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Bustamante J, Soto M, Miguez G, Quezada-Scholz VE, Angulo R, Laborda MA. Extinction in multiple contexts reduces the return of extinguished responses: A multilevel meta-analysis. Learn Behav 2024; 52:209-223. [PMID: 38010486 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-023-00609-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Extinguished responses have been shown to reappear under several circumstances, and this reappearance is considered to model behaviors such as relapse after exposure therapy. Conducting extinction in multiple contexts has been explored as a technique to decrease the recovery of extinguished responses. The present meta-analysis aimed to examine whether extinction in multiple contexts can consistently reduce the recovery of extinguished responses. After searching in several databases, experiments were included in the analysis if they presented extinction in multiple contexts, an experimental design, and an adequate statistical report. Cohen's d was obtained for each critical comparison and weighted to obtain the sample's average weighted effect size. Analyses were then performed using a multilevel meta-analytic approach. Twenty-five studies were included, with a total sample of 37 experiments or critical comparisons. The analyses showed a large effect size for the sample, moderated by the length of conditioned stimulus exposure, type of experimental subject, and type of recovery. The robust effect of extinction in multiple contexts on relapse should encourage clinicians to consider extinction in multiple contexts as a useful technique in therapy and research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Bustamante
- Institute of Social Sciences, Universidad de O'Higgins, Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 611, Rancagua, Chile
| | - Marcela Soto
- School of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago, Chile
| | - Gonzalo Miguez
- Department of Psychology, Universidad de Chile, Av. Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1045, Ñuñoa, 7800284, Santiago, Chile
| | - Vanetza E Quezada-Scholz
- Department of Psychology, Universidad de Chile, Av. Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1045, Ñuñoa, 7800284, Santiago, Chile
| | - Rocío Angulo
- Institute of Social Sciences, Universidad de O'Higgins, Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins 611, Rancagua, Chile
| | - Mario A Laborda
- Department of Psychology, Universidad de Chile, Av. Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1045, Ñuñoa, 7800284, Santiago, Chile.
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Paskewitz S, Stoddard J, Jones M. Explaining the Return of Fear with Revised Rescorla-Wagner Models. COMPUTATIONAL PSYCHIATRY (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2022; 6:213-237. [PMID: 38774783 PMCID: PMC11104307 DOI: 10.5334/cpsy.88] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Exposure therapy - exposure to a feared stimulus without harmful consequences - can reduce fear responses in many mental disorders. However, such relief is often partial and temporary: fear can return after the therapy has ended. Conditioning research has identified three mechanisms for the return of fear, viz. change in physical context (renewal), the passage of time (spontaneous recovery), and an encounter with the fear-producing unconditioned stimulus (reinstatement). To understand why fear returns and thereby develop more effective therapies, we develop mathematical learning models based on that of Rescorla and Wagner. According to this model, context cues present during extinction become conditioned inhibitors (i.e. safety signals) which prevent total erasure of the threat association. Adding various mechanisms to the model allows it to explain different facets of the return of fear. Among these mechanisms is decay of inhibitory associations, which provides a novel explanation for spontaneous recovery. To make the benefits of exposure robust and permanent, one must minimize the degree to which the extinction context becomes inhibitory in order to maximize unlearning. We simulate several experimental paradigms that reduce the return of fear and explain them according to this principle.
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Campese VD. The lesser evil: Pavlovian-instrumental transfer & aversive motivation. Behav Brain Res 2021; 412:113431. [PMID: 34175357 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2021] [Revised: 06/13/2021] [Accepted: 06/22/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
While our understanding of appetitive motivation includes accounts of rich cognitive phenomena, such as choice, sensory-specificity and outcome valuation, the same is not true in aversive processes. A highly sophisticated picture has emerged of Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction, but progress in aversive motivation has been somewhat limited to these fundamental behaviors. Many differences between appetitive and aversive stimuli permit different kinds of analyses; a widely used procedure in appetitive studies that can expand the scope of aversive motivation is Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT). Recently, this motivational transfer effect has been used to examine issues pertaining to sensory-specificity and the nature of defensive control in avoidance learning. Given enduring controversies and unresolved criticisms surrounding avoidance research, PIT offers a valuable, well-controlled procedure with which to similarly probe this form of motivation. Furthermore, while avoidance itself can be criticized as artificial, PIT can be an effective model for how skills learned through avoidance can be practically applied to encounters with threatening or fearful stimuli and stress. Despite sensory-related challenges presented by the limited aversive unconditioned stimuli typically used in research, transfer testing can nevertheless provide valuable information on the psychological nature of this historically controversial phenomenon.
