Overwriting Human Memory: A consolidated fear memory can enter a transient labile phase upon its reactivation. Pharmacological blockade of the subsequent protein synthesis-dependent restabilization produces a memory deficit. Sevenster et al. (p. 830 ) found that prediction error (a discrepancy between actual and expected events) is a necessary condition for reconsolidation of a fear memory in human subjects. Retrieval cued by a negative prediction error, for example, like a conditioned stimulus presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, resulted in labilization and subsequent reconsolidation was blocked by the drug propranolol. However, if there was no prediction error because the conditioned stimulus and the aversive unconditioned stimulus were presented simultaneously, the memory did not enter a labile state and its reconsolidation could not be blocked.

Fear conditioning is one of the prime paradigms of behavioural neuroscience and a source of tremendous insight in the fundamentals of learning and memory and the psychology and neurobiology of emotion. It is also widely regarded as a model for the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders in a diathesis-stress model of psychopathology. Starting from the apparent paradox between the adaptive nature of fear conditioning and the dysfunctional nature of pathological anxiety, we present a critique of the human fear conditioning paradigm as an experimental model for psychopathology. We discuss the potential benefits of expanding the human fear conditioning paradigm by (1) including action tendencies as an important index of fear and (2) paying more attention to "weak" (i.e., ambiguous) rather than "strong" fear learning situations (Lissek et al., 2006), such as contained in selective learning procedures. We present preliminary data that illustrate these ideas and discuss the importance of response systems divergence in understanding individual differences in vulnerability for the development of pathological anxiety.

Experimental research on emotional memory reconsolidation interference, or the induction of amnesia for previously established emotional memory, has a long tradition, but the potential of that research for the development of novel interventions to treat psychological disorders has been recognized only recently. Here we provide an overview of basic research and clinical studies on emotional memory reconsolidation interference. We point out specific advantages of interventions based on memory reconsolidation interference over traditional treatment for emotional disorders. We also explain how findings from basic research suggest limitations and challenges to clinical translation that may help to understand why clinical trials have met with mixed success so far and how their success can be increased. In closing, we preview new intervention approaches beyond the induction of amnesia that the phenomenon of memory reconsolidation may afford for alleviating the burden imposed by emotional memories and comment on theoretical controversies regarding the nature of memory reconsolidation.