Extinction Memory Is Impaired in Schizophrenia

TY - JOUR

T1 - Extinction Memory Is Impaired in Schizophrenia

AU - Holt, Daphne J.

AU - Lebron-Milad, Kelimer

AU - Milad, Mohammed R.

AU - Rauch, Scott L.

AU - Pitman, Roger K.

AU - Orr, Scott P.

AU - Cassidy, Brittany S.

AU - Walsh, Jared P.

AU - Goff, Donald C.

PY - 2009/3/15

Y1 - 2009/3/15

N2 - Background: Schizophrenia is associated with abnormalities in emotional processing and social cognition, which might result from disruption of the underlying neural mechanism(s) governing emotional learning and memory. To investigate this possibility, we measured the acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear responses and delayed recall of extinction in schizophrenia and control subjects. Methods: Twenty-eight schizophrenia and 18 demographically matched control subjects underwent a 2-day fear conditioning, extinction learning, and extinction recall procedure, in which skin conductance response (SCR) magnitude was used as the index of conditioned responses. Results: During fear acquisition, 83% of the control subjects and 57% of the patients showed autonomic responsivity ("responders"), and the patients showed larger SCRs to the stimulus that was not paired with the unconditioned stimulus (CS-) than the control subjects. Within the responder group, there was no difference between the patients and control subjects in levels of extinction learning; however, the schizophrenia patients showed significant impairment, relative to the control subjects, in context-dependent recall of the extinction memory. In addition, delusion severity in the patients correlated with baseline skin conductance levels. Conclusions: These data are consistent with prior evidence for a heightened neural response to innocuous stimuli in schizophrenia and elevated arousal levels in psychosis. The finding of deficient extinction recall in schizophrenia patients who showed intact extinction learning suggests that schizophrenia is associated with a disturbance in the neural processes supporting emotional memory.

AB - Background: Schizophrenia is associated with abnormalities in emotional processing and social cognition, which might result from disruption of the underlying neural mechanism(s) governing emotional learning and memory. To investigate this possibility, we measured the acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear responses and delayed recall of extinction in schizophrenia and control subjects. Methods: Twenty-eight schizophrenia and 18 demographically matched control subjects underwent a 2-day fear conditioning, extinction learning, and extinction recall procedure, in which skin conductance response (SCR) magnitude was used as the index of conditioned responses. Results: During fear acquisition, 83% of the control subjects and 57% of the patients showed autonomic responsivity ("responders"), and the patients showed larger SCRs to the stimulus that was not paired with the unconditioned stimulus (CS-) than the control subjects. Within the responder group, there was no difference between the patients and control subjects in levels of extinction learning; however, the schizophrenia patients showed significant impairment, relative to the control subjects, in context-dependent recall of the extinction memory. In addition, delusion severity in the patients correlated with baseline skin conductance levels. Conclusions: These data are consistent with prior evidence for a heightened neural response to innocuous stimuli in schizophrenia and elevated arousal levels in psychosis. The finding of deficient extinction recall in schizophrenia patients who showed intact extinction learning suggests that schizophrenia is associated with a disturbance in the neural processes supporting emotional memory.

KW - Conditioning

KW - emotion

KW - extinction

KW - fear

KW - memory

KW - schizophrenia

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=60349113931&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=60349113931&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.09.017

DO - 10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.09.017

M3 - Article

C2 - 18986648

SN - 0006-3223

VL - 65

SP - 455

EP - 463

JO - Biological Psychiatry

JF - Biological Psychiatry

IS - 6

ER -