Can you learn to forget? Since 2017, the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1280 ‘Extinction Learning’ led by Ruhr University Bochum has been investigating precisely this question: How does the brain learn to forget? Can we ‘unlearn’ fear, and what does this mean for the treatment of anxiety and pain disorders?

Thanks to the support of the German Research Foundation, the network is entering its third funding period.

The Erwin L. Hahn Institute for MRI (ELH) will once again play an important role in this, for example through the studies conducted on the ELH's 7Tesla MRI system by the research group led by ELH PI and co-spokesperson Prof. Dr. Dagmar Timmann. In these studies, test subjects are first taught an anxiety response and then to unlearn it.

What sounds so simple is much more than just erasing memories; it is a complex process in which new memory traces overlap old ones without completely erasing them. Under certain circumstances, this can lead to seemingly forgotten memories returning, especially in the case of anxiety responses.

Significant progress has already been made in the last funding period, such as the identification of the neural network of extinction learning and the investigation of context-dependent memory processes. The next steps will focus on understanding the neural changes involved in learning and memory, as well as the role of contextual stimuli.

‘Our goal is to translate this basic research into clinical practice – so that therapeutic processes become more targeted and effective,’ says Dagmar Timmann.

[Press Release UDE]