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Studies of fear have found that extinction needs to occur soon after memory retrieval (Journal Watch Psychiatry Jan 13 2010) and that cycloserine can augment fear extinction (Biol Psychiatry 2008; 63:544). Also, polymorphisms in the gene for brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) have been associated with different levels of extinction in both preclinical and clinical studies (Journal Watch Psychiatry Mar 15 2010). Now, in a series of experiments, researchers have used a new approach — the direct infusion of BDNF into the infralimbic prefrontal cortex of rats.
After classic auditory tone–footshock conditioning and extinction training (with infusion before training), freezing to the conditioned tone was significantly less with BDNF than with…