scholarly journals Reconsolidation behavioral updating of human emotional memory: A comprehensive review and unified analysis of successes, replication failures, and clinical translation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Ecker
Keyword(s):  
Prediction Error ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Invariant Set ◽  
Clinical Translation ◽  
Memory Reconsolidation ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Actual Case ◽  
Experimental Procedure ◽  
The Core

The annulment of a human emotional memory through reconsolidation behavioral updating has been documented in over twenty laboratory studies since the first such report in 2010. However, fourteen studies have reported non-replication, the cause(s) of which remain unclear. This review examines all successful and unsuccessful studies in detail, in an attempt to identify (a) the specific probable causes of non-replication and (b) how clinical translation might optimally be designed. For analyzing non-replications, a set of criteria is defined for principled identification of specific moments of prediction error (PE) in experimental procedures, including latent cause transitions, based on a preponderance of empirical evidence. A previously overlooked element of experimental procedure is in that way identified as being potentially decisive, and a unified, testable explanation is proposed for behavioral updating successes and failures in terms of the presence or absence of a PE experience. That in turn allows successful studies to be compared for the internal experiences induced in subjects, rather than compared for their external procedures, revealing an invariant set of three experiences shared by all successful updating studies despite their diverse procedures. Clinical translation, defined as replication of those experiences, not any particular procedure, is illustrated by an actual case, one of many published cases that have documented prompt transformational change produced by that specific methodology, suggesting memory reconsolidation as the mechanism of change. Lastly, the core empirical findings of successful reconsolidation updating studies are compared with previously proposed frameworks of memory reconsolidation in psychotherapy, exposing significant departures from scientific fidelity.

scholarly journals Clinical Translation of Memory Reconsolidation Research: Therapeutic Methodology for Transformational Change by Erasing Implicit Emotional Learnings Driving Symptom Production

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Ecker
Keyword(s):  
Target Material ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Clinical Translation ◽  
Memory Reconsolidation ◽  
Clinical Implementation ◽  
Clinical Literature ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Case Vignettes ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
New Interpretation

After 20 years of laboratory study of memory reconsolidation, the translation of research findings into clinical application has recently been the topic of a rapidly growing number of review articles. The present article identifies previously unrecognized possibilities for effective clinical translation by examining research findings from the experience-oriented viewpoint of the clinician. It is well established that destabilization of a target learning and its erasure (robust functional disappearance) by behavioral updating are experience-driven processes. By interpreting the research in terms of internal experiences required by the brain, rather than in terms of external laboratory procedures, a clinical methodology of updating and erasure unambiguously emerges, with promising properties: It is applicable for any symptom generated by emotional learning and memory, it is readily adapted to the unique target material of each therapy client, and it has extensive corroboration in existing clinical literature, including cessation of a wide range of symptoms and verification of erasure using the same markers relied upon by laboratory researchers. Two case vignettes illustrate clinical implementation and show erasure of lifelong, complex, intense emotional learnings and full, lasting cessation of major long-term symptoms. The experience-oriented framework also provides a new interpretation of the laboratory erasure procedure known as post-retrieval extinction, indicating limited clinical applicability and explaining for the first time why, even with reversal of the protocol (post-extinction retrieval), reconsolidation and erasure still occur. Also discussed are significant ramifications for the clinical field’s “corrective experiences” paradigm, for psychotherapy integration, and for establishing that specific factors can produce extreme therapeutic effectiveness.

scholarly journals Surprise and destabilize: prediction error influences episodic memory reconsolidation

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 369-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa H. Sinclair ◽  
Morgan D. Barense
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Memory Reconsolidation

Erasing Problematic Emotional Learnings

2020 ◽  
pp. 273-299
Author(s):  
Bruce Ecker
Keyword(s):  
Common Factor ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Transformational Change ◽  
Memory Reconsolidation ◽  
Corrective Experience ◽  
Experiential Techniques ◽  
Memory Contents ◽  
Therapy Sessions ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Clinical Methodology

This chapter examines how the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy are advanced by neuroscientists’ findings on memory reconsolidation, the brain’s innate mechanism for profound unlearning. Research relevant to psychotherapy is reviewed and mapped unambiguously into a clinical methodology of transformational change, the therapeutic reconsolidation process (TRP), applicable to all symptoms arising from memory contents. The TRP is defined as a set of experiences required by the brain, allowing implementation by any suitable experiential techniques, without dictating particular forms of therapy. Detection of TRP fulfillment in published case studies from diverse therapy systems suggests that the TRP provides psychotherapy unification and, functioning as both a specific and a common factor, may be responsible for transformational change occurring in any therapy sessions, which would confirm and advance the “corrective experience” paradigm. A coherence therapy case example serves to demonstrate TRP implementation, and research priorities are suggested.

