Grant: Project Grant

Behavioral change is essential to adaptive functioning but it is also challenging to attain. The most effective way to reduce unwanted behavior is by omitting the outcomes that sustain it, known as "extinction" in the lab and "exposure therapy" in clinical settings. However, these effects are often short-lived and vary between sexes. Achieving lasting change requires a deep understanding of the behavioral, neural and hormonal mechanisms of extinction in males and females. This proposal adopts a multipronged approach, integrating behavioral, computational, neural and hormonal methods across sexes. By combining outcome omission with outcome overexpectation, we aim to offer a more comprehensive analysis of the conditions that reduce unwanted behavior. To explore neural mechanisms, we will employ both monitoring and interrogation methods to observe sex-specific differences in neural activity during extinction and to examine how changes in this activity influence behavior. To further understand the sex differences observed in extinction, we will investigate the role of sex hormones in learning and behavior. Our ultimate goal is to translate this knowledge from basic science to clinical applications, developing sex-specific strategies for the lasting reduction of unwanted behavior.