In rodents, novel exploration has been used to strengthen the consolidation of a variety of hippocampal-dependent learning tasks. To our knowledge, no attempt have been made to translate the effect of strengthening the memory of an extinction of a context conditioning memory. This study uses virtual reality for both context conditioning and novel exploration in an attempt at translating these findings from rodents to humans, thus, using novel exploration to strengthen an extinction memory. Threat responses are measured with skin conductance and startle responses. If this effect could be shown experimentally in humans, that experimental setup could become an important tool in understanding important memory processes of fear, such as reconsolidation and behavioral tagging.

The study employs healthy participants and includes three experimental sessions, roughly 24 h apart. During the first session, participants undergo context conditioning in virtual reality where the CS+ and CS- are two different rooms. During the second session, half of the participants perform an exploration of a novel virtual environment, and the other half performs a visual attention task. About 60 min later, participants undergo extinction to the context conditioning performed in session 1, again in virtual reality. In session 3, remaining threat responses are measured through a reinstatement procedure, again in virtual reality.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Willing and able to provide informed consent and complete study procedures

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current psychiatric disorder.
• Current use of psychotropic medication
• Current use of neurological conditions

We plan to share anonymous behavioural data, training material, Statistical Analysis plan, and informed consent form on the project site on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/4yjev/). Statistical Analysis Plan will be pre-registered on the same site (Open Science Framework).

Data will be available from completion of analysis and publication, and onwards.

Anonymous behavioural data, training material, Statistical Analysis plan, and informed consent form will be made public on the project site on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/4yjev/)

Participants are never told which manipulation that is expected to affect the threat memory processes.