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Extinction is a process that diminishes the memory of a learned behaviour. This may occur by unlearning the original memory association that produces the behaviour or by learning a new association that inhibits it.
Remimazolam, an ultra-short-acting benzodiazepine, disrupts fear extinction by modulating the thalamic nucleus reuniens and hippocamposeptal circuits, complicating the use of benzodiazepines with exposure therapy.
Dopamine may help strengthen fear-inhibitory extinction memories through influences on the prefrontal cortex. Here, the authors replicate their previous finding that prefrontal reactivations are predictive of extinction memory retrieval but do not replicate the enhancing effects of L-DOPA.
Fear is actively maintained in balance in mice by the insular cortex, which gates extinction learning according to an animal’s fear level using interoceptive signals related to fear expression that are sent to the brain via the vagus nerve.
