An Attempt at Translating Novelty-enhanced Extinction of Context Conditioning From Rodents to Humans

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Healthy
• Interventions: Behavioral: Novel Exploration; Behavioral: Threat conditioning; Behavioral: Extinction; Behavioral: Reinstatement; Behavioral: Visual attention control task

• Registration Number: NCT05150951
• Lead Sponsor: Uppsala University

Brief Summary

In rodents, novel exploration has been used to strengthen the consolidation of a variety of hippocampal-dependent learning tasks. To our knowledge, no attempt have been made to translate the effect of strengthening the memory of an extinction of a context conditioning memory. This study uses virtual reality for both context conditioning and novel exploration in an attempt at translating these findings from rodents to humans, thus, using novel exploration to strengthen an extinction memory. Threat responses are measured with skin conductance and startle responses. If this effect could be shown experimentally in humans, that experimental setup could become an important tool in understanding important memory processes of fear, such as reconsolidation and behavioral tagging.

Detailed Description

The study employs healthy participants and includes three experimental sessions, roughly 24 h apart. During the first session, participants undergo context conditioning in virtual reality where the CS+ and CS- are two different rooms. During the second session, half of the participants perform an exploration of a novel virtual environment, and the other half performs a visual attention task. About 60 min later, participants undergo extinction to the context conditioning performed in session 1, again in virtual reality. In session 3, remaining threat responses are measured through a reinstatement procedure, again in virtual reality.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2021-11-06
• Study Start: 2021-11-15
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-11-26
• Study First Posted: 2021-12-09
• Primary Completion: 2022-05-01
• Study Completion: 2022-05-01
• Status Verified: 2022-06
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-06-09
• Last Update Posted: 2022-06-10

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 60

Inclusion Criteria

• Willing and able to provide informed consent and complete study procedures

Exclusion Criteria

• Current psychiatric disorder.
• Current use of psychotropic medication
• Current use of neurological conditions

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Experimental group	Novel Exploration	Novel exploration is used before extinction in an attempt to strengthen the extinction consolidation.
Control group	Threat conditioning	Participants perform a control task (visual attention) instead of the novel exploration.
Experimental group	Extinction	Novel exploration is used before extinction in an attempt to strengthen the extinction consolidation.
Control group	Extinction	Participants perform a control task (visual attention) instead of the novel exploration.
Control group	Reinstatement	Participants perform a control task (visual attention) instead of the novel exploration.
Experimental group	Threat conditioning	Novel exploration is used before extinction in an attempt to strengthen the extinction consolidation.
Control group	Visual attention control task	Participants perform a control task (visual attention) instead of the novel exploration.
Experimental group	Reinstatement	Novel exploration is used before extinction in an attempt to strengthen the extinction consolidation.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Physiological arousal response during reinstatement.	Day 3	Startle responses and skin conductance responses are used as measures of physiological arousal response.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Subjective fear ratings	Day 1, 2 & 3.	Subjective ratings of fear (0-100) where 0 is no fear and 100 is worst imaginable fear.
Subjective discomfort ratings	Day 1, 2 & 3	Subjective ratings of discomfort where 0 is no discomfort and 100 is worst imaginable discomfort.
Physiological arousal response during threat conditioning	Day 1	Startle responses and skin conductance responses are used as measures of physiological arousal response
Physiological arousal response during extinction	Day 2	Startle responses and skin conductance responses are used as measures of physiological arousal response

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Uppsala University, deparmtent of Psychology; 🇸🇪 Uppsala, Sweden