scholarly journals Effects of intolerance of uncertainty on subjective and psychophysiological measures during fear acquisition and delayed extinction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maren Klingelhöfer-Jens ◽  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Tina B Lonsdorf
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Acquisition Training ◽  
Extinction Training ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Psychophysiological Measures ◽  
Learned Fear ◽  
Startle Blink

Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to find uncertainty unacceptable and aversive. In recent years, research has shed light on the role of IU in modulating subjective (i.e. expectancy ratings) and psychophysiological responses (i.e. skin conductance) across different classical fear conditioning procedures, particularly that of immediate extinction. However, there remain gaps in understanding how IU, in comparison to other negative emotionality traits (STAI-T), impact different types of subjective and psychophysiological measures during different classical fear conditioning procedures. Here, we analyzed IU, STAI-T, subjective (i.e. fear ratings) and psychophysiological (i.e. skin conductance, auditory startle blink) data recorded during fear acquisition training and 24h-delayed extinction training (n = 66). Higher IU, over STAI-T, was: (1) significantly associated with greater fear ratings to the learned fear cue during fear acquisition training, and (2) at trend associated with greater fear ratings to the learned fear versus safe cue during delayed extinction training. Both IU and STAI-T were not related to skin conductance or auditory startle blink during fear acquisition training and delayed extinction training. These results add to and extend our current understanding of the role of IU on subjective and physiological measures during different fear conditioning procedures, particularly that of delayed extinction training. Implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals The role of intolerance of uncertainty in the acquisition and extinction of reward

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Nicolo Biagi ◽  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Marta Andreatta
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Acquisition Training ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Partial Reward ◽  
Extinction Training ◽  
Corrugator Supercilii

AbstractIndividuals, who score high in self-reported intolerance of uncertainty (IU), tend to find uncertainty anxiety-provoking. IU has been reliably associated with disrupted threat extinction. However, it remains unclear whether IU would be related to disrupted extinction to other arousing stimuli that are not threatening (i.e., rewarding). We addressed this question by conducting a reward associative learning task with acquisition and extinction training phases (n = 58). Throughout the associative learning task, we recorded valence ratings (i.e. liking), skin conductance response (SCR) (i.e. sweating), and corrugator supercilii activity (i.e. brow muscle indicative or negative and positive affect) to learned reward and neutral cues. During acquisition training with partial reward reinforcement, higher IU was associated with greater corrugator supercilii activity to neutral compared to reward cues. IU was not related to valence ratings or SCR’s during the acquisition or extinction training phases. These preliminary results suggest that IU-related deficits during extinction may be limited to situations with threat. The findings further our conceptual understanding of IU’s role in the associative learning and extinction of reward, and in relation to the processing of threat and reward more generally.

scholarly journals The role of intolerance of uncertainty in classical threat conditioning: Recent developments and directions for future research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Daniel Zuj ◽  
Gaëtan Mertens
Keyword(s):  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Acquisition Training ◽  
Mental Health Disorders ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Obsessive Compulsive ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Health Disorders ◽  
Learned Fear ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), the tendency to find uncertainty aversive, is an important transdiagnostic dimension in mental health disorders. Over the last decade, there has been a surge of research on the role of IU in classical threat conditioning procedures, which serve as analogues to the development, treatment, and relapse of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders. This review provides an overview of the existing literature on IU in classical threat conditioning procedures. The review integrates findings based on the shared or discrete parameters of uncertainty embedded within classical threat conditioning procedures. Under periods of unexpected uncertainty, where threat and safety contingencies change, high IU, over other self-reported measures of anxiety, is specifically associated with poorer threat extinction learning and retention, as well as overgeneralisation. Under periods of estimation and expected uncertainty, where the parameters of uncertainty are being learned or have been learned, such as threat acquisition training and avoidance learning, the findings are mixed for IU. These findings provide evidence that individual differences in IU play a significant role in maintaining learned fear and anxiety, particularly under volatile environments. Recommendations for future research are outlined, with discussion focusing on how parameters of uncertainty can be better defined to capture how IU is involved in the maintenance of learned fear and anxiety. Such work will be crucial for understanding the role of IU in neurobiological models of uncertainty-based maintenance of fear and anxiety and inform translational work aiming to improve the diagnosis and treatment of relevant psychopathology.

