Publicaties
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Persistent remembering and directed forgetting: Appraising emotional memory attenuation techniques KU Leuven
The permanent nature of memory has been a long-held axiom; under this axiom, memories were regarded as set entities that were invulnerable to disruption after a certain period of stabilization, referred to as consolidation, had passed. Challenging this view of memory, recent (and not-so-recent) empirical evidence suggests that under certain conditions, a previously consolidated memory trace can become active again and susceptible to modification ...
No persistent attenuation of fear memories in humans: A registered replication of the reactivation-extinction effect KU Leuven
It has been proposed that memory retrieval can destabilize consolidated memories, after which they need to be reconsolidated in order to be retained. The presentation of relevant information during memory reconsolidation could then result in the modification of a destabilized memory trace, by allowing the memory trace to be updated before being reconsolidated. In line with this idea, Schiller et al. (2010) have demonstrated that memory retrieval ...
Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms: A verification report of Schiller et al. (2010) KU Leuven
In a highly influential report, Schiller et al. (2010) demonstrated long-lasting fear reduction in humans when conducting extinction training shortly following fear memory reactivation. While trying to experimentally replicate the critical conditions of Schiller et al. (2010, Experiment 1), we discovered several irregularities in their paper. Criteria for participant exclusion and the number of excluded participants were misreported; qualitative ...
Navigating the garden of forking paths for data exclusions in fear conditioning research KU Leuven
In this report, we illustrate the considerable impact of researcher degrees of freedom with respect to exclusion of participants in paradigms with a learning element. We illustrate this empirically through case examples from human fear conditioning research, in which the exclusion of 'non-learners' and 'non-responders' is common - despite a lack of consensus on how to define these groups. We illustrate the substantial heterogeneity in exclusion ...
Interfering with emotional processing resources upon associative threat memory reactivation does not affect memory retention KU Leuven
Ample evidence suggests that memories enter a labile state upon retrieval, requiring reconsolidation processes in order to be retained. During this period of instability, various interventions can be applied to modify problematic memories. A novel behavioral intervention was designed, aimed at disrupting amygdala-based cognitive processing following the retrieval of a conditioned threat memory, in order to prevent its reconsolidation. We ...
Acute but not Permanent Effects of Propranolol on Fear Memory Expression in Humans KU Leuven
Experimental evidence in humans and non-human animals suggests that the administration of propranolol shortly after the retrieval of an emotional memory can lead to an attenuation of its later expression, a phenomenon known as post-reactivation amnesia. Using more potent amnestic drugs, post-reactivation amnesia has been shown in animals to be reversible by re-administration of the drug prior to memory retention testing. The latter finding ...