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Using latent cause modeling and neurofeedback to understand fear relapse and its relationship to anxiety

Award Number: F32MH140486
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/01/2025
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2027

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Using latent cause modeling and neurofeedback to understand fear relapse and its relationship to anxiety - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Exposure therapy is the most effective evidence-based treatment for a variety of anxiety disorders, but relapse is common. Failures of exposure therapy can be explained in part by laboratory studies using aversive conditioning and extinction, where the extinction phase can be viewed as a model of exposure therapy. These studies show that the “safe” association learned during extinction is tenuous, and the original negative association can sometimes return – a process known as spontaneous recovery. Recent work from our group shows that during extinction, some participants update the original association from fear to safety while others remember the fear association. The latter participants show spontaneous recovery (relapse) of fear at a later test. The overall goal of this fellowship is to understand these individual differences in spontaneous recovery, their relationship to transdiagnostic mental health symptoms of anxiety, and their neural underpinnings. To accomplish this goal, I will leverage the computational framework of latent cause inference; according to this framework, spontaneous recovery arises when an old latent cause associated with an aversive outcome is inferred to be active in a harmless situation, a form of overgeneralization. I will fit a model to behavior of individual participants to precisely quantify individual differences in the computational process underlying spontaneous recovery and correlate these to symptoms. We will also identify the neurocognitive systems that are implicated in this overgeneralization: we hypothesize that participants show spontaneous recovery because of deficient memory-control processes – these participants are failing to suppress retrieval of the original memory, even in the presence of evidence that the situation is now “safe”. We will relate this to clinical symptoms: based on prior work, we hypothesize that spontaneous recovery will be associated with low memory-control ability and high clinical symptoms of anxiety. Aim 1 will test for relationships between memory control, spontaneous recovery, anxiety symptoms, and parameters of latent cause inference, taking a dimensional approach in a large-scale online study. Aim 2 will causally test our hypotheses about brain networks that mediate spontaneous recovery by intervening on these networks with real-time fMRI neurofeedback, with the goal of reducing spontaneous recovery in individuals who are prone to it. Taken together, these studies will substantially advance our understanding of why spontaneous recovery occurs and how it relates to clinical symptoms; this, in turn, can inform our treatment of anxiety disorders by helping us identify who is most likely to relapse after exposure therapy, and how we might intervene to prevent relapse.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $81,580 )
2026	2026	THE TRUSTEES OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY	1 NASSAU HALL	PRINCETON	NJ	08544	MERCER	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	2	5/13/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$81,580
														Subtotal = $81,580

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $78,040 )
2025	2025	THE TRUSTEES OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY	1 NASSAU HALL	PRINCETON	NJ	08544	MERCER	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	000	1	3/14/2025	NEW	$76,756
2025	2025	THE TRUSTEES OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY	1 NASSAU HALL	PRINCETON	NJ	08544	MERCER	USA	Mental Health Research Grants	001	1	9/8/2025	NEW	$1,284
														Subtotal = $78,040

Grand Total All Awards = $159,620

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Using latent cause modeling and neurofeedback to understand fear relapse and its relationship to anxiety

Award Number: F32MH140486

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 05/01/2025

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 04/30/2027

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