Human Psychophysiology and PTSD

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Jovanovic ◽  
Seth Davin Norrholm
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Clinical Research ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Muscle Contractions ◽  
Pavlovian Fear Conditioning ◽  
Psychophysiological Measures ◽  
Biological Assessments

Psychophysiological measures provide useful tools for investigating neurobiological mechanisms of trauma-related sequalae. In addition, they can serve as objective biological assessments of symptom severity in clinical research. This chapter describes the methods for collection of psychophysiological measures. These include muscle contractions (startle), electrodermal skin conductance, heart rate, and heart rate variability (HRV) at baseline, under stress, and following Pavlovian fear conditioning. These approaches are important both for understanding biology as well as for providing objective biomarkers that can be compared translationally from animals to humans. It also reviews the literature that has used these measures in PTSD. The evidence to date strongly suggests that these data provide robust correlates of PTSD severity.

scholarly journals I doubt it is safe: A meta-analysis of self-reported intolerance of uncertainty and threat extinction training

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Shannon Jade Wake ◽  
Charlotte Elizabeth ◽  
Carien M. van Reekum
Keyword(s):  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Mental Health Disorders ◽  
Extinction Training ◽  
The Self ◽  
Target Uncertainty ◽  
Health Disorders

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), the tendency to find uncertainty distressing, is an important transdiagnostic dimension in mental health disorders. Higher self-reported IU has been linked to poorer threat extinction training (i.e., the updating of threat to safe associations), a key process that is targeted in exposure-based therapies. However, it remains to be seen whether IU-related effects during threat extinction training are reliably and specifically driven by the IU construct or a particular subcomponent of the IU construct over other self-reported measures of anxiety. A meta-analysis of studies from different laboratories (experiment n = 18; sample n = 1006) was conducted on associations between different variants of self-reported IU (i.e., 27-item, 12-item, inhibitory and prospective subscales), trait anxiety and threat extinction training via skin conductance response. The specificity of IU and threat extinction training was assessed against measures of trait anxiety. All of the self-reported variants of IU, but not trait anxiety, were associated with threat extinction training via skin conductance response (i.e., continued responding to the old threat cue). Specificity was observed for the majority of self-reported variants of IU over of trait anxiety. The findings suggest that the IU construct broadly accounts for difficulties in threat extinction training and is specific over other measures of self-reported anxiety. These findings demonstrate the robustness and specificity of IU-related effects during threat extinction training and highlight potential opportunities for translational work to target uncertainty in therapies that rely on threat extinction principles such as exposure therapy.

scholarly journals An examination of intolerance of uncertainty effects on subjective, psychophysiological, and neural markers during uninstructed and instructed threat acquisition and extinction training

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Wendt ◽  
Jayne Morriss
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Extinction Training ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Tentative Evidence

Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to find uncertainty aversive. Prior research has demonstrated that under uncertainty individuals with high IU display difficulties in updating learned threat associations to safety associations. Importantly, recent research has shown that providing contingency instructions about threat and safety contingencies (i.e. reducing uncertainty) to individuals with high IU promotes the updating of learned threat associations to safety associations. Here we aimed to conceptually replicate IU and contingency instruction-based effects by conducting a secondary analysis of self-reported IU, ratings, skin conductance, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data recorded during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training (n = 48). Self-reported IU was not associated with differential responding to learned threat and safety cues for any measure during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training. There was some tentative evidence that higher IU was associated with greater ratings of unpleasantness and arousal to the safety cue after the experiment and greater skin conductance response to the safety cue during extinction generally. Potential explanations for these null effects and directions for future research are discussed.

scholarly journals The devil is in the detail: The role of threat level and intolerance of uncertainty in extinction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Francesco Saldarini ◽  
Carien M. van Reekum
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Subjective Ratings ◽  
Potential Threat ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Threat Level ◽  
The Devil

AbstractRecent evidence suggests that individual differences in intolerance of uncertainty (IU) are associated with disrupted threat extinction. However, it is unknown what maintains the learned threat association in high IU individuals: is it the experienced uncertainty during extinction or the combination of experienced uncertainty with potential threat during extinction? Here we addressed this question by running two independent experiments with uncertain auditory stimuli that varied in threat level (Experiment 1, aversive human scream (n = 30); Experiment 2, benign tone (n = 47) and mildly aversive tone (n = 49)). During the experiments, we recorded skin conductance responses and subjective ratings to the learned cues during acquisition and extinction. In experiment 1, high IU was associated with heightened skin conductance responding to the learned threat vs. safe cue during extinction. In experiment 2, high IU was associated only with larger skin conductance responding to the learned cues with threatening properties during extinction i.e. mildly aversive tone. These findings suggest that uncertainty in combination with threat, even when mild, disrupts extinction in high IU individuals. Such findings help us understand the link between IU and threat extinction, and its relevance to anxiety disorder pathology.

scholarly journals Out with the old and in with the new: The role of intolerance of uncertainty in reversal of threat and safety

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 204380871983445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Francesco Saldarini ◽  
Catherine Chapman ◽  
Miriam Pollard ◽  
Carien M. van Reekum
Keyword(s):  
Trait Anxiety ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Anxiety State ◽  
Extinction Learning ◽  
Healthy Participants ◽  
Direct Threat

