Promoting long-term inhibition of human fear responses by non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation during extinction training.
Adolescent
Adult
Amygdala
/ physiology
Conditioning, Classical
/ physiology
Extinction, Psychological
/ physiology
Fear
/ physiology
Female
Humans
Inhibition, Psychological
Male
Memory
/ physiology
Prefrontal Cortex
/ physiology
Reflex, Startle
/ physiology
Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation
/ methods
Vagus Nerve
/ metabolism
Vagus Nerve Stimulation
/ methods
Young Adult
Journal
Scientific reports
ISSN: 2045-2322
Titre abrégé: Sci Rep
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101563288
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
30 01 2020
30 01 2020
Historique:
received:
08
10
2019
accepted:
15
01
2020
entrez:
1
2
2020
pubmed:
1
2
2020
medline:
11
11
2020
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Inhibiting fear-related thoughts and defensive behaviors when they are no longer appropriate to the situation is a prerequisite for flexible and adaptive responding to changing environments. Such inhibition of defensive systems is mediated by ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), limbic basolateral amygdala (BLA), and brain stem locus-coeruleus noradrenergic system (LC-NAs). Non-invasive, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) has shown to activate this circuit. Using a multiple-day single-cue fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, we investigated long-term effects of tVNS on inhibition of low-level amygdala modulated fear potentiated startle and cognitive risk assessments. We found that administration of tVNS during extinction training facilitated inhibition of fear potentiated startle responses and cognitive risk assessments, resulting in facilitated formation, consolidation and long-term recall of extinction memory, and prevention of the return of fear. These findings might indicate new ways to increase the efficacy of exposure-based treatments of anxiety disorders.
Identifiants
pubmed: 32001763
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58412-w
pii: 10.1038/s41598-020-58412-w
pmc: PMC6992620
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
1529Références
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