Fear Conditioning and Extinction: Influence of Sex and Menstrual Cycle in Healthy Humans

Although sex differences have been demonstrated in behavioral paradigms of fear conditioning, the findings have been inconsistent, and fear extinction has been little studied. The present study investigated the influence of sex and menstrual cycle phase on the recall of fear extinction. Three groups...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 2006-12, Vol.120 (6), p.1196-1203
Main Authors: Milad, Mohammed R, Goldstein, Jill M, Orr, Scott P, Wedig, Michelle M, Klibanski, Anne, Pitman, Roger K, Rauch, Scott L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Anxiety
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Conditioning
Conditioning (Psychology) - physiology
Electric Stimulation - methods
Estrogens
Extinction, Psychological - physiology
Fear
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Galvanic Skin Response - physiology
Gender differences
Human
Humans
Learning
Male
Memory
Menstrual Cycle
Menstruation
Psychological aspects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychophysics - methods
Sex Characteristics
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Summary:Although sex differences have been demonstrated in behavioral paradigms of fear conditioning, the findings have been inconsistent, and fear extinction has been little studied. The present study investigated the influence of sex and menstrual cycle phase on the recall of fear extinction. Three groups of healthy adult participants were studied: women at 2 different phases of the menstrual cycle (early follicular [early cycle] and late follicular [midcycle]) and men. Participants underwent a 2-day fear conditioning and extinction protocol. The paradigm entailed habituation, fear conditioning, and extinction learning on Day 1 and extinction recall and fear renewal on Day 2. Skin conductance served as the dependent variable. During fear acquisition on Day 1, men showed significantly larger conditioned responses relative to women; early cycle and midcycle women did not differ. No significant group differences were found during extinction learning. On Day 2, men and early cycle women expressed greater extinction memory than midcycle women. These data confirm sex differences in conditioned fear acquisition and suggest that midcycle hormones attenuate extinction recall.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.120.5.1196