Citation

Laing PAF, Felmingham KL, Davey CG, Harrison BJ. Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 2022; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104882

PMID

36150453

Abstract

Safety learning creates associations between conditional stimuli and the absence of threat. Studies of human fear conditioning have accumulated evidence for the neural signatures of safety over various paradigms, aligning on several common brain systems. While these systems are often interpreted as underlying safety learning in a generic sense, they may instead reflect the expression of learned safety, pertaining to processes of fear inhibition, positive affect, and memory. Animal models strongly suggest these can be separable from neural circuits implicated in the conditioning process itself (or safety acquisition). While acquisition-expression distinctions are ubiquitous in behavioural science, this lens has not been applied to safety learning, which remains a novel area in the field. In this mini-review, we overview findings from prevalent safety paradigms in humans, and synthesize these with insights from animal models to propose that the neurobiology of safety learning be conceptualized along an acquisition-expression model, with the aim of stimulating richer brain-based characterizations of this important process.

Language: en

Keywords

fMRI; Basal ganglia; Extinction; fear conditioning; safety learning; vmPFC