Pre-treatment hippocampal functioning impacts context renewal for cholinergic modulated exposure therapy

Amy Sewart; Anastasia McGlade; Michael Treanor; Michael Fanselow; Michelle Craske

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108167

Pre-treatment hippocampal functioning impacts context renewal for cholinergic modulated exposure therapy

Biol Psychol. 2021 Oct:165:108167. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108167. Epub 2021 Oct 5.

Authors

Amy Sewart¹, Anastasia McGlade², Michael Treanor³, Michael Fanselow⁴, Michelle Craske⁴

Affiliations

¹ California State University, Dominguez Hills, Department of Psychology, 1000 East Victoria Street, Carson, CA 90747, United States. Electronic address: asewart@csudh.edu.
² University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States.
³ University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States.
⁴ University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, 1285 Franz Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States; University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, United States.

PMID: 34624624
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108167

Abstract

Our recent trial demonstrated individuals suffering from social anxiety with performance-related concerns who received virtual reality exposure augmented with scopolamine, a cholinergic antagonist, experienced significantly less post-treatment context renewal (CX) than placebo (Craske et al., 2019). The purpose of the present investigation was to determine who specifically benefits from scopolamine by examining hippocampal (HPC) functioning as a moderator of treatment response (Placebo n = 15, SCOP 0.5 mg n = 15, SCOP 0.6 mg n = 15). Skin conductance response to conditional stimulus (SCR-to-CS) termination suggested a dose-response relationship for enhanced HPC functioning individuals, wherein individuals receiving scopolamine demonstrated less fear at CX. In addition, SCR-to-CS onset indicated reduced fear at CX for impaired HPC individuals receiving SCOP 0.5 mg and SCOP 0.6 mg relative to Placebo. Our findings, however, lacked consistency across measures. Scopolamine remains a promising agent and additional research required to further understand its effects.

Keywords: Context renewal; Exposure therapy; Hippocampus; Scopolamine; Social anxiety.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Cholinergic Antagonists
Fear
Hippocampus
Humans
Implosive Therapy*
Scopolamine / pharmacology

Substances

Cholinergic Antagonists
Scopolamine

Grants and funding

R01 MH062122/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States