Recovery from traumatic experience in rats: Specific “treatment” vs. passage of time

An experiment, using rats, was designed to delineate the relative importance of experimental extinction as compared to spontaneous extinction during the passage of time in recovery from a learned fear. It was found that early extinction experiences promoted a quicker recovery from trauma. There was some indication that spontaneous factors occurring during the passage of time may be co-responsible. It continues to be important to sift out and evaluate any spontaneous factors in recovery from an emotional deviation.