The right hippocampus (shown in the blue box) was one of the brain regions that showed significant changes in activity after fear memory reactivation during sleep. Credit: Dr. Katherina K. Hauner
A fear memory was reduced in people by exposing them to the memory over and over again while they slept. It's the first time that emotional memory has been manipulated in humans during sleep, report Northwestern Medicine scientists.
The finding potentially offers a new way to enhance the typical daytime treatment of phobias through exposure therapy by adding a nighttime component. Exposure therapy is a common treatment for phobia and involves a gradual exposure to the feared object or situation until the fear is extinguished.
"It's a novel finding," said Katherina Hauner, a postdoctoral fellow in neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We showed a small but significant decrease in fear. If it can be extended to pre-existing fear, the bigger picture is that, perhaps, the treatment of phobias can be enhanced during sleep."
Hauner did the research in the lab of Jay Gottfried, associate professor of neurology at Feinberg and senior author of the paper.
The study will be published Sept. 22 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Previous projects have shown that spatial learning and motor sequence learning can be enhanced during sleep. It wasn't previously known that emotions could be manipulated during sleep, Northwestern investigators said.
In the study, 15 healthy human subjects received mild electric shocks while seeing two different faces. They also smelled a specific odorant while viewing each face and being shocked, so the face and the odorant both were associated with fear. Subjects received different odorants to smell with each face such as woody, clove, new sneaker, lemon or mint.
Then, when a subject was asleep, one of the two odorants was re-presented, but in the absence of the associated faces and shocks. This occurred during slow wave sleep when memory consolidation is thought to occur. Sleep is very important for strengthening new memories, noted Hauner, also a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
"While this particular odorant was being presented during sleep, it was reactivating the memory of that face over and over again which is similar to the process of fear extinction during exposure therapy," Hauner said.
When the subjects woke up, they were exposed to both faces. When they saw the face linked to the smell they had been exposed to during sleep, their fear reactions were lower than their fear reactions to the other face.
Fear was measured in two ways: through small amounts of sweat in the skin, similar to a lie detector test, and through neuroimaging with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The fMRI results showed changes in regions associated with memory, such as the hippocampus, and changes in patterns of brain activity in regions associated with emotion, such as the amygdala. These brain changes reflected a decrease in reactivity that was specific to the targeted face image associated with the odorant presented during sleep.
Explore further: Diminishing fear vicariously by watching others
Medical Xpress on facebook
Related Stories
Diminishing fear vicariously by watching others
Sep 16, 2013
Phobias—whether it's fear of spiders, clowns, or small spaces—are common and can be difficult to treat. New research suggests that watching someone else safely interact with the supposedly harmful object can help to extinguish ...
People with spider phobia handle tarantulas, have lasting changes in brain after short therapy
May 21, 2012
A single brief therapy session for adults with a lifelong debilitating spider phobia resulted in lasting changes to the brain's response to fear.
Study reveals potential target to better treat, cure anxiety disorders
Mar 05, 2013
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have, for the first time, identified a specific group of cells in the brainstem whose activation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is critical for the regulation ...
Changes in patterns of brain activity predict fear memory formation
Mar 04, 2013
Psychologists at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have discovered that changes in patterns of brain activity during fearful experiences predict whether a long-term fear memory is formed. The research results have recently ...
Study indicates visual adaptation enhanced by sleep and may be tied to memory
Aug 28, 2013
(Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers at University College in London has conducted a study that suggests that visual adaptation is enhanced by sleep and might also be tied to memory. In their paper published ...
Recommended for you
Covert operations: Your brain digitally remastered for clarity of thought
Sep 20, 2013
The sweep of a needle across the grooves of a worn vinyl record carries distinct sounds: hisses, scratches, even the echo of skips. For many years, though, those yearning to hear Frank Sinatra sing "Fly Me ...
Building the best brain: Researchers show how brain cell connections get cemented early in life
Sep 20, 2013
When we're born, our brains aren't very organized. Every brain cell talks to lots of other nearby cells, sending and receiving signals across connections called synapses.
New insights into control of neuronal circuitry could lead to treatments for an inherited motor disorder
Sep 20, 2013
The cerebellum is a region of the brain critical for balance, learning of motor skills and coordination of movements. In the outer layer of the cerebellum, individual 'Purkinje' cells integrate inputs from ...
Neuronal activity in the visual cortex controlled by both where the eyes are looking and what they see
Sep 20, 2013
Even though our eyes are constantly moving, the brain perceives the external world as stationary—a feat achieved by integrating images acquired by the retina with information about the direction of the ...
Competing impairment of neurons governs pathology of a severe form of epilepsy
Sep 20, 2013
Dravet syndrome is a rare and severe form of epilepsy caused primarily by inherited loss-of-function mutations in a gene called SCN1A. This gene encodes a sodium ion channel known as Nav1.1 and is required ...
Cognitive rehabilitation improves brain function in cancer survivors
Sep 20, 2013
Cancer survivors who experience memory and thinking problems may benefit from cognitive rehabilitation, according to a new study led by Monique Cherrier, a UW associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral ...
