ArticleNeurobiology of learning and memory2017
A preregistered, direct replication attempt of the retrieval-extinction effect in cued fear conditioning in rats.
Article in Neurobiology of learning and memory, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- The Use of Behavioral Reconsolidation Interference in Depressive Disorders. A Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Experimental Registered Report.Psychophysiology · 2026Trial
- Restoring prefrontal function with dopaminergic enhancement of memory updating in addiction.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Memory erasure by dopamine-gated retrospective learning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Not the same as it ever was: A review of memory modification, updating, and distortion in humans and rodents.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2025Review
- Mechanisms of Change in Exposure Therapy for Anxiety and Related Disorders: A Research Agenda.Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Article
- New Approaches for Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment via Memory Retrieval and Reconsolidation Manipulations.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Fear attenuation collaborations to optimize translation.Behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Carbon Dioxide Reactivity Differentially Predicts Fear Expression After Extinction and Retrieval-Extinction in Rats.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2024Article
- Memory persistence: from fundamental mechanisms to translational opportunities.Translational psychiatry · 2024Review
- Appraising reconsolidation theory and its empirical validation.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2023Review
- Reconsolidation and Fear Extinction: An Update.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
- Memory retrieval, reconsolidation, and extinction: Exploring the boundary conditions of post-conditioning cue exposure.Frontiers in synaptic neuroscience · 2023Review
- Enhancing Psychological Interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatment with Memory Influencing Drugs.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Review
- Locus coeruleus input-modulated reactivation of dentate gyrus opioid-withdrawal engrams promotes extinction.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- The elegant complexity of fear in non-human animals.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2022Article
- Prevention of the return of extinguished fear by disrupting the interaction of neuronal nitric oxide synthase with its carboxy-terminal PDZ ligand.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Article
- Using Extinction-Renewal to Circumvent the Memory Strength Boundary Condition in Fear Memory Reconsolidation.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Targeting the Reconsolidation of Licit Drug Memories to Prevent Relapse: Focus on Alcohol and Nicotine.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Identification of the Similarities and Differences of Molecular Networks Associated With Fear Memory Formation, Extinction, and Updating in the Amygdala.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In 2009, Monfils and colleagues proposed a behavioral procedure that was said to result in a permanent attenuation of a previously established fear memory, thereby precluding a possible return of fear after extinction (Monfils, Cowansage, Klann, & LeDoux, 2009). By presenting a single retrieval trial one hour before standard extinction training, they found an enduring reduction of fear. The retrieval-extinction procedure holds great clinical potential, particularly for anxiety patients, but the findings are not undisputed, and several conceptual replications have failed to reproduce the effect. These failures have largely been attributed to small procedural differences. This preregistered study is the first endeavor to exactly replicate three key experiments of the original report by Monfils et al. (2009), thereby gauging the robustness of their seminal findings. Despite adhering to the original procedures as closely as possible, we did not find any evidence for reduced return of fear with the retrieval-extinction procedure relative to regular extinction training, as assessed through spontaneous recovery, reinstatement and renewal. Behavior of animals in the control condition (extinction only) was comparable to that in the original studies and provided an adequate baseline to reveal differences with the retrieval-extinction condition. Our null findings indicate that the effect sizes in the original paper may have been inflated and question the legitimacy of previously proposed moderators of the retrieval-extinction effect. We argue that direct experimental evaluation of purported moderators of the retrieval-extinction effect will be key to shed more light on its nature and prerequisites.
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Registered trials
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.