A Stusy of TMS For Extinction about Early Traumatic Memory Description

Individuals will experience strong traumatic memories after traumatic events such as earthquakes, car accidents, or loss of loved ones, the most common of which is fear memory. In this experiment, a multi-sensory compound stimulation model (electric stimulation + picture) was used as the conditional stimulus, and the skin electrical response was used as the index of fear response. The effect of retrieval-extinction paradigm on the conditional fear extinction was tested. In addition, high-frequency rTMS was introduced as a treatment.To explore the therapeutic effect of TMS on conditional fear, with the aim of providing new measures for the treatment of PTSD.

A Unique Safety Signal: Social-Support Figures Enhance Rather Than Protect From Fear Extinction

Following treatment of fear-related disorders, return of fear remains a common occurrence. Currently, the presence of safety signals during treatment procedures is considered harmful, yet recent findings have demonstrated that certain safety signals (social-support figures) lead to enhanced fear extinction and thus might reduce return of fear. Here, we tested the effect of social-support-figure (vs. stranger) images on fear extinction outcomes. We found that, for conditional fear stimuli paired with social-support-figure images during extinction, return of fear was inhibited both immediately after extinction and during a fear reinstatement test 24 hr later; however, return of fear occurred for conditional stimuli paired with images of strangers. These findings suggest that social-support stimuli have unique safety-signaling properties that might enhance fear extinction and improve treatment outcomes for individuals with fear-related disorders.