Cargando…

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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Schroyens, Natalie, Sigwald, Eric L., Van Den Noortgate, Wim, Beckers, Tom, Luyten, Laura
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Society for Neuroscience 2021
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
_version_ 1783650175052414976
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 In addition, relevant researchers were contacted for unpublished results, which were included in the current analyses.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
work_keys_str_mv AT schroyensnatalie reactivationdependentamnesiaforcontextualfearmemoriesevidenceforpublicationbias
AT sigwaldericl reactivationdependentamnesiaforcontextualfearmemoriesevidenceforpublicationbias
AT vandennoortgatewim reactivationdependentamnesiaforcontextualfearmemoriesevidenceforpublicationbias
AT beckerstom reactivationdependentamnesiaforcontextualfearmemoriesevidenceforpublicationbias
AT luytenlaura reactivationdependentamnesiaforcontextualfearmemoriesevidenceforpublicationbias