How Administration of the Beta-Blocker Propranolol Before Extinction can Prevent the Return of Fear.

ABSTRACT: Combining beta-blockers with exposure therapy has been advocated to reduce fear, yet experimental studies combining beta-blockers with memory reactivation have had contradictory results. We explored how beta-blockade might affect the course of safety learning and the subsequent return of fear in a double-blind placebo-controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging study in humans (N=46). A single dose of propranolol before extinction learning caused a loss of conditioned fear responses, and prevented the subsequent return of fear and decreased explicit memory for the fearful events in the absence of drug. Fear-related neural responses were persistently attenuated in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), increased in the hippocampus 24 h later, and correlated with individual behavi

SUBMITTER: Kroes MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4820039 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature