Fear Renewal

Fear renewal demonstrates that extinguished conditioned fear returns when the subject is tested in the original conditioning context (ABA renewal) or in a novel context different from the extinction context (ABC renewal). This phenomenon proves that extinction does not erase the original fear memory but instead creates a new inhibitory memory that is context-dependent. The hippocampal-prefrontal-amygdala circuit mediates renewal: the hippocampus signals context identity, the infralimbic cortex retrieves the extinction memory in the appropriate context, and the basolateral amygdala integrates these signals to gate fear expression. Understanding renewal is critical for translational models of exposure therapy relapse.

The renewal index quantifies the return of fear as the difference between freezing in the renewal context and freezing at the end of extinction, expressed as a proportion of the original conditioned freezing level. High renewal indices indicate that extinction learning is highly context-specific and fear readily returns outside the extinction context. Comparison of ABA, ABC, and AAB renewal designs disambiguates the contributions of conditioning context reinstatement from extinction context removal. Within-session freezing trajectories during renewal reveal whether the fear response re-extinguishes during prolonged testing.

ConductMaze manages multi-context fear conditioning protocols by maintaining independent context configurations (visual, tactile, olfactory cue sets) linked to each experimental phase. The software tracks freezing behavior across conditioning, extinction, and renewal phases with continuous video scoring and automated context-switching prompts. Renewal indices, context-specific freezing curves, and between-phase comparison statistics are generated for each subject. The platform supports multi-day protocols with automated scheduling across the acquisition-extinction-renewal sequence.