Project: "Disrupting Fear Reconsolidation with a Neuroadaptive Control System".

Team: Alexander Karner, BSc MSc MSc; Cindy Lor, MSc ETH; Mengfan Zhang, BSc MSc; Prof. Frank Scharnowski.

Goal of the project: The project aims at designing a novel Brain-Computer-Interface working towards the optimization and automation of exposure therapy with respect to the treatment of anxiety disorders and phobias.

Why is this important and useful? Exposure therapy is the front line treatment for anxiety disorders and phobias but many patients do not benefit from it. Here, we propose the first non-invasive and drug-free brain-based intervention that capitalizes on fear memory labilization through optimal fear reactivation.

Abstract: Fear memories are persistent and can be debilitating in many anxiety disorders. Growing evidence suggests that reactivating a neural fear trace puts it into a labile state, which makes it sensitive to disruption. However, not all reactivations lead to destabilization. Interestingly, exposure therapy uses fear cues to provoke undesirable symptoms but adapts their intensity to make them tolerable. A moderate level of fear reactivation might therefore favor its attenuation by potentiating the integration of corrective information into the fear memory structure. This project aims at designing a neuroimaging-based control system that sustains the reactivation of problematic fear traces at this hypothetical state of maximal lability. If successful, this will lead to an automatic exposure therapist that capitalizes on the neural underpinnings of disorders evoked by external triggers..

Explanation - easy to understand: Fear is an important warning signal. But sometimes fear can be too strong, for example in phobias. With the help of neuroimaging devices, we can detect patterns in brain activity that show us what fear looks like in the brain. We use that information to help people facing their fear with targeted strenght, so that they eventually learn to overcome their fear.

Links:
https://meth-psy.univie.ac.at/forschung/forschungsbereich-prof-scharnowski/