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The cornerstone of treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and many anxiety disorders is extinction of a conditioned fear response to a previously neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus [CS]). This process involves competition between the learned response and a new response that increases inhibition of the amygdala via its connections to the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Because oxytocin increases amygdala-mPFC connectivity, investigators in Germany conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group study in 36 healthy men (mean age, 25).
Participants were exposed to four pictures, two social cues (faces) and two neutral cues (houses); these were paired with an electric shock for fear conditioning (CS+) or no shock (CS…