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van Dis EAM, Landkroon E, Hagenaars MA, van der Does FHS, Engelhard IM. Old Fears Die Hard: Return of Public Speaking Fear in a Virtual Reality Procedure. Behav Ther 2021; 52:1188-1197. [PMID: 34452672 DOI: 10.1016/j.beth.2021.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2020] [Revised: 01/13/2021] [Accepted: 01/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Exposure-based therapy is an effective treatment for social anxiety, but some patients relapse. We used a novel virtual reality procedure to examine spontaneous recovery (i.e., a return of fear over time) and fear renewal (i.e., the return of fear after a context switch) in individuals with fear of public speaking. On Day 1, 32 participants received exposure training before a virtual audience. On Day 8, participants completed a spontaneous recovery phase, followed by a fear renewal test, in which they gave a presentation in front of a new (context switch) or the same audience (no context switch). After exposure, participants exhibited a lower heart rate, subjective distress, negative valence, and arousal. One week later, participants showed spontaneous recovery of heart rate, and the context switch group showed renewal of subjective distress, negative valence, and arousal. Future studies can use this procedure to test interventions aimed at improving long-term exposure effects in individuals with public speaking fear.
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Mermet-Joret N, Capogna M, Nabavi S. Fear Memory Relapse: The Importance of Input Associativity. Trends Neurosci 2021; 44:337-9. [PMID: 33712268 DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2021.02.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
An inherent property of extinguished fear memories is that the fear may return. A recent study in mice by Li et al. provides novel insights into the mechanisms underlying the relapse of an extinguished memory through converging sensory and contextual cues from the auditory cortex (ACx) and ventral hippocampus (vHPC) to the lateral amygdala (LA).
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Shi YW, Fan BF, Xue L, Wang XG, Ou XL. Fear renewal activates cyclic adenosine monophosphate signaling in the dentate gyrus. Brain Behav 2019; 9:e01280. [PMID: 31313894 PMCID: PMC6710207 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.1280] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2018] [Revised: 03/13/2019] [Accepted: 03/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Fear renewal, the context-specific relapse of a conditioned fear after extinction, is a widely pursued model of post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias. However, its cellular and molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. The dentate gyrus (DG) has emerged as a critical locus of plasticity with relevance to memory, anxiety disorders, and depression, and it contributes to fear memory retrieval. Here, we have identified the role of the DG in fear renewal and its molecular mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS Muscimol (MUS), activator of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) forskolin (FSK), inhibitor of protein kinase A (PKA), Rip-cAMP, and a phosphodiesterase inhibitor rolipram were infused into DG of standard deviation rats before renewal testing. cAMP levels after fear renewal was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The protein levels of phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) isoforms were tested by western blot. At last, the roles of cAMP signaling were also tested in the acquisition of fear conditioning, fear retrieval, and extinction. RESULTS Intra-DG treatment of MUS and Rp-cAMP impaired fear renewal. FSK and rolipram exhibited the opposite effect, which also occurred in the retrieval of original fear memory. This change in fear renewal was regulated by PDE4 isoforms PDE4A, PDE4A5, and PDE4D. In addition, FSK and rolipram facilitated the acquisition of fear conditioning in long-term memory, but not short-term memory, while Rp-cAMP impaired long-term memory. For extinction, FSK and rolipram inhibited extinction process, while Rp-cAMP facilitated fear extinction. CONCLUSION These findings demonstrated that fear renewal activated cAMP signaling in the DG through decreased PDE4 activity. Because of the role of cAMP signaling in the acquisition or retrieval of fear conditioning and encoding of extinction, it is speculated that initial learning and extinction may have similarities in molecular mechanism, especially fear retrieval and fear renewal may share cAMP signaling pathway in the DG.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yan-Wei Shi
- Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Province Translational Forensic Medicine Engineering Technology Research Center, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Bu-Fang Fan
- Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Li Xue
- Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Province Translational Forensic Medicine Engineering Technology Research Center, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiao-Guang Wang
- Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Disease, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Province Translational Forensic Medicine Engineering Technology Research Center, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xue-Ling Ou
- Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
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Xu C, Krabbe S, Gründemann J, Botta P, Fadok JP, Osakada F, Saur D, Grewe BF, Schnitzer MJ, Callaway EM, Lüthi A. Distinct Hippocampal Pathways Mediate Dissociable Roles of Context in Memory Retrieval. Cell 2016; 167:961-972.e16. [PMID: 27773481 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.09.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 173] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2016] [Revised: 06/29/2016] [Accepted: 09/17/2016] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Memories about sensory experiences are tightly linked to the context in which they were formed. Memory contextualization is fundamental for the selection of appropriate behavioral reactions needed for survival, yet the underlying neuronal circuits are poorly understood. By combining trans-synaptic viral tracing and optogenetic manipulation, we found that the ventral hippocampus (vHC) and the amygdala, two key brain structures encoding context and emotional experiences, interact via multiple parallel pathways. A projection from the vHC to the basal amygdala mediates fear behavior elicited by a conditioned context, whereas a parallel projection from a distinct subset of vHC neurons onto midbrain-projecting neurons in the central amygdala is necessary for context-dependent retrieval of cued fear memories. Our findings demonstrate that two fundamentally distinct roles of context in fear memory retrieval are processed by distinct vHC output pathways, thereby allowing for the formation of robust contextual fear memories while preserving context-dependent behavioral flexibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chun Xu
- Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Sabine Krabbe
- Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Jan Gründemann
- Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Paolo Botta
- Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Jonathan P Fadok
- Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
| | - Fumitaka Osakada
- Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Dieter Saur
- Department of Internal Medicine 2, Technische Universität München, Ismaningerstrasse 22, 81675 Munich, Germany; German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Benjamin F Grewe
- CNC Program, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Mark J Schnitzer
- CNC Program, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Edward M Callaway
- Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
| | - Andreas Lüthi
- Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, Maulbeerstrasse 66, 4058 Basel, Switzerland; University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland.
