rats is destabilized and reinterpreted as safe by presenting an isolated retrieval trial before an extinction session, which permanently attenuates the fear memory without the use of drugs.
Characterization of Fear Memory Reconsolidation
TLDR
It is reported that reconsolidation cannot be reduced down to facilitated extinction and application of reminder shock does not result in the reinstatement of the memory, supporting the idea that reactivation of consolidated memories initiates a second time-dependent memory formation process.
Beyond extinction: erasing human fear responses and preventing the return of fear
TLDR
Oral administration of the β-adrenergic receptor antagonist propranolol before memory reactivation in humans erased the behavioral expression of the fear memory 24 h later and prevented the return of fear.
Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans.
TLDR
Evidence is found for spontaneous recovery and reinstatement in both rats and humans even when extinction was conducted immediately after fear learning, which does not support the hypothesis that immediate extinction erases the original memory trace and suggests that a close temporal proximity of therapeutic intervention to the traumatic event might be advantageous.
Reconsolidation of episodic memories: a subtle reminder triggers integration of new information.
TLDR
The study demonstrates the crucial role of reminders for the modification of episodic memory, that reconsolidation of episodi memory is time-dependent, and, in contrast to previous reconsolidations findings, that reconsideration is also a constructive process, one that supports the incorporation of new information in memory.
Reconsolidation and Extinction of Conditioned Fear: Inhibition and Potentiation
TLDR
Investigation of the effects of enhancing and blocking NMDA receptor-mediated glutamatergic transmission on the reconsolidation and extinction of a conditioned fear memory showed that the basolateral amygdala is a primary locus of action of systemically administered DCS, and memory reconsolidations can be both disrupted and enhanced.
Different mechanisms of fear extinction dependent on length of time since fear acquisition.
TLDR
Data support a model in which different neural mechanisms are recruited depending on the temporal delay of fear extinction, and suggest that extinction initiated shortly following fear acquisition preferentially engages depotentiation/"unlearning," whereas extinction initiated at longer delays recruits a different mechanism.
Mechanisms of memory stabilization: are consolidation and reconsolidation similar or distinct processes?
  • C. Alberini
  • Medicine, Psychology
    Trends in Neurosciences
  • 2005
TLDR
A working model is concluded that could explain the apparent controversy of memory vulnerability after reactivation and indicates brain areas involved in consolidation after initial training are not required for reconsolidation.
Recall of Fear Extinction in Humans Activates the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus in Concert
TLDR
Results support the involvement of the human hippocampus as well as vmPFC in the recall of extinction memory and provide a paradigm for future investigations of fronto-temporal function during extinction recall in psychiatric disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder.
Extinction Learning in Humans Role of the Amygdala and vmPFC
TLDR
The neural mechanisms of fear extinction in humans are explored and activation in the vmPFC was primarily linked to the expression of fear learning during a delayed test of extinction, indicating that the mechanisms of extinction learning may be preserved across species.
...
1
2
3
4
...