# Fear Conditioning and Fear Extinction in Anorexia Nervosa

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2021 · $196,560

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is among the most pernicious of psychiatric disorders, demonstrating elevated rates
of mortality, and a chronic and relapsing illness course that is refractory to current treatment approaches.
Further, the etiology of AN remain elusive. While more efficacious treatments are urgently needed, the
development of precision treatments is dependent upon the identification of mechanistic pathways that
underpin symptom presentations. This mentored patient-oriented research career development award
(K23) will provide targeted training and mentorship for Dr. Stuart Murray to embark upon a career of
independent research oriented towards the delineation of key mechanistic pathways underpinning AN
symptomatology. This, in turn, will allow subsequent treatment development efforts to be targeted towards
precise pathogenic mechanisms to alter the pathway by which they drive AN symptomatology. The projects
outlined in this proposal relate specifically to fear conditioning and fear extinction, given (i) the centrality of
fear in presentations of AN, (ii) the substantial overlap between AN and disorders characterized by
perturbations in fear conditioning, and (iii) and the absence of empirical evidence relating to fear acquisition
and fear extinction in AN. With a team of expert mentors and consultants that collectively bridge the fields
of AN, translational psychiatry, neuroimaging, fear extinction, and biostatistics, Dr. Murray aims to (i) index
psychological and physiological markers of fear acquisition and fear extinction during a fear conditioning
paradigm utilizing both neutral cues, and disorder-specific cues, and (ii) map the neural biomarkers of both
fear acquisition and fear extinction via neuroimaging. It is expected that the results of this study will
contribute significantly to the development of precision targets for AN treatments, and the training
encapsulated herein will position Dr. Murray as an independent researcher in the field of precision
treatment for AN.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10228100
- **Project number:** 5K23MH115184-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Stuart B Murray
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $196,560
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-19 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10228100

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10228100, Fear Conditioning and Fear Extinction in Anorexia Nervosa (5K23MH115184-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10228100. Licensed CC0.

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