WipeOutFear: How the brain learns to forget - The Neural Signature of Fear Memory Erasure (WipeOutFear)

Can fear memories be erased from the brain? While it sounds like science fiction, recent findings suggest that fear memories can be undone upon their retrieval, through either pharmacological or behavioural interventions. However, to open up a memory trace for such interference, it is important that retrieval of the memory is accompanied by surprise or prediction error (PE; a discrepancy between the memory and what actually happens) (Sevenster, Beckers, & Kindt, Science, 2013). Whether such reconsolidation interference techniques genuinely result in permanent erasure of memory rather than mere retrieval impairment of an otherwise intact fear memory is a topic of considerable controversy. We will shed light on this debate and on the role of prediction error in inducing reconsolidation of emotional memory using a combination of behavioural and neurobiological techniques in humans and rodents.

Keywords:learning and memory, fear conditioning, brain, fear memory, forgetting, memory reconsolidation

Disciplines:Animal experimental and comparative psychology, Applied psychology, Human experimental psychology