Self-Control, Agency, and the Placebo Brain Stimulation

2020 ◽  
pp. 189-202
Author(s):  
Davide Rigoni ◽  
Naomi Vanlessen ◽  
Rossella Guerini ◽  
Mario De Caro ◽  
Marcel Brass
Keyword(s):  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Metacognitive Knowledge ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Control Beliefs ◽  
Control Performance ◽  
The Core ◽  
Actual Outcome ◽  
Core Idea ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter focuses on the relationship between control beliefs and self-control. After providing an overview of the research showing how control beliefs affect self-control performance, the authors present a novel experimental procedure based on a placebo brain stimulation that aims at altering people’s belief about their own self-control. They then describe a heuristic framework that accounts for belief-related changes in self-control performance. The core idea is that beliefs should be conceptualized as metacognitive knowledge about the self and that such metacognitive knowledge is used to predict the success of self-control behavior. When people form the expectation that they can exert self-control but experience failure, they perceive a discrepancy between their expectation and the actual outcome. Under specific circumstances, the perception of such discrepancy or prediction error will motivate people to exert more effort to match their expectation, which will lead to increased self-control.

Numerical–Experimental Method for the Validation of a Controlled Stiffness Femoral Prosthesis

2000 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Simo˜es ◽  
J. Monteiro ◽  
M. A. Vaz
Keyword(s):  
Composite Material ◽  
Epoxy Resin ◽  
Experimental Method ◽  
Layer Thickness ◽  
Cantilever Beam ◽  
Composite Layer ◽  
Femoral Prosthesis ◽  
Metal Core ◽  
Experimental Procedure ◽  
The Core

The aim of this paper is to describe a new numerical–experimental method to determine the stiffness of a conceptual proximal femoral prototype. The methodology consists of the comparison of the numerical and experimental displacement distributions of the prosthesis loaded as a cantilever beam to validate a design concept: controlled stiffness prosthesis. The manufactured prototype used to test the applicability of the numerical–experimental procedure integrates a stiff metal core bonded to a composite material made of an epoxy resin reinforced with carbon-glass braided pre-forms. The prosthesis with an embedded controlled stiffness concept was obtained by varying the geometry of the core with the composite layer thickness.

Therapeutic affect reduction, emotion regulation, and emotional memory reconsolidation: A neuroscientific quandary

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin S. LaBar
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Therapeutic Process ◽  
Emotional Arousal ◽  
Emotional Memory ◽  
Memory Reconsolidation ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Precipitating Factor

AbstractLane et al. emphasize the role of emotional arousal as a precipitating factor for successful psychotherapy. However, as therapy ensues, the arousal diminishes. How can the unfolding therapeutic process generate long-term memories for reconsolidated emotional material without the benefit of arousal? Studies investigating memory for emotionally regulated material provide some clues regarding the neural pathways that may underlie therapy-based memory reconsolidation.

Tunable Athermal Multi-FBG Package Using a Bending Bimetal Structure

2000 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel I-En Lin
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Compensation ◽  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Compensation Mechanism ◽  
Central Wavelength ◽  
Experimental Procedure ◽  
The Core ◽  
System A ◽  
Stable Temperature ◽  
Fiber Optic Communication ◽  
Optic Communication

The Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBGs) written by ultraviolet light into the core of an optical fiber have developed into a critical component for many applications in the fiber-optic communication system. A stable temperature compensation mechanism is essential to the successful usage of FBG-based devices. In this paper, the bimetal-based temperature-compensating package with tunable mechanism was developed. Such a tunable mechanism serves as prestress and post-tuning mechanisms of fixture in order to obtain a predetermined central wavelength. With the aid of developed experimental procedure, this compact and easily manufactured package can achieve temperature coefficient of 8.3×10−4 nm/°C in the temperature range from −40°C to 80°C. The same package can also be used for multi-FBG applications.

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