Effects of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions in the reconsolidation of human emotional memories: a pilot study

Abstract

Until recently it was believed that emotional memories become stable in the long-term memory (LTM), a process called consolidation. It was believed that, once these memories were changed, these memories would last forever. Memories can become accessible again via reactivation of the consolidated memory trace. This process is called reconsolidation, in which the consolidated memories are recalled and again actively consolidated. Reconsolidation is about influencing memories from the long-term memory with the goal of maintaining, strengthening and modifying them. Based on literature present in this study, two hypotheses were stated. The first hypothesis of this study was that using pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions to disrupt the reconsolidation process will have a strong diminishing effect on fear expression of people with anxiety and stress related disorders. The second hypothesis of this study was that the pharmacological interventions for disrupting the reconsolidation process will have a greater effect size than the non-pharmacological interventions. For the analysis of the results a random-effects model, mixed-effects model, average effect size, moderator analysis and heterogeneity were computed. Based on the results, the first hypothesis was accepted. Based on the results, the second hypothesis was rejected.