Behavioral pattern separation is associated with neural and electrodermal correlates of context-dependent fear conditioning

Abstract

Hippocampus-dependent pattern separation is considered as a relevant factor for context discrimination and might therefore impact the contextual modulation of conditioned fear. However, the association between pattern separation and context-dependent fear conditioning has not been investigated so far. In the current study, 72 healthy female students completed the Mnemonic Similarity Task, a measure of behavioral pattern separation, in addition to a context-dependent fear conditioning paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The paradigm included fear acquisition in context A and extinction training in context B on a first day, as well as retrieval testing of the fear and extinction memories in the safe context B (extinction recall) and a novel context C (fear renewal) one day later. Main outcome measures comprised skin conductance responses (SCRs) and blood oxygen level-dependent responses in brain regions of the fear and extinction circuit. Regarding retrieval testing, pattern separation did not correlate with extinction recall, but with stronger dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activation and conditioned SCRs (trend) during fear renewal, indicating a stronger retrieval of the fear memory trace. Our findings suggest that behavioral pattern separation ability seems to be important for context-dependent fear modulation, which is impaired in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Event segmentation promotes the reorganization of emotional memory

“…For instance, modifying the memory of an object that shifts from safe to harmful supports appropriate defensive responses, while failing to adjust may reflect a cognitive inflexibility or an overemphasis on original threat cues, hindering the adoption of new, safe associations. The concept of mnemonic discrimination is relatively new in the context of fear and anxiety, with few studies directly exploring its role in associative learning (Laing & Dunsmoor, 2023;Lange et al, 2017;Neudert et al, 2023;Starita et al, 2019). Further work could explore how emotional memories can be stabilized, allowing them to be sufficiently generalizable for adaptive behavior while remaining specific enough to not disrupt safety learning.…”

Pattern separation of fear extinction memory

“…On the other hand, encountering stimuli that partially resemble extinguished stimuli evokes the distinction of this new item from the precise stimuli used in extinction training, preventing the underlying associative structure from activation and thereby disrupting the expression of safety-related behaviors (fear–inhibition or positive affect) ( Laing et al 2021 , 2022a ). Further studies will be needed to examine how pattern separation of extinction memory is affected across development and in clinical populations ( Lange et al 2017 ; Bernstein and McNally 2018 ; Bernstein et al 2020 ; Neudert et al 2023 ), possibly contributing to postextinction relapse of conditioned behavior.…”