Behavioral assessment of Pavlovian conditioning (day 1) and episodic memory (day 2). Conditioned threat responses during fear acquisition and fear extinction on day 1 in threat expectancy ratings (A) and SCRs (B) were indicative of successful conscious and autonomic fear conditioning (greater CS+ > CS− responses) and extinction learning (decreased responses from early to late trials). Episodic memory performance on day 2 was scored in measures of recognition memory (C), pattern completion (D), and pattern separation (E) for CS+ and CS− category items corresponding to day 1's preconditioning (Pre-Con), threat acquisition (ACQ), and extinction (EXT) phases. Emotional learning produced enhanced recognition memory for threat-conditioned and extinguished CS+ items (vs. CS−). Pattern completion (i.e., generalization) occurred selectively for threat-conditioned items from the ACQ phase. Pattern separation showed a safety effect, with elevated scores for extinguished CS+ and CS− items from ACQ and EXT phases but diminished scores for threat-associated items. (***) P < 0.001, (*) P < 0.05, (ns) P > 0.05. Error bars represent 95% CI.
