Nature Communications (Oct 2018)

Dopamine-dependent prefrontal reactivations explain long-term benefit of fear extinction

  • A. M. V. Gerlicher,
  • O. Tüscher,
  • R. Kalisch

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06785-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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The success of extinction learning is not predictive of long-term retrieval of an extinction memory. Using fMRI to study consolidation of fear extinction in human subjects, the authors show that reactivation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex during memory retrieval predicts extinction memory retrieval, and that increasing dopaminergic signaling increases the number of these activations.