Facilitated extinction but impaired extinction recall by eye movement manipulation in humans – Indications for action mechanisms and the applicability of eye movement desensitization

This research found that moving the eyes in a specific way can help the brain “turn down” fear automatically, even if a person’s thoughts about the fear don’t change.

Article Abstract

“Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy utilizes the manipulation of eye movements to reduce affective distress during fear-exposure. Animal research recently suggested a potential neural mechanism underlying these effects, by which increased activity of the superior colliculus (SC), mediating visual attention, increases the inhibition of the basolateral amygdala (BLA), mediating defensive plasticity.
We tested such mechanism in forty healthy humans using a multiple-day single-cue fear conditioning and extinction paradigm. The activity of the SC during extinction was experimentally manipulated by eye movements, as half of the participants executed saccadic eye movements (n = 20; major SC involvement), while the other half executed smooth eye pursuits (n = 20; minor SC involvement). Amygdala-mediated fear-potentiated startle responses and fear bradycardia, as well as threat expectancy was analyzed.

Saccadic eye movements facilitated the extinction of fear bradycardia and fear-potentiated startle responses. Higher saccadic accuracy and range correlated with reduced fear-potentiated startle. However, during extinction recall, fear-potentiated startle and fear bradycardia resurged and partly reached levels obtained after fear acquisition. Threat expectancy was not affected by different eye movements and was not elevated during extinction recall.

Within limitations, results support an inhibitory SC-BLA pathway in humans by which eye movements may reduce low-level defensive responding, but not threat expectancy. Yet, manipulating eye movements during extinction learning seems to impair extinction recall for behavioral and physiological defensive response indices. Thus, increasing SC activity might enhance initial efficacy of exposure treatment, but additional strategies seem necessary for sustained fear attenuation.
Highlights

• Eye movements tapping into the superior colliculus (SC) boost the extinction of fear.
• SC-driven eye movements inhibit subcortically-mediated fear responses.
• SC-driven eye movements do not impact on cognitive fear indices.
• Eye movement manipulation negatively affects extinction recall.
• Support for a cross-species neural circuit underlying eye movement desensitization.”

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Szeska, C., Mohrmann, H., & Hamm, A. O. (2023). Facilitated extinction but impaired extinction recall by eye movement manipulation in humans – Indications for action mechanisms and the applicability of eye movement desensitization. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 184, 64-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.12.009