Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25636175›Full record

ArticleBiological psychiatry2015

Novelty-facilitated extinction: providing a novel outcome in place of an expected threat diminishes recovery of defensive responses.

Joseph E Dunsmoor, Vinn D Campese, Ahmet O Ceceli, Joseph E LeDoux, Elizabeth A Phelps

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biological psychiatry, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
55citing papers in PubMed
3.9field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

55 citing papers in PubMed, 169 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Role of Human Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Learning and Recall of Enhanced Extinction.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2019
    Trial
  3. Multiple-context extinction strengthens fear suppression through hippocampal dopamine D2R-dependent memory updating.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026
    Article
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  20. Rewarded Extinction Increases Amygdalar Connectivity and Stabilizes Long-Term Memory Traces in the vmPFC.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Joseph E DunsmoorPsychology Department and Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York.
Vinn D CampesePsychology Department and Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York.
Ahmet O CeceliPsychology Department and Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York.
Joseph E LeDouxPsychology Department and Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York; Emotional Brain Institute, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York.
Elizabeth A PhelpsPsychology Department and Center for Neural Sciences, New York University, New York; Emotional Brain Institute, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York. Electronic address: liz.phelps@nyu.edu.
New York University · USNathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research · US

Funding

Training Systems and Integrative NeuroscienceT32MH019524 · NIMH · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · PI KIORPES, LYNNE · 1992 to 2025
$5.2M
NEURAL PATHWAYS UNDERLYING EMOTIONAL CONDITIONINGR01MH038774 · NIMH · WEILL MEDICAL COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · PI LEDOUX, JOSEPH E · 1985 to 2019
$3.8M
NEURAL PATHWAYS UNDERLYING EMOTIONAL CONDITIONINGR37MH038774 · NIMH · WEILL MEDICAL COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV · PI LEDOUX, JOSEPH E · 1988 to 2007
$2.9M
Preventing the return of fear in humans: Reconsolidation and controlR01MH097085 · NIMH · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY · PI PHELPS, ELIZABETH ANYA · 2012 to 2016
$1.9M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH038774NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH097085NIMH NIH HHS R37 MH038774NIMH NIH HHS T32 MH019524PHS HHS M0H38774
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundExperimental extinction serves as a model for psychiatric treatments based on associative learning. However, the effects of extinction are often transient, as evidenced by postextinction return of defensive behaviors. From a therapeutic perspective, an inherent problem with extinction may be that mere omission of threat is not sufficient to reduce future threat uncertainty. The current study tested an augmented form of extinction that replaced, rather than merely omitted, expected threat outcomes with novel nonthreat outcomes, with the goal of reducing postextinction return of defensive behaviors.

methodsThirty-two healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats and 47 human adults underwent threat conditioning to a conditioned stimulus paired with an electrical shock. Subjects then underwent a standard extinction protocol with shock omitted or an augmented extinction protocol wherein the shock was replaced by a surprising tone. Tests of postextinction recovery occurred 24 hours later in the absence of the tone.

resultsReplacing the shock with a novel nonthreat outcome, as compared with shock omission, reduced postextinction recovery (freezing in rats and anticipatory skin conductance responses in humans) when tested 24 hours later. Self-reported intolerance of uncertainty was positively correlated with recovery following standard extinction in humans, providing new evidence that postextinction recovery is related to sensitivity to future threat uncertainty.

conclusionsThese findings provide cross-species evidence of a novel strategy to enhance extinction that may have broad implications for how to override associative learning that has become maladaptive and offer a simple technique that could be straightforwardly adapted and implemented in clinical situations.

Indexed as

AdolescentAdultAnimalsAnxietyBehavior, AnimalConditioning, ClassicalExtinction, PsychologicalFearFemaleGalvanic Skin ResponseHumansMaleRatsRats, Sprague-DawleyYoung AdultAnxietyArousalElectrodermalFearPavlovianRegulation

Identifiers

PMID25636175
PMCPMC4469636
OpenAlexW1971561742

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.