Sevenster et al. (2013)

Prediction Error Governs Pharmacologically Induced Amnesia for Learned Fear

Science, 339(6121), 830-833

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Abstract

Overwriting Human Memory A consolidated fear memory can enter a transient labile phase upon its reactivation. Pharmacological blockade of the subsequent protein synthesis-dependent restabilization produces a memory deficit. Sevenster et al. (p. 830 ) found that prediction error (a discrepancy between actual and expected events) is a necessary condition for reconsolidation of a fear memory in human subjects. Retrieval cued by a negative prediction error, for example, like a conditioned stimulus presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, resulted in labilization and subsequent reconsolidation was blocked by the drug propranolol. However, if there was no prediction error because the conditioned stimulus and the aversive unconditioned stimulus were presented simultaneously, the memory did not enter a labile state and its reconsolidation could not be blocked.

Reference

Sevenster, D., Beckers, T., & Kindt, M. (2013). Prediction Error Governs Pharmacologically Induced Amnesia for Learned Fear. Science, 339(6121), 830-833. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1231357

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Reconsolidation Memory Processes

Definition

Retrieval alone is not sufficient: human fear-conditioning work shows that a prediction error, meaning a mismatch between what was expected and what happens at reactivation, is a necessary condition for the memory to destabilize