Write a Science Times style report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Write a Science Times style report - Essay Example The way that we are affected in frightening situation can be fatal at times. Scientific inventions in the 20th century have made it possible that these effects will not haunt us for long. The scientists have used the available resources to determine how fear can be managed and its impacts reduced or eliminated. This has been made possible through two options: medication or conditioning. The question is how long can the fear be extinguished? How efficient and effective is the method of extinguishing? What are the side effects that are associated with implementation of such practices? Is there possibility that fear will return? How can the fear that has returned be managed? In the year 2009, scientists Monfils et al. (2009) conducted a research using rats to help prevent a return of fear. The research aim was to determine a given window to which a return of fear could be prevented through post- retrieval extinction. Post- retrieval extinction is whereby additional activities are put in place after the removal of fear so as to see that it doesn’t come back. The research entailed the rats being fear induced, then exposed to retrieval trail. The duration between the induction and retrieval was 24 hours. After a period of 6 to 10 minutes, the rats were taken to training to see them forget the fear. One month after reconsolidation showed that there was no un- induced recovery of fear. The control experiment group, however, recovered the fear memory. This research therefore showed that fear reconsolidation was necessary to see the fear memory permanently removed. How does this apply to humans? A study by Schiller et al. (2010) was conducted in the year 2010, to determine if the results found among the rats could be used in humans. This research therefore used humans as the specimen instead of rats yet testing the same mechanism. Fear was induced in humans that were grouped in pairs using coloring. The