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Lay BPP, Pitaru AA, Boulianne N, Esber GR, Iordanova MD. Different methods of fear reduction are supported by distinct cortical substrates. eLife 2020; 9:e55294. [PMID: 32589138 PMCID: PMC7343386 DOI: 10.7554/elife.55294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 06/25/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Understanding how learned fear can be reduced is at the heart of treatments for anxiety disorders. Tremendous progress has been made in this regard through extinction training in which the aversive outcome is omitted. However, current progress almost entirely rests on this single paradigm, resulting in a very specialized knowledgebase at the behavioural and neural level of analysis. Here, we used a dual-paradigm approach to show that different methods that lead to reduction in learned fear in rats are dissociated in the cortex. We report that the infralimbic cortex has a very specific role in fear reduction that depends on the omission of aversive events but not on overexpectation. The orbitofrontal cortex, a structure generally overlooked in fear, is critical for downregulating fear when novel predictions about upcoming aversive events are generated, such as when fear is inflated or overexpected, but less so when an expected aversive event is omitted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Belinda PP Lay
- Center for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia UniversityMontrealCanada
| | - Audrey A Pitaru
- Center for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia UniversityMontrealCanada
| | - Nathan Boulianne
- Center for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia UniversityMontrealCanada
| | - Guillem R Esber
- Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College of the City University of New YorkBrooklynUnited States
| | - Mihaela D Iordanova
- Center for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology, Department of Psychology, Concordia UniversityMontrealCanada
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5
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Associative structure of conditioned inhibition produced by inhibitory perceptual learning treatment. Learn Behav 2020; 47:166-176. [PMID: 30421123 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-018-0359-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Exposure to a set of complex stimuli yields an enhanced ability to discriminate between these stimuli. In previous experimental studies, two distinguishable stimuli, X and A, were each repeatedly paired with a common Stimulus B to create compound Stimuli XB and AB. Prior evidence suggests that unique Features X and A form mutually inhibitory associations. This was evidenced by pairing Feature A with a biologically relevant stimulus (i.e., an unconditioned stimulus [US]) and observing that Stimulus X alone later serves to inhibit anticipatory behaviors for that US. These observations may reflect the mutually inhibitory nature of the two Features X and A. However, by assessing the influence of X on behavior that anticipates the US rather than Feature A, these experiments tested inhibition only indirectly. In the present experiments, a more direct measure of inhibition is proposed and tested with rats. We found evidence of retardation and negative summation of associations between unique Features X and A in their capacity to serve as competing cues during overshadowing treatments. Stimulus X was less susceptible to overshadowing by A (which is indicative of retardation of the establishment of an X-A within-compound association) and was able to suppress overshadowing by A of another stimulus (Y) when X was presented with Y at test (which is indicative of negative summation of the representation of A by X). Thus, XB/AB trials were seen to establish an inhibitory relationship between X and A.
