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Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias
Research on memory reconsolidation has been booming in the last two decades, with numerous high-impact publications reporting promising amnestic interventions in rodents and humans. However, our own recently-published failed replication attempts of reactivation-dependent amnesia for fear memories in...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Society for Neuroscience
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7877470/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33355289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0108-20.2020 |
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author | Schroyens, Natalie Sigwald, Eric L. Van Den Noortgate, Wim Beckers, Tom Luyten, Laura |
author_facet | Schroyens, Natalie Sigwald, Eric L. Van Den Noortgate, Wim Beckers, Tom Luyten, Laura |
author_sort | Schroyens, Natalie |
collection | PubMed |
description | Research on memory reconsolidation has been booming in the last two decades, with numerous high-impact publications reporting promising amnestic interventions in rodents and humans. However, our own recently-published failed replication attempts of reactivation-dependent amnesia for fear memories in rats suggest that such amnestic effects are not always readily found and that they depend on subtle and possibly uncontrollable parameters. The discrepancy between our observations and published studies in rodents suggests that the literature in this field might be biased. The aim of the current study was to gauge the presence of publication bias in a well-delineated part of the reconsolidation literature. To this end, we performed a systematic review of the literature on reactivation-dependent amnesia for contextual fear memories in rodents, followed by a statistical assessment of publication bias in this sample. In addition, relevant researchers were contacted for unpublished results, which were included in the current analyses. The obtained results support the presence of publication bias, suggesting that the literature provides an overly optimistic overall estimate of the size and reproducibility of amnestic effects. Reactivation-dependent amnesia for contextual fear memories in rodents is thus less robust than what is projected by the literature. The moderate success of clinical studies may be in line with this conclusion, rather than reflecting translational issues. For the field to evolve, replication and non-biased publication of obtained results are essential. A set of tools that can create opportunities to increase transparency, reproducibility and credibility of research findings is provided. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7877470 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Society for Neuroscience |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78774702021-02-12 Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias Schroyens, Natalie Sigwald, Eric L. Van Den Noortgate, Wim Beckers, Tom Luyten, Laura eNeuro Research Article: New Research - Registered Report Research on memory reconsolidation has been booming in the last two decades, with numerous high-impact publications reporting promising amnestic interventions in rodents and humans. However, our own recently-published failed replication attempts of reactivation-dependent amnesia for fear memories in rats suggest that such amnestic effects are not always readily found and that they depend on subtle and possibly uncontrollable parameters. The discrepancy between our observations and published studies in rodents suggests that the literature in this field might be biased. The aim of the current study was to gauge the presence of publication bias in a well-delineated part of the reconsolidation literature. To this end, we performed a systematic review of the literature on reactivation-dependent amnesia for contextual fear memories in rodents, followed by a statistical assessment of publication bias in this sample. In addition, relevant researchers were contacted for unpublished results, which were included in the current analyses. The obtained results support the presence of publication bias, suggesting that the literature provides an overly optimistic overall estimate of the size and reproducibility of amnestic effects. Reactivation-dependent amnesia for contextual fear memories in rodents is thus less robust than what is projected by the literature. The moderate success of clinical studies may be in line with this conclusion, rather than reflecting translational issues. For the field to evolve, replication and non-biased publication of obtained results are essential. A set of tools that can create opportunities to increase transparency, reproducibility and credibility of research findings is provided. Society for Neuroscience 2021-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7877470/ /pubmed/33355289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0108-20.2020 Text en Copyright © 2021 Schroyens et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed. |
spellingShingle | Research Article: New Research - Registered Report Schroyens, Natalie Sigwald, Eric L. Van Den Noortgate, Wim Beckers, Tom Luyten, Laura Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias |
title | Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias |
title_full | Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias |
title_fullStr | Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias |
title_full_unstemmed | Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias |
title_short | Reactivation-Dependent Amnesia for Contextual Fear Memories: Evidence for Publication Bias |
title_sort | reactivation-dependent amnesia for contextual fear memories: evidence for publication bias |
topic | Research Article: New Research - Registered Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7877470/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33355289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0108-20.2020 |
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