Developmental differences in neural correlates of conditioned inhibition of fear following trauma exposure

Trauma exposure in childhood is prevalent and associated with elevated risk for psychopathology. Understanding threat and safety learning and related neural mechanisms is essential for the development of novel interventions and the identification of mechanisms linking trauma exposure and psychopathology. Here, we examined safety signal learning (SSL), which is a process based on conditioned inhibition of fear in the presence of safety and has been shown to reduce fear via an anterior hippocampal-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) pathway.