Reconsolidation Behavioral Updating of Human Emotional Memory: A Comprehensive Review and Unified Analysis to Identify the Causes of Replication Failures, the Role of Prediction Error, and Optimal Clinical Translation

Author(s): Bruce Ecker

Memory reconsolidation (MR) has been recruited via behavioral updating procedures to achieve full annulment of a human emotional memory in over 20 studies since first reported in 2010. However, at least 14 studies have reported non-replication, the cause(s) of which have remained unclear despite extensive speculation and experimental investigation. This review examines 20 successful and 14 unsuccessful studies in detail, in an attempt to identify (a) the specific probable causes of non-replication, (b) the role of prediction error (PE), and (c) optimal clinical translation. A set of criteria is defined for principled identification of specific moments of PE and of latent cause transition in experimental procedures. Applying these criteria, a failure to induce PE is identified in every non-replication study, in most cases due to a previously overlooked element of experimental procedure. For each non-replication study, I identify a simple change of procedure that is predicted to produce PE and result in successful replication. The emerging, advanced account of PE phenomenology explains how MR produces a wide range of experimental observations, including the success of both retrieval-extinction and extinction-retrieval in driving behavioral updating. A well-defined process of unlearning and annulment of emotional memory emerges from the 20 successful studies, and the clinical translation of this potent process is illustrated by a real psychotherapy case. Lastly, this review’s compendium of empirical findings is applied to evaluating previously proposed frameworks of memory reconsolidation in psychotherapy, exposing significant departures from scientific fidelity.