Computational Psychiatry Research, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland.
Neuroscience Centre Zurich, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Learn Mem. 2020 Mar 16;27(4):164-172. doi: 10.1101/lm.050211.119. Print 2020 Apr.
A reminder can render consolidated memory labile and susceptible to amnesic agents during a reconsolidation window. For the case of threat memory (also termed fear memory), it has been suggested that extinction training during this reconsolidation window has the same disruptive impact. This procedure could provide a powerful therapeutic principle for treatment of unwanted aversive memories. However, human research yielded contradictory results. Notably, all published positive replications quantified threat memory by conditioned skin conductance responses (SCR). Yet, other studies measuring SCR and/or fear-potentiated startle failed to observe an effect of a reminder/extinction procedure on the return of fear. Here we sought to shed light on this discrepancy by using a different autonomic response, namely, conditioned pupil dilation, in addition to SCR, in a replication of the original human study. = 71 humans underwent a 3-d threat conditioning, reminder/extinction, and reinstatement, procedure with 2 CS+, of which one was reminded. Participants successfully learned the threat association on day 1, extinguished conditioned responding on day 2, and showed reinstatement on day 3. However, there was no difference in conditioned responding between the reminded and the nonreminded CS, neither in pupil size nor SCR. Thus, we found no evidence that a reminder trial before extinction prevents the return of threat-conditioned responding.
提醒可以使巩固后的记忆在再巩固窗口期间变得不稳定，并易受遗忘剂的影响。对于威胁记忆（也称为恐惧记忆），有人认为在这个再巩固窗口进行消退训练具有相同的破坏作用。该程序可以为治疗不良厌恶记忆提供强大的治疗原则。然而，人类研究产生了矛盾的结果。值得注意的是，所有已发表的阳性复制均通过条件性皮肤电导反应 (SCR) 量化了威胁记忆。然而，其他研究测量 SCR 和/或恐惧增强的惊跳反应未能观察到提醒/消退程序对恐惧回归的影响。在这里，我们通过在原始人类研究的复制中除了 SCR 之外还使用不同的自主反应（即条件性瞳孔扩张），试图阐明这种差异。共有 71 名参与者接受了 3 天的威胁条件作用、提醒/消退和重新呈现程序，其中 2 个 CS+，其中一个被提醒。参与者在第 1 天成功地学习了威胁关联，在第 2 天消退了条件反应，在第 3 天表现出重新呈现。然而，在条件反应方面，无论是在瞳孔大小还是 SCR 方面，被提醒的 CS 和未被提醒的 CS 之间都没有差异。因此，我们没有发现证据表明在消退前的提醒试验可以防止威胁条件反应的恢复。
