scholarly journals Fear Conditioning Deficits in Children and Adolescents with Psychopathic Traits: a Study in a Clinical Population

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasiya Ivanova-Serokhvostova ◽  
Beatriz Molinuevo ◽  
David Torrents-Rodas ◽  
Albert Bonillo ◽  
Iris Pérez-Bonaventura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Psychopathic Traits ◽  
Clinical Population ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Callous Unemotional ◽  
Youth Psychopathy ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Db Difference ◽  
Clinical Populations

AbstractDeficits in fear conditioning related to psychopathy have been widely studied in adults. However, evidence in children and adolescents is scarce and inconsistent. This research aimed to expand knowledge about fear conditioning in psychopathy and its dimensions in child and early adolescent clinical populations. Participants were 45 boys (outpatients) aged 6–14 years (M = 10.59, SD = 2.04). They were assessed with the parents’ and teachers’ versions of the Child Problematic Traits Inventory (CPTI). A fear conditioning paradigm (Neumann et al., in Biological Psychology, 79(3), 337–342, 2008) for children and adolescents was used. Conditioned stimuli (CS+ and CS-) were geometric shapes and the unconditioned stimulus (US) was an unpleasant sound of metal scraping on slate (83 dB). Difference scores (CS+ minus CS-) in skin conductance responses (SCR) and self-reported cognitive and affective measures were considered as indices of fear conditioning. Results showed that: a) deficits in fear conditioning were related to some psychopathy dimensions but not to psychopathy as a unitary construct; b) the Impulsivity-Need for Stimulation dimension was a predictor of impaired fear conditioning at a cognitive level; c) the interaction of Callous-Unemotional and Impulsivity-Need for Stimulation dimensions was a significant predictor of impaired electrodermal fear conditioning; d) by contrast, the Grandiose-Deceitful dimension, was marginally associated with a greater electrodermal fear conditioning. In conclusion, psychopathy dimensions and their interactions, but not psychopathy as a whole, predicted deficits in fear conditioning as measured by SCR and cognitive indices. These findings confirm the notion that psychopathic traits are associated with deficits in fear conditioning in child and adolescent clinical populations and provide support for a multidimensional approach to youth psychopathy.

scholarly journals Vicarious conditioned fear acquisition and extinction in child–parent dyads

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-France Marin ◽  
Alexe Bilodeau-Houle ◽  
Simon Morand-Beaulieu ◽  
Alexandra Brouillard ◽  
Ryan J. Herringa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Actual Process ◽  
Conditioning Procedure ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Extinction Process ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

Abstract The biological mechanisms involved in fear transmission within families have been scarcely investigated in humans. Here we studied (1) how children acquired conditioned fear from observing their parent, or a stranger, being exposed to a fear conditioning paradigm, and (2) the subsequent fear extinction process in these children. Eighty-three child-parent dyads were recruited. The parent was filmed while undergoing a conditioning procedure where one cue was paired with a shock (CS + Parent) and one was not (CS −). Children (8 to 12 years old) watched this video and a video of an adult stranger who underwent conditioning with a different cue reinforced (CS + Stranger). Children were then exposed to all cues (no shocks were delivered) while skin conductance responses (SCR) were recorded. Children exhibited higher SCR to the CS + Parent and CS + Stranger relative to the CS −. Physiological synchronization between the child’s SCR during observational learning and the parent’s SCR during the actual process of fear conditioning predicted higher SCR for the child to the CS + Parent. Our data suggest that children acquire fear vicariously and this can be measured physiologically. These data lay the foundation to examine observational fear learning mechanisms that might contribute to fear and anxiety disorders transmission in clinically affected families.

scholarly journals Estimated Prevalence of Unreported IGD Cases in Routine Outpatient Children and Adolescent Psychotherapy

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 6787
Author(s):  
Sonja Kewitz ◽  
Eva Vonderlin ◽  
Lutz Wartberg ◽  
Katajun Lindenberg
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Internet Gaming Disorder ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Clinical Population ◽  
Gaming Disorder ◽  
Parental Report ◽  
Outpatient Psychotherapy ◽  
Old Patients ◽  
Internet Gaming ◽  
Icd 10

Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has been included in the DSM-5 as a diagnosis for further study, and Gaming Disorder as a new diagnosis in the ICD-11. Nonetheless, little is known about the clinical prevalence of IGD in children and adolescents. Additionally, it is unclear if patients with IGD are already identified in routine psychotherapy, using the ICD-10 diagnosis F 63.8 (recommended classification of IGD in ICD-10). This study investigated N = 358 children and adolescents (self and parental rating) of an outpatient psychotherapy centre in Germany using the Video Game Dependency Scale. According to self-report 4.0% of the 11- to 17-year-old patients met criteria for a tentative IGD diagnosis and 14.0% according to the parental report. Of the 5- to 10-year-old patients, 4.1% were diagnosed with tentative IGD according to parental report. Patients meeting IGD criteria were most frequently diagnosed with hyperkinetic disorders, followed by anxiety disorders, F 63.8, conduct disorders, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders (descending order) as primary clinical diagnoses. Consequently, this study indicates that a significant amount of the clinical population presents IGD. Meaning, appropriate diagnostics should be included in routine psychological diagnostics in order to avoid “hidden” cases of IGD in the future.

scholarly journals Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Reinhard ◽  
Anna Slyschak ◽  
Miriam A. Schiele ◽  
Marta Andreatta ◽  
Katharina Kneer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Stimulus Generalization ◽  
Healthy Children ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Current Task

AbstractThe aim of the study was to investigate age-related differences in fear learning and generalization in healthy children and adolescents (n = 133), aged 8–17 years, using an aversive discriminative fear conditioning and generalization paradigm adapted from Lau et al. (2008). In the current task, participants underwent 24 trials of discriminative conditioning of two female faces with neutral facial expressions, with (CS+) or without (CS−) a 95-dB loud female scream, presented simultaneously with a fearful facial expression (US). The discriminative conditioning was followed by 72 generalization trials (12 CS+, 12 GS1, 12 GS2, 12 GS3, 12 GS4, and 12 CS−): four generalization stimuli depicting gradual morphs from CS+ to CS− in 20%-steps were created for the generalization phases. We hypothesized that generalization in children and adolescents is negatively correlated with age. The subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and US expectancy (the probability of an aversive noise following each stimulus), as well as skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured. Repeated-measures ANOVAs on ratings and SCR amplitudes were calculated with the within-subject factors stimulus type (CS+, CS−, GS1-4) and phase (Pre-Acquisition, Acquisition 1, Acquisition 2, Generalization 1, Generalization 2). To analyze the modulatory role of age, we additionally calculated ANCOVAs considering age as covariate. Results indicated that (1) subjective and physiological responses were generally lower with increasing age irrespective to the stimulus quality, and (2) stimulus discrimination improved with increasing age paralleled by reduced overgeneralization in older individuals. Longitudinal follow-up studies are required to analyze fear generalization with regard to brain maturational aspects and clarify whether overgeneralization of conditioned fear promotes the development of anxiety disorders or vice versa.

scholarly journals Psychopathic Traits in Childhood: Insights from Parental Warmth and Fearless Temperament via Conscience Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 923
Author(s):  
Laura López-Romero ◽  
Olalla Cutrín ◽  
Lorena Maneiro ◽  
Beatriz Domínguez-Álvarez ◽  
Estrella Romero
Keyword(s):  
Psychopathic Traits ◽  
Parental Warmth ◽  
Mediation Effects ◽  
Child Conduct Problems ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Callous Unemotional ◽  
Early Parenting ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

The role of psychopathic traits in predicting more serious and persistent patterns of child conduct problems has been well documented. The jointly presence of interpersonal (grandiose–deceitful), affective (e.g., callous–unemotional), and behavioral psychopathic traits (impulsive–need of stimulation) identifies a group of children at increased risk of psychosocial maladjustment. The present study aims to disentangle the underlying mechanisms by examining how early parenting (i.e., warmth) and child temperament (i.e., fearlessness) predict later psychopathic traits, via conscience development (CD). Data were collected in a large sample of children (n = 2.266; 48.5% girls), aged 3 to 6 at the onset of the study (Mage = 4.25; SD = 0.91), who were followed up one and two years later. The results showed direct effects from fearlessness to interpersonal and behavioral psychopathic traits. Parental warmth, fearless temperament, and their interaction, predicted CD, which, in turn, showed a negative effect on psychopathic traits. The indirect effects indicated significant negative mediation effects of warmth through CD on psychopathic traits, which seem to be stronger when children present lower levels of fearlessness. Overall, these results contribute to better understand the development of child psychopathic traits and provide additional insight on effective strategies that will help to restrain the potential development of a high-risk profile in early childhood.

