scholarly journals The cerebellum is involved in processing of predictions and prediction errors in a fear conditioning paradigm

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
TM Ernst ◽  
A Brol ◽  
M Gratz ◽  
C Ritter ◽  
U Bingel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
The Neural Network ◽  
The Us ◽  
Crus I ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Significant Activation

AbstractPrediction errors are thought to drive associative fear learning. Surprisingly little is known about the possible contribution of the cerebellum. To address this question, healthy participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm during 7T magnetic resonance imaging. An event-related design allowed us to separate cerebellar fMRI signals related to the visual conditioned stimulus (CS) from signals related to the subsequent unconditioned stimulus (US; an aversive electric shock). We found significant activation of cerebellar lobules Crus I and VI bilaterally related to the CS+ compared to the CS-. Most importantly, significant activation of lobules Crus I and VI was also present during the unexpected omission of the US in unreinforced CS+ acquisition trials. This activation disappeared during extinction when US omission became expected. These findings provide evidence that the cerebellum has to be added to the neural network processing predictions and prediction errors in the emotional domain.

scholarly journals The cerebellum is involved in processing of predictions and prediction errors in a fear conditioning paradigm

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Michael Ernst ◽  
Anna Evelina Brol ◽  
Marcel Gratz ◽  
Christoph Ritter ◽  
Ulrike Bingel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
The Neural Network ◽  
The Us ◽  
Crus I ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Significant Activation

Prediction errors are thought to drive associative fear learning. Surprisingly little is known about the possible contribution of the cerebellum. To address this question, healthy participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm during 7T magnetic resonance imaging. An event-related design allowed us to separate cerebellar fMRI signals related to the visual conditioned stimulus (CS) from signals related to the subsequent unconditioned stimulus (US; an aversive electric shock). We found significant activation of cerebellar lobules Crus I and VI bilaterally related to the CS+ compared to the CS-. Most importantly, significant activation of lobules Crus I and VI was also present during the unexpected omission of the US in unreinforced CS+ acquisition trials. This activation disappeared during extinction when US omission became expected. These findings provide evidence that the cerebellum has to be added to the neural network processing predictions and prediction errors in the emotional domain.

scholarly journals Validating the Use of a Smartphone App for Remote Administration of a Fear Conditioning Paradigm

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirstin Lee Purves ◽  
Elena Constantinou ◽  
Thomas McGregor ◽  
Kathryn J. Lester ◽  
Tom Joseph Barry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Smartphone App ◽  
Total N ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Large Samples ◽  
Conditioning Experiment

Fear conditioning models key processes related to the development, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders and is associated with group differences in anxiety. However, laboratory administration of tasks is time and cost intensive, precluding assessment in large samples, necessary for analysis of individual differences. This study introduces a newly developed smartphone app that delivers a fear conditioning paradigm remotely. Three groups of participants (total n=152) took part in three studies involving a differential fear conditioning experiment to assess the reliability and validity of a smartphone administered fear conditioning paradigm. This comprised of fear acquisition, generalisation, extinction, and renewal phases. We show that smartphone app delivery of a fear conditioning paradigm results in a pattern of fear learning comparable to traditional laboratory delivery, and is able to detect individual differences in performance that show comparable associations with anxiety to the prior group differences literature.

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 Author response: The cerebellum is involved in processing of predictions and prediction errors in a fear conditioning paradigm

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Michael Ernst ◽  
Anna Evelina Brol ◽  
Marcel Gratz ◽  
Christoph Ritter ◽  
Ulrike Bingel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Author Response ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm

scholarly journals Understanding the contributions of visual stimuli to contextual fear conditioning: a proof-of-concept study using LCD screens

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathen J. Murawski ◽  
Arun Asok
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Contextual Fear Conditioning ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Simple Modification ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Contextual Fear