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is associated with difficulty in updating contingencies from threatening to safe during extinction learning. However, it is unknown whether high IU individuals have difficulty (1) generally with updating threat to safe associations when contingencies change or (2) specifically with updating threat to safe associations during extinction learning, where direct threat is omitted. To address this question, we recorded IU, expectancy ratings, and skin conductance in 44 healthy participants during an associative learning paradigm, where threat and safety contingencies were reversed. During acquisition and reversal, we observed larger skin conductance response (SCR) magnitude and expectancy ratings for threat versus safety cues. However, during reversal, higher IU was associated with larger SCR magnitude to new threat versus new safety cues, compared with lower IU. These results were specific to IU-related variance, over shared variance with trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Trait Version). Overall, these findings suggest that individuals high in IU are able to reverse threat and safety associations in the presence of direct threat. Such findings help us understand the recently revealed link between IU and threat extinction, where direct threat is absent. Moreover, these findings highlight the potential relevance of IU in clinical intervention and treatment for anxiety disorders.

The role of Anxiety Sensitivity in fear conditioning: a moderation effect

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bianca Gerardo ◽  
Raquel Nunes R. M. Guiomar ◽  
Mariana Moura-Ramos ◽  
Ana Ganho-Ávila
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Anxiety Sensitivity ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Moderation Effect ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

Anxiety sensitivity (AS; the degree of fear of experiencing or imagining experiencing anxiety symptoms and its possible consequences) is associated with expression of conditioned fear responses. However, findings regarding the relationship between AS and fear acquisition indexed by skin conductance responses are rather conflicting. Here we aim to clarify this interaction. We classified 144 women that underwent fear conditioning procedures as either high-AS or low-AS. We found that high-AS participants show one of two patterns maintained over time: poor stimuli discrimination or good stimuli discrimination. This suggests that different patterns of fear acquisition potentially support the distinction between anxiety disorders.

Experimental boundary conditions of reinstatement induced return of fear in humans: Is reinstatement in humans what we think it is?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Sjouwerman ◽  
Tina B Lonsdorf
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Condition ◽  
Acquisition Training ◽  
Extinction Training ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Physiological Measures ◽  
Context Conditioning ◽  
Return Of Fear ◽  
Statistical Approaches ◽  
Reinstatement Test

Experimental paradigms used to study reinstatement of fear in humans are characterized by procedural heterogeneity. Reinstatement protocols involve unexpected (re)-presentations of the unconditioned stimulus (USs) after fear extinction training. Here, we address the number of reinstatement USs administered as a potential boundary condition that may explain divergent findings in the field. A sample of 173 participants is exposed to a fear acquisition training, immediate extinction training, and reinstatement test experiment. Three groups differing in the number of reinstatement US are employed: one (n = 57) or four (n = 55) in experimental groups and zero (n = 61) in the control group. We adopt Bayesian statistical approaches beyond classical null hypothesis significance testing to qualify evidence for or against this potential methodological boundary condition in reinstatement-induced return of fear. Both groups exposed to reinstatement USs (RI-USone and RI-USfour) showed increased startle potentiation to the reinstatement administration context as compared to the RI-USzero group, supporting the role of context conditioning in reinstatement. This did however not transfer to responding to conditioned stimuli during the return of fear-test, as no evidence for an effect of the number of reinstatement USs (zero, one, four) was observed in either behavioral or physiological measures. In sum, our results speak against the number of reinstatement USs as a potential boundary condition in experimentally-induced return of fear in humans and may challenge what we think we know about the reinstatement phenomenon in humans and call for a critical reconsideration of paradigms as well as mechanisms that may underlie some reinstatement effects in the literature.

scholarly journals How many times do I need to see to believe? The impact of intolerance of uncertainty and exposure experience on safety-learning and retention in young adults

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne Morriss ◽  
Shannon Jade Wake ◽  
Michael Lindner ◽  
Eugene McSorley ◽  
Helen Dodd
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Exposure Condition ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Extended Exposure

Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) display difficulties updating threat associations to safe associations. Here we sought to determine whether individuals who score high in IU can learn and retain new safety associations if given more exposure. We recorded skin conductance response, pupil dilation and expectancy ratings during an associative threat learning task with acquisition, same-day extinction and next-day extinction phases. Participants (n = 144) were assigned to either a regular exposure (32 trials of same-day and next-day extinction) or extended exposure condition (48 trials of same-day and next-day extinction). We failed to replicate previous work showing that IU is associated with poorer safety-learning indexed via SCR, although the results were at trend and in the expected direction. We found preliminary evidence for promoted safety-retention in individuals with higher Inhibitory IU in the extended exposure condition, relative to individuals with higher Inhibitory IU in the regular exposure condition, indexed via SCR. These findings further our current understanding of the role of IU in safety-learning and -retention, informing models of IU and exposure-based treatments.

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