Memory erasure requires retrospective extinction—presenting outcomes without their predictive cues—which degrades cue-outcome associations through dopamine-gated learning at reward delivery, whereas standard prospective extinction merely suppresses behavior by reducing estimated outcome rate while preserving the underlying memory, with orbitofrontal cortex activity at reward enabling rapid behavioral recovery after prospective extinction.

Erasing outdated memories is crucial for adaptive behavior. Yet once a cue–outcome association is learned, repeated cue exposure without outcome suppresses conditioned behavior without erasing the underlying memory. This allows rapid behavioral recovery when outcomes are reintroduced. Here, we confirm this limitation for standard “prospective extinction” protocols that present cues without the associated outcome, but show that true memory erasure is achieved by inverting the paradigm: presenting outcomes without associated cues, i.e., “retrospective extinction”. We demonstrate that orbitofrontal cortex activity at outcome is necessary for the rapid behavioral recovery following prospective extinction, and that mesolimbic dopamine activity at outcome is necessary for retrospective extinction. These findings reconceptualize extinction mechanisms and suggest complementary strategies to mitigate relapse and erase maladaptive memories.