Fear extinction

Fear extinction is a reduction in a learned fear response after repeated exposure to a cue without the expected threat. It reflects new learning that the cue no longer predicts danger, rather than simply erasing the original association.

Extinction learning: New learning that a previously threatening cue no longer predicts an aversive outcome. It explains why reduced fear can coexist with the original threat memory.
Classical conditioning: A learning process in which a cue comes to predict an event and elicit a response. Fear extinction modifies a response acquired through this kind of cue-outcome learning.
Fear inhibition: The suppression of a fear response by competing inhibitory learning or neural control. Extinction is one source of inhibition, but inhibition also describes broader control processes.
Exposure and response prevention: A treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder that combines exposure to triggers with prevention of compulsive rituals. Repeated exposure without ritual relief can build learning that feared outcomes need not be prevented.
Reinstatement effect: The return of a conditioned response after an aversive event follows extinction training. It models how later adversity can revive fear despite successful extinction.
Conditioned stimulus: A previously neutral cue that elicits a response after being paired with an aversive event. Extinction occurs when this learned cue is presented without the expected threat.
Fear conditioning: A procedure that pairs a neutral cue with an aversive event to establish a learned fear response. Extinction studies begin with the conditioned fear that this procedure creates.
Habituation: A decline in response to repeated stimulation that is not explained by sensory adaptation or fatigue. Repeated exposure can reduce responding through habituation without revising a learned threat prediction.
Prolonged exposure: A trauma-focused psychotherapy involving repeated, structured engagement with trauma memories and safe situations. Its rationale draws partly on learning processes that reduce conditioned fear.
Rapid reacquisition: The faster re-learning of a cue-outcome association after that association has been extinguished. It tests whether extinction leaves the original fear association readily available.

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