What happens in the human brain during extinction learning? A new study from SFB 1280 analyzed this with intracranial EEG recordings in epilepsy patients and revealed spectacular results: It turns out that amygdala theta oscillations during extinction learning signal safety rather than threat. In addition, extinction memory traces are characterized by stable and context-specific neural representations that are coordinated across the entire extinction network. The study could further demonstrate that context specificity during extinction learning predicts the reoccurrence of fear memory traces during a subsequent test period, while reoccurrence of extinction memory traces predicts safety responses. Overall, these results reveal that the mutual competition of fear and extinction memory traces provides a mechanistic basis for clinically important phenomena such as the return of fear.

Pacheco-Estefan D, Bouyeure A, Jacobs G, Fellner M-C, Lehongre K, Lambrecq V, Frazzini V, Navarro V, Güntürkün O, Shen L, Yang J, Han B, Chen Q, Axmacher N, Representational dynamics during extinction of fear memories in the human brain, Nature Human Behaviour, 2025, 10: 29-48.