Topic: extinction

Learning static and dynamic mappings with local self-supervised plasticity

Animals exhibit remarkable learning capabilities with little direct supervision. Likewise, self-supervised learning is an emergent paradigm in artificial intelligence, closing the performance gap to supervised learning. In the context of biology, self-supervised learning corresponds to a setting where one sense or specific stimulus may serve as a supervisory signal for another. After learning, the latter can be used to predict the former. On the implementation level, it has been demonstrated that such predictive learning can occur at the single neuron level, in compartmentalized neurons that separate and associate information from different streams. We demonstrate the power such self-supervised learning over unsupervised (Hebb-like) learning rules, which depend heavily on stimulus statistics, in two examples: First, in the context of animal navigation where predictive learning can associate internal self-motion information always available to the animal with external visual landmark information, leading to accurate path-integration in the dark. We focus on the well-characterized fly head direction system and show that our setting learns a connectivity strikingly similar to the one reported in experiments. The mature network is a quasi-continuous attractor and reproduces key experiments in which optogenetic stimulation controls the internal representation of heading, and where the network remaps to integrate with different gains. Second, we show that incorporating global gating by reward prediction errors allows the same setting to learn conditioning at the neuronal level with mixed selectivity. At its core, conditioning entails associating a neural activity pattern induced by an unconditioned stimulus (US) with the pattern arising in response to a conditioned stimulus (CS). Solving the generic problem of pattern-to-pattern associations naturally leads to emergent cognitive phenomena like blocking, overshadowing, saliency effects, extinction, interstimulus interval effects etc. Surprisingly, we find that the same network offers a reductionist mechanism for causal inference by resolving the post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy.

Brain-body interactions that modulate fear

In most animals including in humans, emotions occur together with changes in the body, such as variations in breathing or heart rate, sweaty palms, or facial expressions. It has been suggested that this interoceptive information acts as a feedback signal to the brain, enabling adaptive modulation of emotions that is essential for survival. As such, fear, one of our basic emotions, must be kept in a functional balance to minimize risk-taking while allowing for the pursuit of essential needs. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this adaptive modulation of fear remain poorly understood. In this talk, I want to present and discuss the data from my PhD work where we uncover a crucial role for the interoceptive insular cortex in detecting changes in heart rate to maintain an equilibrium between the extinction and maintenance of fear memories in mice.

Amygdalar CB2 cannabinoid receptor mediates fear extinction deficits induced by Orexin-A

The Basal Forebrain as a mediator of Infralimbic-Amygdala communication in fear extinction

CACNAC 1C genetic model of psychosis IEG´s expression increases in the prefrontal cortex and amygdala after pavlovian appetitive extinction and renewal

Compulsive Sexual Behavior Disorder Impact On Striatum and Amygdala Functional Responses During Appetitive Conditioning and Extinction

Constitutive 5-HT2C receptor knock-out facilitates fear extinction through altered activity of a dorsal raphe–bed nucleus of the stria terminalis pathway

Disentangling the molecular mechanisms underlying the retrieval and extinction of morphine withdrawal-associated memories in the basolateral amygdala and dentate gyrus

Dysregulated midbrain dopamine prediction error signaling may underlie impaired fear extinction

The effect of the social isolation stress on fear extinction – the role of the dopaminergic and endogenous opioid neurotransmission

Effects of the activation of the noradrenergic system on reconsolidation, extinction, and subsequent reinstatement of conditioned memories associated with the administration of cocaine

Effects of a novel positive NMDA receptor modulator in a mouse model of impaired fear extinction

Exploring the role of calcineurin in the extinction of aversion

Extinction attenuates hyperalgesia during withdrawal from self-administered heroin: role of the PVT→NAc pathway

Fear extinction impairments and sleep abnormalities in rats selected for blunted glucocorticoid responsiveness

Individual differences in DNA methylation associated with sensitivity and resistance to the extinction of cocaine memories

Influence of neurogenic improvement strategies on extinction and reinstatement of cocaine-induced Conditioned Place Preference

Investigating the role of cerebellar endocannabinoids in conditioned fear extinction

Neurocircuitry of social fear extinction. Involvement of the septal oxytocin system?

Neurotrophin-3/TrkC contribution to fear extinction and regulation of glutamatergic synapses

Noradrenergic stimulation modulates extinction of conditioned memories induced by cocaine in mice

ERK phosphorylation in DG and NACC after morphine CPP extinction. Involvement of morphine encapsulation in liposomes

Repeated administration of N-acetylcysteine could reduce extinction-responding in the morphine conditioned rats

Sex-dependent effects of OXR1 blockade on acquisition, retention and extinction of active avoidance

Synchronization of a cerebello-thalamo-prefrontal pathway regulates fear extinction learning

Unique gene expression profiles in the extinction of cocaine and nicotine self-administration