scholarly journals Investigating the relationship between Psychopathy, Fear Conditioning, and Facial Affect Recognition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Allanah R. Casey
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Psychopathic Traits ◽  
Facial Affect ◽  
Inhibition Mechanism ◽  
Affect Recognition ◽  
Facial Affect Recognition ◽  
Present Sample ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
The Relationship

<p>Psychopathic offenders are often considered to be untreatable, especially dangerous, and at very high risk of reoffending. Psychopathy has generated considerable research interest. Despite this interest, our understanding of psychopathy is relatively poor, with ongoing debate regarding how best to define psychopathy, and a lack of clarity regarding how psychopathy develops. Etiological theories of psychopathy posit deficits in recognising and responding to others’ emotions, and an attenuated experience of fear as crucial mechanisms in the development of psychopathy. The aims of this thesis are to investigate the pattern of psychopathic traits present within an inmate sample, and to investigate the relationship between these psychopathic traits and performance on two tasks related to etiological theories of psychopathy: facial affect recognition and fear conditioning. Part One of this thesis addresses the first aim, investigating the presentation of psychopathy in the current sample. The relationship between psychopathic traits in the present sample was largely consistent with previous research. A Principal Components Analysis identified two factors of psychopathic traits: a Bold/ Fearlessness factor which measures an absence of fear and anxiety and the presence of self-assurance, and a Mean/ Disinhibited factor which measures the presence of externalising and disinhibited behaviour, alongside aggression and the use of other people for one’s own gain. These findings are discussed in relation to common conceptualisations and operationalisations of psychopathy.   Part Two of this thesis uses the measurement of psychopathy from Part One to investigate performance on a facial affect recognition task and a fear conditioning task. The Violence Inhibition Mechanism theory suggests that psychopaths should show impairments on facial affect recognition tasks, particularly in the recognition of fearful and sad facial expressions. However, in the current research psychopathy was unrelated to affect recognition, across all emotional expressions. When criminal offenders were compared to a student sample, the offenders showed poorer affect recognition than the students. These results suggest that there may be an effect of antisociality on affect recognition, but no effect of psychopathy. Low fear theories of psychopathy suggest that psychopaths should be impaired at learning conditioned fear associations. However, the present study found no evidence of psychopathy-related deficits in fear conditioning. Rather, higher psychopathy was related to better fear conditioning, with higher scores on the Mean/ Disinhibited factor predicting better discrimination between the conditioned and neutral stimuli.   Taken together, these findings suggest that psychopathy was not related to deficits in either affect recognition or fear conditioning. These findings are inconsistent with etiological theories of psychopathy, and question common assumptions about the deficits which characterise psychopathy.</p>

scholarly journals Postural freezing relates to startle potentiation in a human fear‐conditioning paradigm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa A. van Ast ◽  
Floris Klumpers ◽  
Raoul P. P. P. Grasman ◽  
Angelos‐Miltiadis Krypotos ◽  
Karin Roelofs
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Startle Potentiation

Postural freezing foretells startle-potentiation in a human fear-conditioning paradigm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa van Ast ◽  
Floris Klumpers ◽  
Raoul P P P Grasman ◽  
Angelos-Miltiadis Krypotos ◽  
Karin Roelofs
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Startle Magnitude ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Human Conditioning ◽  
Conditioned Freezing ◽  
Fear And Anxiety ◽  
Active Preparation

Freezing to impending threat is a core defensive response. It has been studied primarily using fear-conditioning in non-human animals, thwarting advances in translational human anxiety-research. Here we examine postural freezing as a human conditioning-index for translational anxiety-research. We show (n=28) that human freezing is highly sensitive to fear-conditioning, generalizes to ambiguous contexts, and amplifies with threat-imminence. Intriguingly, stronger parasympathetically-driven freezing under threat, but not sympathetically-mediated skin conductance, predicts subsequent startle magnitude. These results demonstrate that humans show fear-conditioned animal-like freezing responses, known to aid in active preparation for unexpected attack, and that freezing captures real-life anxiety-expression. Conditioned freezing offers a promising new, non-invasive, and continuous, readout for human fear-conditioning, paving the way for future translational studies into human fear and anxiety.

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