Many individuals experience traumatic and stressful events, but very few develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research focused on people with PTSD and trauma-exposed healthy controls has examined how learning and memory processes may be associated with PTSD symptoms. While there is a growing literature focused on factors associated with PTSD development, fewer studies investigate relationships between stressful event exposure and learning and memory processes in healthy individuals. We aimed to study relationships between stressful event exposure, PTSD symptoms, and neural activity underlying performance during a fear extinction recall task.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the strain of coronavirus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, emerged from Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The pandemic has raised significant social, psychological and economic concerns in addition to direct medical issues. The novelty of the virus presents unprecedented challenges for healthcare systems around the world to identify effective drugs for prevention and treatment. Currently, there are no proven vaccines or therapeutic agents against the virus. While current therapies include supportive care such as the use of supplemental oxygen and mechanical ventilatory support, a pressing demand for effective treatment of COVID-19 still exists.