A cognitively demanding working-memory intervention enhances extinction Research article.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Extinction learning is crucial for treating anxiety disorders.
• Cognitively demanding tasks, like eye movements, can improve extinction learning.
• It's unclear if any cognitive task enhances extinction or if higher cognitive load is more effective.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if a general cognitively demanding task, specifically a working memory task, enhances extinction learning.
• To determine if increasing cognitive load further improves extinction.
• To explore the relationship between task difficulty and extinction improvement.

Main Methods:

• Participants (n=75) underwent Pavlovian threat conditioning and extinction over two days.
• Groups included standard extinction (Control), extinction with a 1-back task (Low-Load), and extinction with a 2-back task (High-Load).
• Conditioned responses were measured during extinction and a subsequent recovery phase.

Main Results:

• Both Low-Load and High-Load groups showed reduced conditioned responses compared to the Control group.
• This reduction persisted into the next day's recovery phase.
• Within the High-Load group, greater difficulty (lower accuracy) correlated with stronger response reduction.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive load, induced by working memory tasks during extinction, effectively reduces persistent threat responses.
• This approach holds potential for optimizing psychotherapy for anxiety-related disorders.
• The effectiveness of cognitive interventions may be dose-dependent on cognitive load.