Drug-Free Method of Blocking Fear Memories
Drug-Free Method of Blocking Fear Memories
Behavioral Technique Can Reshape Fearful Memories
Those who had undergone extinction training within a six-hour window were largely spared significant effects, the authors say.
People whose training had been delayed six hours or who hadn’t experienced a fear memory reactivation prior to extinction training experienced the fear response again.
“Our research suggests that during the lifetime of a memory there are windows of opportunity where it becomes susceptible to be permanently changed,” Schiller says in a news release. “By understanding the dynamics of memory we might, in the long run, open new avenues for treatment of disorders that involve abnormal emotional memories.”
“Timing may have a more important role in the control of fear than previously appreciated,” Phelps says in a news release. “Our memory reflects our last retrieval of it rather than an exact account of the original event.”
The authors say the experiments represent the first time a fear memory has been blocked in humans with a behavioral manipulation.
Thomas R. Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, says the study holds “promise for being translated into improved therapies for the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.”
Other researchers included Joseph E. LeDoux, PhD, of the University of Texas. LeDoux and a team of researchers conducted similar experiments on rats earlier this year, producing similar results.
Drug-Free Method of Blocking Fear Memories
Behavioral Technique Can Reshape Fearful Memories
Timing Is Critical continued...
Those who had undergone extinction training within a six-hour window were largely spared significant effects, the authors say.
People whose training had been delayed six hours or who hadn’t experienced a fear memory reactivation prior to extinction training experienced the fear response again.
“Our research suggests that during the lifetime of a memory there are windows of opportunity where it becomes susceptible to be permanently changed,” Schiller says in a news release. “By understanding the dynamics of memory we might, in the long run, open new avenues for treatment of disorders that involve abnormal emotional memories.”
“Timing may have a more important role in the control of fear than previously appreciated,” Phelps says in a news release. “Our memory reflects our last retrieval of it rather than an exact account of the original event.”
New Treatment for Fear Memories?
The authors say the experiments represent the first time a fear memory has been blocked in humans with a behavioral manipulation.
Thomas R. Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, says the study holds “promise for being translated into improved therapies for the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.”
Other researchers included Joseph E. LeDoux, PhD, of the University of Texas. LeDoux and a team of researchers conducted similar experiments on rats earlier this year, producing similar results.
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