Fig. 3.

Stress before extinction learning reduced the return of fear in a renewal paradigm. The renewal test compared the mean skin conductance response (SCR) to the conditioned stimuli (CS+) in both contexts A (acquisition context) and B (extinction context). The control group (left panel; n = 20) showed renewal of the extinguished fear response (** P < .001: the response to the previously extinguished CS+ in context A is higher than in context B), the stress (socially evaluated cold pressor test 25–30 min before extinction learning) group (right panel; n = 20) showed no renewal. These results suggest a stronger and more generalized extinction memory in the stress group. Error bars represent SEM and thus between-subject variance. CS+, conditioned stimulus. Adapted from (Meir Drexler et al. 2018)