# Lateral orbitofrontal cortex enables new learning to overwrite previously acquired information

Source: [cell.com](https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)01427-2?rss=yes) · 2026-11-11 · Life
Page: https://themorning.science/story/lateral-orbitofrontal-cortex-enables-new-learning-to-overwrite-previously-acquir-7fee7c03f211d0c7
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In brief

- A study by Mahmoudi et al. finds that contingency degradation resists spontaneous recovery and reinstatement.
- Learning in contingency degradation, but not retrieval, depends on the lateral orbitofrontal cortex.
- The authors suggest that, unlike extinction, degradation overwrites previously acquired information.

## Why it matters

The results suggest that degradation and extinction are different forms of learning, which matters for how researchers model the overwriting of learned associations.

## Timeline

- 2026-11-11: Study published in Current Biology

## Coverage

- [Lateral orbitofrontal cortex enables new learning to overwrite previously acquired information](https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)01427-2?rss=yes) — cell.com, 2026-11-11

Tags: orbitofrontal cortex, contingency degradation, extinction, learning, memory, neuroscience

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science