A01 A02 A03 A04 A05 A07 A09 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A18 A19 A21 F01 F02

A16 – Early extinction and the developing brain: a neurodevelopmental approach

Silvia Schneider, Sarah Weigelt

The translational project A16 “Early extinction learning and the developing brain” led by Silvia Schneider and Sarah Weigelt investigates the development of extinction in two critical times for major changes in the developing brain: infancy and adolescence. An innovative research design and state-of-the art neuro-developmental approaches allow the systematic research of qualitative and quantitative developmental transitions in extinction. The project translates for the first time findings from rodent research to humans and opens up future investigations with regard to therapeutic interventions.

Guiding questions of A16:

  • How does the developing hippocampus affect extinction qualitatively (forgetting vs. re-learning) and quantitatively (learning curves, time-to-extinction) during infancy/early childhood?
  • How does the maturing prefontal cortex affect extinction learning during adolescence and in the transition to young adulthood?
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Carolin Konrad

Postdoc A16

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Julie Jagusch-Poirier

Doktorandin A16

Technische Universität Dortmund

Silvia Schneider

Projektleiterin A16

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Sarah Weigelt

Projektleiterin A16

Technische Universität Dortmund

10 project-relevant publications

Konrad C, Herbert JS, Schneider S, Seehagen S (2016) Gist extraction and sleep in 12-month-old infants. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 134 Pt B: 216–220. doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2016.08.021

Konrad C, Herbert JS, Schneider S, Seehagen S (2016) The relationship between prior night’s sleep and measures of infant imitation. Dev Psychobiol. 58(4): 450–461. doi:10.1002/dev.21387

Konrad C, Seehagen S, Schneider S, Herbert JS (2016) Naps promote flexible memory retrieval in 12-month-old infants. Dev Psychobiol. doi:10.1002/dev.21431

Mosig C, Merz CJ, Mohr C, Adolph D, Wolf OT, Schneider S, Margraf J, Zlomuzica A (2014) Enhanced discriminative fear learning of phobia-irrelevant stimuli in spider-fearful individuals. Front Behav Neurosci. 8: 328. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00328

Seehagen S, Konrad C, Herbert JS, Schneider S (2015) Timely sleep facilitates declarative memory consolidation in infants. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 112(5): 1625–1629. doi:10.1073/pnas.1414000112

Seehagen S, Schneider S, Rudolph J, Ernst S, Zmyj N (2015) Stress impairs cognitive flexibility in infants. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 112(41): 12882–12886. doi:10.1073/pnas.1508345112

Semmelmann K, Nordt M, Sommer K, Rohnke R, Mount L, Prufer H, Terwiel S, Meissner TW, Koldewyn K, Weigelt S (2016) U Can Touch This: How Tablets Can Be Used to Study Cognitive Development. Front Psychol. 7: 1021. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01021

Vetter NC, Pilhatsch M, Weigelt S, Ripke S, Smolka MN (2015) Mid-adolescent neurocognitive development of ignoring and attending emotional stimuli. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 14: 23–31. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2015.05.001

Vetter NC, Weigelt S, Dohnel K, Smolka MN, Kliegel M (2014) Ongoing neural development of affective theory of mind in adolescence. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 9(7): 1022–1029. doi:10.1093/scan/nst081

Zlomuzica A, Preusser F, Schneider S, Margraf J (2015) Increased perceived self-efficacy facilitates the extinction of fear in healthy participants. Front Behav Neurosci. 9: 270. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00270