A novel method to enhance the retention and generalization of extinction memory in humans

Abstract

The extinction memory is often at a disadvantage in the competition with the fear memory, which leads to high relapse rate in the intervention of some anxiety disorders. Yet, less is known about the mechanism that fear memory is easier to retain for a long time and easier to generalize to other similar stimuli or contexts than extinction memory. We compared the effects of the traditional extinction protocol (TE-group) and the novel extinction protocol that have a pre-exposure of elements of CS+ prior to extinction training (PECS-group) on enhancing the retention and generalization of extinction memory. The results showed that the second group was able to effectively prevent recurrence compared to the traditional extinction procedure, and could generalize the extinction memory to other stimuli similar to CS+ . These results provide a new approach to improve the traditional exposure therapy and a possible explanation for why fear memory is easier to retain and generalize than extinction memory.