ArticleNature2019
Neural circuits underlying a psychotherapeutic regimen for fear disorders.
Article in Nature, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 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
65 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 157 citations in OpenAlex.
- EMDR as Treatment Option for Conditions Other Than PTSD: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Dissociable Thalamocortical Circuit Disruptions During Contextual Fear Renewal in PTSD.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Circuit-informed modulation of traumatic memory in PTSD: integrating extinction, suppression, and reconsolidation.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- The Timing of Attentional Distraction Matters in Facilitating Extinction of Trace Fear Memory.Experimental neurobiology · 2026Article
- Article
- [Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) in pain therapy : Potentials, mechanisms and clinical applications for chronic pain with traumatic background].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Review
- How Fear Memory is Updated: From Reconsolidation to Extinction?Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Review
- A superior colliculus-originating circuit prevents cocaine reinstatement via VR-based eye movement desensitization treatment.National science review · 2025Article
- Eye movement patterns drive stress reduction during Japanese garden viewing.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- The Effect of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy on Reducing Craving in Populations with Substance Use Disorder: A Meta-Analysis.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- The Shield of Self-Esteem: Buffering against the Impact of Traumatic Experiences, Fear, Anxiety, and Depression.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The impact of trauma core dimensions on anxiety and depression: a latent regression model through the Post-Traumatic Symptom Questionnaire (PTSQ).Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Memory Trace for Fear Extinction: Fragile yet Reinforceable.Neuroscience bulletin · 2024Review
- Pilot Study on Classification of Sensory Symptoms in PTSD.Journal of child & adolescent trauma · 2024Article
- Hallucinating mice, psychotherapy in the brain, and computational psychiatry: the future of psychiatry is now.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2024Article
- Review
- Feasibility of Emotional Freedom Techniques in Patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: a pilot study.Journal of pharmacopuncture · 2024Article
- Novel Approaches for the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation Interventions and Insights from Clinical Trials.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- EMDR: dispelling the false memory creation myth in response to Otgaar et al. (2022a).Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A psychotherapeutic regimen that uses alternating bilateral sensory stimulation (ABS) has been used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the neural basis that underlies the long-lasting effect of this treatment-described as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing-has not been identified. Here we describe a neuronal pathway driven by the superior colliculus (SC) that mediates persistent attenuation of fear. We successfully induced a lasting reduction in fear in mice by pairing visual ABS with conditioned stimuli during fear extinction. Among the types of visual stimulation tested, ABS provided the strongest fear-reducing effect and yielded sustained increases in the activities of the SC and mediodorsal thalamus (MD). Optogenetic manipulation revealed that the SC-MD circuit was necessary and sufficient to prevent the return of fear. ABS suppressed the activity of fear-encoding cells and stabilized inhibitory neurotransmission in the basolateral amygdala through a feedforward inhibitory circuit from the MD. Together, these results reveal the neural circuit that underlies an effective strategy for sustainably attenuating traumatic memories.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.