Combining D-cycloserine with appetitive extinction learning modulates amygdala activity during recall

Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
Claudia EbrahimiFlorian Schlagenhauf

Abstract

Appetitive Pavlovian conditioning plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of drug addiction and conditioned reward cues can trigger craving and relapse even after long phases of abstinence. Promising preclinical work showed that the NMDA-receptor partial agonist D-cycloserine (DCS) facilitates Pavlovian extinction learning of fear and drug cues. Furthermore, DCS-augmented exposure therapy seems to be beneficial in various anxiety disorders, while the supposed working mechanism of DCS during human appetitive or aversive extinction learning is still not confirmed. To test the hypothesis that DCS administration before extinction training improves extinction learning, healthy adults (n=32) underwent conditioning, extinction, and extinction recall on three successive days in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled fMRI design. Monetary wins and losses served as unconditioned stimuli during conditioning to probe appetitive and aversive learning. An oral dose of 50mg of DCS or placebo was administered 1h before extinction training and DCS effects during extinction recall were evaluated on a behavioral and neuronal level. We found attenuated amygdala activation in the DCS compared to the placebo group during recall of the extin...Continue Reading

References

Jun 5, 2015·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Marta Andreatta, Paul Pauli

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Citations

Jun 15, 2017·International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology·Karolien van den AkkerAnita Jansen
Aug 20, 2019·Psychophysiology·Charlotte PietrockFlorian Schlagenhauf
Jan 8, 2020·Human Brain Mapping·Onno KruseTim Klucken
Oct 22, 2019·Neuropsychopharmacology : Official Publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology·Claudia EbrahimiAndreas Ströhle
May 23, 2019·Translational Psychiatry·Claudia EbrahimiFlorian Schlagenhauf
Feb 23, 2020·Scientific Reports·Wataru SatoSakiko Yoshikawa
Nov 8, 2018·Psychopharmacology·Anna B Konova, Rita Z Goldstein

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