A Standardized Protocol for Fear Extinction Enhancement Research
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: For over a century, fear conditioning and extinction have served as a foundational model and laboratory protocol for studying how fear is learned and regulated in health and disorder. Several recent innovations in exposure treatments for anxiety-related psychopathology follow advances in fear extinction research. However, the field lacks a standardized protocol—critical given the many consequential parameters in conditioning protocols—that provides a benchmark standard for systematic research on how to improve exposure via enhanced extinction. Here, we present a standardized differential fear conditioning protocol based on international expert input via survey and initial multi-site validation data (n=196; 65% female). The protocol demonstrates expected patterns of fear acquisition and sufficient extinction and return of fear response needed for tests of enhanced extinction. The protocol is simple to implement and amenable to modification, providing an accessible tool for both field-domain experts and allied fields with interest in fear and anxiety.
Source: PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints)
Institutions: Tufts University, Harvard University
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214492824