Disrupting the Fear Response “Resets” the Amgydala

Extinction diminishes people's learned fear responses, but these can be rekindled. Even after rekindling that revives a fear memory, interference with fear recall within 60 minutes can disrupt the memory. These researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine how the amygdala contributes to behavioral disruption of fear reconsolidation.

An associative fear memory (visual cue plus shock) was established in 22 subjects (11 women; mean age, 24). On day 2, the fear memory was reactivated (cue plus shock for 2 minutes); participants then received extinction either 10 minutes later (to disrupt reconsolidation) or 6 hours later (outside the effective interval). On day 3, fMRI was performed on participants who had electrodes …