Xia Yanfang

• Doctor of Philosophy
• PostDoc Position at Radboud University

Threat-conditioned cues are thought to capture overt attention in a bottom-up process. Quantification of this phenomenon typically relies on cue competition paradigms. Here, we sought to exploit gaze patterns during exclusive presentation of a visual conditioned stimulus, in order to quantify human threat conditioning. To this end, we capitalized o...

Threat conditioning is a common associative learning model with translational relevance. How threat-conditioned cues impact on formally unrelated instrumental behavior in humans is not well known. Such an effect is known as Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT). While PIT with aversive primary Pavlovian reinforcers is established in nonhuman ani...

As the control center of organisms, the brain remains little understood due to its complexity. Taking advantage of imaging methods, scientists have found an accessible approach to unraveling the mystery of neuroscience. Among these methods, optical imaging techniques are widely used due to their high molecular specificity and single-molecule sensit...

Methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) encoded by the MECP2 gene is a transcriptional regulator whose mutations cause Rett syndrome (RTT). Mecp2-deficient mice show fear regulation impairment; however, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this abnormal behavior are largely uncharacterized. Here, we showed that Mecp2 gene deficiency in cho...

While a body of literature has addressed the quantification of aversive Pavlovian conditioning in humans, Pavlovian reward conditioning with primary reinforcers and its recall after overnight consolidation remain understudied. In particular, few studies have directly compared different conditioned response types and their retrodictive validity. Her...

A core clinical feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is recurrent re-experiencing of the traumatic event in the form of intrusive memories. Doxycycline is a matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) inhibitor. MMP-9 is required for synaptic plasticity during long-term potentiation, which is thought to underly learning and memory. Here we examin...

A core clinical feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is recurrent re-experiencing of the traumatic event in the form of intrusive memories. Doxycycline is a matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) inhibitor. MMP-9 is required for synaptic plasticity during long-term potentiation, which is thought to underly learning and memory. Here we examin...

While a body of literature has addressed quantification of aversive conditioning, there is a dearth of systematic work comparing different conditioned responses during human reward learning and its retention. In consequence, it is unclear how to best measure reward conditioning in humans. Here, we sought to fill this gap by investigating heart peri...

Rationale Previous work identified an attenuating effect of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitor doxycycline on fear memory consolidation. This may present a new mechanistic approach for the prevention of trauma-related disorders. However, so far, this has only been unambiguously demonstrated in a cued delay fear conditioning paradigm, in w...

Pavlovian fear conditioning is widely used as a pre-clinical model to investigate methods for prevention and treatment of anxiety and stress-related disorders. In this model, fear memory consolidation is thought to require synaptic remodeling, which is induced by signaling cascades involving matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9). Here we investigated...

Fear conditioning is a laboratory paradigm commonly used to investigate aversive learning and memory. In context fear conditioning, a configuration of elemental cues (conditioned stimulus [CTX]) predicts an aversive event (unconditioned stimulus [US]). To quantify context fear acquisition in humans, previous work has used startle eyeblink responses...

Learning to predict threat is of adaptive importance, but aversive memory can also become disadvantageous and burdensome in clinical conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Pavlovian fear conditioning is a laboratory model of aversive memory and thought to rely on structural synaptic reconfiguration involving matrix metalloproteina...

Trace fear conditioning is an important research paradigm to model aversive learning in biological or clinical scenarios, where predictors (conditioned stimuli, CS) and aversive outcomes (unconditioned stimuli, US) are separated in time. The optimal measurement of human trace fear conditioning, and in particular of memory retention after consolidat...

Fear conditioning is a laboratory paradigm commonly used to investigate adaptive and maladaptive aversive learning and memory. In contextual fear conditioning, a configuration of objects (conditioned stimulus, CS) is coupled with an aversive event (unconditioned stimulus, US). To quantify contextual fear acquisition in humans, previous work has use...

Trace fear conditioning is an important research paradigm to model aversive learning in biological or clinical scenarios, where predictors (conditioned stimuli, CS) and aversive outcomes (unconditioned stimuli, US) are separated in time. The optimal measurement of human trace fear conditioning, and in particular of memory recall after consolidation...

Methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) encoded by the MECP2 gene is a transcriptional regulator whose mutations cause Rett syndrome (RTT). Mecp2-deficient mice show fear regulation impairment; however, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this abnormal behavior are largely uncharacterized. Here, we showed that Mecp2 gene deficiency in cho...

Methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) encoded by the MECP2 gene is a transcriptional regulator whose mutations cause Rett syndrome (RTT). Mecp2-deficient mice show fear regulation impairment; however, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying this abnormal behavior are largely uncharacterized. Here, we showed that Mecp2 gene deficiency in cho...

Threat-conditioned cues are thought to capture overt attention in a bottom-up process. Quantification of this phenomenon typically relies on cue competition paradigms. Here, we sought to exploit gaze patterns during presentation of a visual conditioned stimulus only, in order to quantify threat conditioning. To this end, we capitalise on a summary...

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic bladder disorder with unclear etiology. The endocannabinoid system has been identified as a key regulator of immune function, with experimental evidence for the involvement of cannabinoid receptors in bladder inflammation. This study used intravital microscopy (IVM) and behavioral testing in lipopolysaccharid...

Sepsis represents the systemic immune response to an infection. Mortality of sepsis slightly decreased over the past years, but due to the growing incidence, the absolute number of deaths still increases and belongs to the three most frequent causes of death worldwide. To date, there is no specific treatment for sepsis available yet. Iron is essent...