AbstractThe precise contribution of visual information to contextual fear-learning and discrimination has remained elusive. To better understand this contribution, we coupled the context pre-exposure facilitation effect (CPFE) fear conditioning paradigm with presentations of distinct visual scenes displayed on 4 LCD screens surrounding a conditioning chamber. Adult male Long-Evans rats received non-reinforced context pre-exposure on Day 1, an immediate 1.5 mA foot shock on Day 2, and a non-reinforced context test on Day 3. Rats were pre-exposed to either digital Context (dCtx) A, dCtx B, a distinct Context C, or no context on Day 1. Context A and B were identical except for the visual image displayed on the LCD monitors. Immediate shock and retention testing occurred in dCtx A. Rats pre-exposed dCtx A showed the CPFE with significantly higher levels of freezing compared to learning controls. Rats pre-exposed to Context B failed to show the CPFE, with freezing that did not differ significantly from any group. The results suggest that 1) visual information contributes to contextual fear learning in rats and that 2) visual components of the context can be parametrically controlled via LCD screens. Our approach offers a simple modification to contextual fear conditioning whereby the visual features of a context can be precisely controlled to better understand how rodents discriminate and generalize fear across environments.

scholarly journals Aversive Imagery Causes De Novo Fear Conditioning

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1001-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik M. Mueller ◽  
Matthias F. J. Sperl ◽  
Christian Panitz
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Aversive Stimulation ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
The Face ◽  
Fear Potentiated Startle ◽  
External Stimuli

In classical fear conditioning, neutral conditioned stimuli that have been paired with aversive physical unconditioned stimuli eventually trigger fear responses. Here, we tested whether aversive mental images systematically paired with a conditioned stimulus also cause de novo fear learning in the absence of any external aversive stimulation. In two experiments ( N = 45 and N = 41), participants were first trained to produce aversive, neutral, or no imagery in response to three different visual-imagery cues. In a subsequent imagery-based differential-conditioning paradigm, each of the three cues systematically coterminated with one of three different neutral faces. Although the face that was paired with the aversive-imagery cue was never paired with aversive external stimuli or threat-related instructions, participants rated it as more arousing, unpleasant, and threatening and displayed relative fear bradycardia and fear-potentiated startle. These results could be relevant for the development of fear and related disorders without trauma.

scholarly journals Olfactory fear conditioning non-specifically enhances glomerular odor responses and increases representational overlap of learned and neutral odors

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan M. Ross ◽  
Max L. Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Learned Fear ◽  
Induced Changes ◽  
The Brain

SummaryAssociative fear learning produces fear toward the conditioned stimulus (CS) and often generalization, the expansion of fear from the CS to similar, unlearned stimuli. However, how fear learning affects early sensory processing of learned and unlearned stimuli in relation to behavioral fear responses to these stimuli remains unclear. We subjected mice to a classical olfactory fear conditioning paradigm and used awake, in vivo calcium imaging to quantify learning-induced changes in glomerular odor responses, which constitutes the first site of olfactory processing in the brain. The results demonstrate that olfactory fear learning non-specifically enhances glomerular odor representations in a learning-dependent manner and increases representational similarity between the CS and non-conditioned odors. This mechanism may prime the system towards generalization of learned fear. Additionally, CS-specific enhancements remain even when associative learning is blocked; suggesting two separate mechanisms lead to enhanced glomerular responses following odor-shock pairings.

scholarly journals Hippocampal Processing of Ambiguity Enhances Fear Memory

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugwechi Amadi ◽  
Seh Hong Lim ◽  
Elizabeth Liu ◽  
Michael V. Baratta ◽  
Ki A. Goosens
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Dorsal Hippocampus ◽  
Fear Memory ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Pavlovian Fear Conditioning ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Negative Prediction ◽  
Aversive Events ◽  
Dorsal Hippocampal ◽  
Cornu Ammonis

Despite the ubiquitous use of Pavlovian fear conditioning as a model for fear learning, the highly predictable conditions used in the laboratory do not resemble real-world conditions, in which dangerous situations can lead to unpleasant outcomes in unpredictable ways. In the current experiments, we varied the timing of aversive events after predictive cues in rodents and discovered that temporal ambiguity of aversive events greatly enhances fear. During fear conditioning with unpredictably timed aversive events, pharmacological inactivation of the dorsal hippocampus or optogenetic silencing of cornu ammonis 1 cells during aversive negative prediction errors prevented this enhancement of fear without affecting fear learning for predictable events. Dorsal hippocampal inactivation also prevented ambiguity-related enhancement of fear during auditory fear conditioning under a partial-reinforcement schedule. These results reveal that information about the timing and occurrence of aversive events is rapidly acquired and that unexpectedly timed or omitted aversive events generate hippocampal signals to enhance fear learning.

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