RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Context-Dependent Human Extinction Memory Is Mediated by a Ventromedial Prefrontal and Hippocampal Network
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 9503
OP 9511
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2021-06.2006
VO 26
IS 37
A1 Raffael Kalisch
A1 Elian Korenfeld
A1 Klaas E. Stephan
A1 Nikolaus Weiskopf
A1 Ben Seymour
A1 Raymond J. Dolan
YR 2006
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/37/9503.abstract
AB In fear extinction, an animal learns that a conditioned stimulus (CS) no longer predicts a noxious stimulus [unconditioned stimulus (UCS)] to which it had previously been associated, leading to inhibition of the conditioned response (CR). Extinction creates a new CS–noUCS memory trace, competing with the initial fear (CS–UCS) memory. Recall of extinction memory and, hence, CR inhibition at later CS encounters is facilitated by contextual stimuli present during extinction training. In line with theoretical predictions derived from animal studies, we show that, after extinction, a CS-evoked engagement of human ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and hippocampus is context dependent, being expressed in an extinction, but not a conditioning, context. Likewise, a positive correlation between VMPFC and hippocampal activity is extinction context dependent. Thus, a VMPFC–hippocampal network provides for context-dependent recall of human extinction memory, consistent with a view that hippocampus confers context dependence on VMPFC.