Sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation within multiple memory systems including contextual fear extinction memory, but little is known about the mechanisms that underlie this process. Here, we show that fear extinction training in rats, which extinguished conditioned fear, increased both slow-wave sleep and rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep. Surprisingly, 24 h later, during memory t...

Fear of progression (or fear of recurrence) is an appropriate, rational response to the real threat of cancer and cancer treatments. However, elevated levels of fear of progression can become dysfunctional, affecting well-being, quality of life, and social functioning. Research has shown that fear of progression is one of the most frequent distress symptoms of patients with cancer and with othe...

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence and level of dental fear among health related undergraduates and to identify factors causing such fear using Kleinknecht's Dental Fear Survey (DFS) questionnaire. METHODS Kleinknecht's DFS questionnaire was used to assess dental fear and anxiety among the entire enrollment of the medical and dental undergraduates' of the University of Malaya. RESULTS Overa...

Anxiety and trauma-related disorders are psychiatric diseases with a lifetime prevalence of up to 25%. Phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are characterized by abnormal and persistent memories of fear-related contexts and cues. The effects of psychological treatments such as exposure therapy are often only temporary and medications can be ineffective and have adverse side effects....

In classical Pavlovian fear conditioning, a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) comes to be evaluated as threatening due to its association with an aversive stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, UCS), and elicits fear. In a subtype of fear conditioning paradigms, called instructed fear or anticipatory anxiety, subjects are made aware of the CS-UCS association prior to actually experiencing ...

Fear generalization is a symptom of anxiety-related disorders, including acute stress disorder and post-traumatic disorder. Using contextual fear conditioning paradigm, we found that mice exposed to similar neutral context but not different soon after training showed immediately memory consolidation (i.e., 6 h training). This was reflected by change only in the total amount also pattern freezin...

The amygdala is fundamental for associative fear and extinction learning. Recently, also the central nucleus of the amygdala (CEA) has emerged as a site of plasticity actively controlling efferent connections to downstream effector brain areas. Although synaptic transmission is primarily mediated by glutamate and GABA, neuropeptides critically influence the overall response. While neuropeptide ...