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Authors & Affiliations
Andrea Pejin, Lívia Barcsai, Nóra Forgó, Rodrigo Sierra, Lizeth Pedraza, Olivér Nagy, Magor L. Lőrincz, Antal Berényi
Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder affects millions worldwide, with low therapeutic success. Research confirms the involvement of memory processes in pathological and persistent traumatic memories that are difficult to overwrite. Previously, in an animal model, we demonstrated that the extinction can be expedited by closed-loop (CL) stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) triggered by sharp-wave ripple (SWR) patterns. Similarly, stimulation of the infralimbic cortex (IL) timed to SWR also maintained a low level of fear response over the long term.We aimed to investigate if the manipulation of memory consolidation-associated oscillations affects long-term fear extinction. Additionally, facilitating clinical translation, we examined non-invasively detectable cortical oscillations, such as sleep spindles, as potential biomarkers triggering the CL stimulation. Wistar rats with implanted electrodes underwent fear conditioning, followed by a 3-day extinction phase with MFB or IL stimulation and sleep spindle detection for 3 hours daily. The fear response was retested the following day, and the test was repeated 28 days later in the same context. Animals receiving MFB CL stimulation showed reduced expression of fear over the long term compared to the non-stimulated and open-loop stimulation groups. Preliminary results of IL CL stimulation also indicate a similar trend in the expression of long-term fear response. Our findings suggest that sleep spindle-based CL stimulation may have a potential impact on modulating the pathological consolidation of fear memories, opening new potential avenues for non-invasive stimulation-based therapeutic.