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Griffiths O, Holmes N, Westbrook RF. Compound Stimulus Presentation Does Not Deepen Extinction in Human Causal Learning. Front Psychol 2017; 8:120. [PMID: 28232809 PMCID: PMC5298964 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2016] [Accepted: 01/17/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Models of associative learning have proposed that cue-outcome learning critically depends on the degree of prediction error encountered during training. Two experiments examined the role of error-driven extinction learning in a human causal learning task. Target cues underwent extinction in the presence of additional cues, which differed in the degree to which they predicted the outcome, thereby manipulating outcome expectancy and, in the absence of any change in reinforcement, prediction error. These prediction error manipulations have each been shown to modulate extinction learning in aversive conditioning studies. While both manipulations resulted in increased prediction error during training, neither enhanced extinction in the present human learning task (one manipulation resulted in less extinction at test). The results are discussed with reference to the types of associations that are regulated by prediction error, the types of error terms involved in their regulation, and how these interact with parameters involved in training.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oren Griffiths
- School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, SydneyNSW, Australia
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Coelho CAO, Dunsmoor JE, Phelps EA. Compound stimulus extinction reduces spontaneous recovery in humans. Learn Mem 2015; 22:589-93. [PMID: 26572649 PMCID: PMC4749731 DOI: 10.1101/lm.039479.115] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2015] [Accepted: 10/05/2015] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Fear-related behaviors are prone to relapse following extinction. We tested in humans a compound extinction design ("deepened extinction") shown in animal studies to reduce post-extinction fear recovery. Adult subjects underwent fear conditioning to a visual and an auditory conditioned stimulus (CSA and CSB, respectively) separately paired with an electric shock. The target CS (CSA) was extinguished alone followed by compound presentations of the extinguished CSA and nonextinguished CSB. Recovery of conditioned skin conductance responses to CSA was reduced 24 h after compound extinction, as compared with a group who received an equal number of extinction trials to the CSA alone.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cesar A O Coelho
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA Departamento de Psicobiologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo 04023062, Brazil
| | - Joseph E Dunsmoor
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Phelps
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA Emotional Brain Institute, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York 10962, USA
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9
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Fitzgerald PJ, Seemann JR, Maren S. Can fear extinction be enhanced? A review of pharmacological and behavioral findings. Brain Res Bull 2014; 105:46-60. [PMID: 24374101 PMCID: PMC4039692 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2013.12.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 119] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2013] [Revised: 12/10/2013] [Accepted: 12/11/2013] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
There is considerable interest, from both a basic and clinical standpoint, in gaining a greater understanding of how pharmaceutical or behavioral manipulations alter fear extinction in animals. Not only does fear extinction in rodents model exposure therapy in humans, where the latter is a cornerstone of behavioral intervention for anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and specific phobias, but also understanding more about extinction provides basic information into learning and memory processes and their underlying circuitry. In this paper, we briefly review three principal approaches that have been used to modulate extinction processes in animals and humans: a purely pharmacological approach, the more widespread approach of combining pharmacology with behavior, and a purely behavioral approach. The pharmacological studies comprise modulation by: brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), d-cycloserine, serotonergic and noradrenergic drugs, neuropeptides, endocannabinoids, glucocorticoids, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, and others. These studies strongly suggest that extinction can be modulated by drugs, behavioral interventions, or their combination, although not always in a lasting manner. We suggest that pharmacotherapeutic manipulations provide considerable promise for promoting effective and lasting fear reduction in individuals with anxiety disorders. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled 'Memory enhancement'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul J Fitzgerald
- Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, United States
| | - Jocelyn R Seemann
- Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, United States
| | - Stephen Maren
- Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, United States; Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, United States.
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Todd TP, Vurbic D, Bouton ME. Behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of extinction in Pavlovian and instrumental learning. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2013; 108:52-64. [PMID: 23999219 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2013.08.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2013] [Revised: 08/06/2013] [Accepted: 08/23/2013] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
This article reviews research on the behavioral and neural mechanisms of extinction as it is represented in both Pavlovian and instrumental learning. In Pavlovian extinction, repeated presentation of a signal without its reinforcer weakens behavior evoked by the signal; in instrumental extinction, repeated occurrence of a voluntary action without its reinforcer weakens the strength of the action. In either case, contemporary research at both the behavioral and neural levels of analysis has been guided by a set of extinction principles that were first generated by research conducted at the behavioral level. The review discusses these principles and illustrates how they have informed the study of both Pavlovian and instrumental extinction. It shows that behavioral and neurobiological research efforts have been tightly linked and that their results are readily integrated. Pavlovian and instrumental extinction are also controlled by compatible behavioral and neural processes. Since many behavioral effects observed in extinction can be multiply determined, we suggest that the current close connection between behavioral-level and neural-level analyses will need to continue.
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Affiliation(s)
- Travis P Todd
- Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, 2 Colchester Ave., Burlington, VT 05405-0134, United States
| | - Drina Vurbic
- Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, 2 Colchester Ave., Burlington, VT 05405-0134, United States
| | - Mark E Bouton
- Department of Psychology, University of Vermont, 2 Colchester Ave., Burlington, VT 05405-0134, United States..
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