A novel virtual reality fear conditioning paradigm to investigate the influence of expectancy violation on fear extinction.

Exposure therapy is an efficient treatment for pathological anxiety, yet its underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Prediction error models suggest that optimizing the violation of threat-related expectancies improves treatment outcomes, however, causal evidence is still sparse. The aim of the current study was therefore to provide causal evidence for the influence of the extent of expectancy violations on extinction retention using a novel virtual reality fear conditioning paradigm.