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Leer A, Engelhard IM. Countering fear renewal: changes in the UCS representation generalize across contexts. Behav Ther 2015; 46:272-82. [PMID: 25645174 DOI: 10.1016/j.beth.2014.09.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2014] [Revised: 08/04/2014] [Accepted: 09/23/2014] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
After treatment of anxiety disorders, fear often returns. Analogue studies show that outside the extinction context the conditional stimulus (CS) activates the acquisition memory (CS predicts unconditional stimulus; UCS), rather than the extinction memory (CS does not predict UCS). Conditioning theory postulates that fear also diminishes after a reduction in the subjective cost of the UCS, which can occur in absence of any changes in the CS-UCS association. We hypothesized that fear reduction via "UCS deflation" generalizes across context. Healthy students underwent acquisition in context A with neutral CSs and 100dB white noise as UCS. One group received post-conditioning UCS exposure, in which UCS intensity decreased over time ("ABAdefl"). Another group received UCS presentations at equal intensity ("ABActrl"). Two groups did a filler task ("ABB"; "ABA"). Then, all groups underwent extinction in context B and were retested in context A (ABA-groups) or B (ABB-group). During each CS participants rated UCS expectancy and UCS cost. Results showed the typical increase in UCS expectancy following the context switch from extinction to test phase. In contrast, UCS deflation caused a reduction in cost ratings that was maintained after the context change. Findings suggest that UCS deflation techniques may reduce fear renewal.
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Mosig C, Merz CJ, Mohr C, Adolph D, Wolf OT, Schneider S, Margraf J, Zlomuzica A. Enhanced discriminative fear learning of phobia-irrelevant stimuli in spider-fearful individuals. Front Behav Neurosci 2014; 8:328. [PMID: 25324745 PMCID: PMC4181334 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2014] [Accepted: 09/03/2014] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Avoidance is considered as a central hallmark of all anxiety disorders. The acquisition and expression of avoidance, which leads to the maintenance and exacerbation of pathological fear is closely linked to Pavlovian and operant conditioning processes. Changes in conditionability might represent a key feature of all anxiety disorders but the exact nature of these alterations might vary across different disorders. To date, no information is available on specific changes in conditionability for disorder-irrelevant stimuli in specific phobia (SP). The first aim of this study was to investigate changes in fear acquisition and extinction in spider-fearful individuals as compared to non-fearful participants by using the de novo fear conditioning paradigm. Secondly, we aimed to determine whether differences in the magnitude of context-dependent fear retrieval exist between spider-fearful and non-fearful individuals. Our findings point to an enhanced fear discrimination in spider-fearful individuals as compared to non-fearful individuals at both the physiological and subjective level. The enhanced fear discrimination in spider-fearful individuals was neither mediated by increased state anxiety, depression, nor stress tension. Spider-fearful individuals displayed no changes in extinction learning and/or fear retrieval. Surprisingly, we found no evidence for context-dependent modulation of fear retrieval in either group. Here, we provide first evidence that spider-fearful individuals show an enhanced discriminative fear learning of phobia-irrelevant (de novo) stimuli. Our findings provide novel insights into the role of fear acquisition and expression for the development and maintenance of maladaptive responses in the course of SP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carina Mosig
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
| | - Christian J Merz
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
| | - Cornelia Mohr
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
| | - Dirk Adolph
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
| | - Oliver T Wolf
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
| | - Silvia Schneider
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
| | - Jürgen Margraf
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
| | - Armin Zlomuzica
- Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr-University Bochum , Bochum , Germany
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