User comments
© Medical Xpress 2011-2013, Phys.org network
The right hippocampus (shown in the blue box) was one of the brain regions that showed significant changes in activity after fear memory reactivation during sleep. Credit: Dr. Katherina K. Hauner
A fear memory was reduced in people by exposing them to the memory over and over again while they slept. It's the first time that emotional memory has been manipulated in humans during sleep, report Northwestern Medicine scientists.
The finding potentially offers a new way to enhance the typical daytime treatment of phobias through exposure therapy by adding a nighttime component. Exposure therapy is a common treatment for phobia and involves a gradual exposure to the feared object or situation until the fear is extinguished.
"It's a novel finding," said Katherina Hauner, a postdoctoral fellow in neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We showed a small but significant decrease in fear. If it can be extended to pre-existing fear, the bigger picture is that, perhaps, the treatment of phobias can be enhanced during sleep."
Hauner did the research in the lab of Jay Gottfried, associate professor of neurology at Feinberg and senior author of the paper.
The study will be published Sept. 22 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Previous projects have shown that spatial learning and motor sequence learning can be enhanced during sleep. It wasn't previously known that emotions could be manipulated during sleep, Northwestern investigators said.
In the study, 15 healthy human subjects received mild electric shocks while seeing two different faces. They also smelled a specific odorant while viewing each face and being shocked, so the face and the odorant both were associated with fear. Subjects received different odorants to smell with each face such as woody, clove, new sneaker, lemon or mint.
Then, when a subject was asleep, one of the two odorants was re-presented, but in the absence of the associated faces and shocks. This occurred during slow wave sleep when memory consolidation is thought to occur. Sleep is very important for strengthening new memories, noted Hauner, also a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.
"While this particular odorant was being presented during sleep, it was reactivating the memory of that face over and over again which is similar to the process of fear extinction during exposure therapy," Hauner said.
When the subjects woke up, they were exposed to both faces. When they saw the face linked to the smell they had been exposed to during sleep, their fear reactions were lower than their fear reactions to the other face.
Fear was measured in two ways: through small amounts of sweat in the skin, similar to a lie detector test, and through neuroimaging with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). The fMRI results showed changes in regions associated with memory, such as the hippocampus, and changes in patterns of brain activity in regions associated with emotion, such as the amygdala. These brain changes reflected a decrease in reactivity that was specific to the targeted face image associated with the odorant presented during sleep.
Explore further: Diminishing fear vicariously by watching others
Medical Xpress on facebook
Related Stories
Diminishing fear vicariously by watching others
Sep 16, 2013
Phobias—whether it's fear of spiders, clowns, or small spaces—are common and can be difficult to treat. New research suggests that watching someone else safely interact with the supposedly harmful object can help to extinguish ...
People with spider phobia handle tarantulas, have lasting changes in brain after short therapy
May 21, 2012
A single brief therapy session for adults with a lifelong debilitating spider phobia resulted in lasting changes to the brain's response to fear.
Study reveals potential target to better treat, cure anxiety disorders
Mar 05, 2013
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have, for the first time, identified a specific group of cells in the brainstem whose activation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is critical for the regulation ...
Changes in patterns of brain activity predict fear memory formation
Mar 04, 2013
Psychologists at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have discovered that changes in patterns of brain activity during fearful experiences predict whether a long-term fear memory is formed. The research results have recently ...
Study indicates visual adaptation enhanced by sleep and may be tied to memory
Aug 28, 2013
(Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers at University College in London has conducted a study that suggests that visual adaptation is enhanced by sleep and might also be tied to memory. In their paper published ...
Recommended for you
Covert operations: Your brain digitally remastered for clarity of thought
Sep 20, 2013
The sweep of a needle across the grooves of a worn vinyl record carries distinct sounds: hisses, scratches, even the echo of skips. For many years, though, those yearning to hear Frank Sinatra sing "Fly Me ...
Building the best brain: Researchers show how brain cell connections get cemented early in life
Sep 20, 2013
When we're born, our brains aren't very organized. Every brain cell talks to lots of other nearby cells, sending and receiving signals across connections called synapses.
New insights into control of neuronal circuitry could lead to treatments for an inherited motor disorder
Sep 20, 2013
The cerebellum is a region of the brain critical for balance, learning of motor skills and coordination of movements. In the outer layer of the cerebellum, individual 'Purkinje' cells integrate inputs from ...
Neuronal activity in the visual cortex controlled by both where the eyes are looking and what they see
Sep 20, 2013
Even though our eyes are constantly moving, the brain perceives the external world as stationary—a feat achieved by integrating images acquired by the retina with information about the direction of the ...
Competing impairment of neurons governs pathology of a severe form of epilepsy
Sep 20, 2013
Dravet syndrome is a rare and severe form of epilepsy caused primarily by inherited loss-of-function mutations in a gene called SCN1A. This gene encodes a sodium ion channel known as Nav1.1 and is required ...
Cognitive rehabilitation improves brain function in cancer survivors
Sep 20, 2013
Cancer survivors who experience memory and thinking problems may benefit from cognitive rehabilitation, according to a new study led by Monique Cherrier, a UW associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral ...
User comments
© Medical Xpress 2011-2013, Phys.org network
0 comments:
Post a Comment