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During extinction training, the memory of conditioned fear is labile. Animal research suggests that rapid-eye-movement sleep in this phase promotes retention of fear extinction (NEJM JW Psychiatry Apr 22 2013). In the current study, 15 normal subjects underwent fear conditioning by seeing a specific face while experiencing an electric shock and a background odor. Participants showed increases in skin conductance and in activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, insula, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and hippocampus on functional magnetic resonance imaging.
After conditioning, subjects took a nap (average duration, 73 minutes). During the 17 minutes of slow-wave sleep, the previously presented odor was presented again but without the shock. The …