RESEARCH ARTICLE
Extinction Delay and Reinstated Fear Generalization
Edward J. Callen1, *, Collytte Medders1, Lauren Best1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 15
E-location ID: e187435012207131
Publisher ID: e187435012207131
DOI: 10.2174/18743501-v15-e2207131
Article History:
Received Date: 7/3/2022Revision Received Date: 10/5/2022
Acceptance Date: 27/5/2022
Electronic publication date: 23/09/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
After classical conditioning and extinction of fear, presentation of an unconditioned stimulus can produce a re-emergence of the extinguished fear response, a reinstatement effect. Previous research has reported that reinstatement of fear of contextual cues after a post-extinction delay could generalize over time to similar contexts.
Objective:
Two experiments were designed to investigate reinstated fear to a discrete stimulus with either a post-reinstatement delay (Experiment 1) or a post-extinction delay (Experiment 2).
Methods:
In Experiment 1 rat subjects were randomly assigned to four groups which received fear conditioning and extinction with a 3000 Hz tone CS. Reinstatement conditioning was then conducted with either the same or different CS, and testing for reinstated fear with the original CS was conducted after either a short or long delay following reinstatement. In Experiment 2 all procedures were the same except the long or short delay employed was between extinction and reinstatement instead of after reinstatement.
Results:
Reinstated fear increased with time to the same CS, and an increase in generalization of reinstated fear over time was observed with a different reinstatement CS (Experiment 1). When the delay employed was between extinction and reinstatement no increase in fear generalization was observed (Experiment 2).
Conclusion:
The results indicated support for the notion that reinstated fear to a discrete stimulus may generalize over time, but that generalization only takes place when reinstatement is administered a short interval after extinction. The results have implications for clinical behavior therapy treatments of anxiety disorders.
