title: Disruption of reconsolidation erases a fear memory trace in the human amygdala.
abstract: Memories become labile when recalled. In humans and rodents alike, reactivated fear memories can be attenuated by disrupting reconsolidation with extinction training. Using functional brain imaging, we found that, after a conditioned fear memory was formed, reactivation and reconsolidation left a memory trace in the basolateral amygdala that predicted subsequent fear expression and was tightly coupled to activity in the fear circuit of the brain. In contrast, reactivation followed by disrupted reconsolidation suppressed fear, abolished the memory trace, and attenuated fear-circuit connectivity. Thus, as previously demonstrated in rodents, fear memory suppression resulting from behavioral disruption of reconsolidation is amygdala-dependent also in humans, which supports an evolutionarily conserved memory-update mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, SE-751 42 Uppsala, Sweden. thomas.agren@psyk.uu.se
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Agren
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Engman
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frick
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Björkstrand
authors.forename: Elna-Marie
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Furmark
authors.forename: Mats
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fredrikson
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D003463:Cues; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D059906:Neuroimaging; D055815:Young Adult