Empathy Does Not Amplify Vicarious Threat Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lane Williams ◽  
Christopher C Conway
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Defensive Response ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Reaction ◽  
Direct Exposure ◽  
Conditioned Responses ◽  
Clinically Significant ◽  
Stimulus Materials ◽  
Dispositional Empathy

Clinically significant fears and phobias can be acquired vicariously. Witnessing a demonstrator’s defensive reaction to potentially dangerous objects and situations can instill conditioned threat responses in the observer. The present study concentrates on individual differences in this social learning process. Specifically, we hypothesized that dispositional empathy modulates vicarious threat conditioning. We examined university students’ (N = 150) conditioned threat responding after they observed strangers undergo Pavlovian threat conditioning. There was evidence of a substantial conditioned defensive response (Cohen’s d = 0.66), as indexed by elevated skin conductance reactions during participants’ direct exposure to the vicariously conditioned stimuli. Contrary to expectations, indices of dispositional empathy were weakly related to the size of conditioned responses (median r = .04). Our results confirm that vicarious threat learning can be evaluated experimentally, but they do not support the hypothesis that empathy amplifies this process. The preregistration, stimulus materials, data, and analysis code for this study are available at https://osf.io/h6hm2.

scholarly journals Decreased defensive reactivity to interoceptive threat after successful exposure-based psychotherapy in patients with panic disorder

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Benke ◽  
Manuela G. Alius ◽  
Alfons O. Hamm ◽  
Christiane A. Pané-Farré
Keyword(s):  
Panic Disorder ◽  
Primary Diagnosis ◽  
Symptom Improvement ◽  
Defensive Response ◽  
Wait List ◽  
Eyeblink Response ◽  
Waiting Period ◽  
Startle Eyeblink ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Clinically Significant

AbstractPanic disorder (PD) is characterized by a dysfunctional defensive responding to panic-related body symptoms that is assumed to contribute to the persistence of panic symptomatology. The present study aimed at examining whether this dysfunctional defensive reactivity to panic-related body symptoms would no longer be present following successful cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) but would persist when patients show insufficient symptom improvement. Therefore, in the present study, effects of CBT on reported symptoms and defensive response mobilization during interoceptive challenge were investigated using hyperventilation as a respiratory symptom provocation procedure. Changes in defensive mobilization to body symptoms in the course of CBT were investigated in patients with a primary diagnosis of PD with or without agoraphobia by applying a highly standardized hyperventilation task prior to and after a manual-based CBT (n = 38) or a waiting period (wait-list controls: n = 20). Defensive activation was indexed by the potentiation of the amygdala-dependent startle eyeblink response. All patients showed a pronounced defensive response mobilization to body symptoms at baseline. After treatment, no startle reflex potentiation was found in those patients who showed a clinically significant improvement. However, wait-list controls and treatment non-responders continued to show increased defensive responses to actually innocuous body symptoms after the treatment/waiting period. The present results indicate that the elimination of defensive reactivity to actually innocuous body symptoms might be a neurobiological correlate and indicator of successful CBT in patients with PD, which may help to monitor and optimize CBT outcomes.

Resistance to Extinction of Conditioned Electrodermal Responses: A Study of the Incubation Fear Hypothesis

2002 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonifacio Sandin ◽  
Paloma Chorot
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Differential Conditioning ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Incubation Effect ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Resistance To Extinction ◽  
Undergraduate Women ◽  
Electrodermal Responses ◽  
Delay Differential

In the present study we examined Eysenck's incubation hypothesis of fear. Probability of skin conductance response (SCR) was analyzed for a sample of 79 undergraduate women, ranging in age from 18 to 25 years. Different groups of participants were conditioned to two levels of unconditioned stimuli (UCS) intensity and presented to three levels of unreinforced conditioned stimuli (CS) exposures (extinction phase) in a delay differential conditioning paradigm. The CSs were fear-relevant slides (snakes and spiders) and the UCSs were aversive tones. Analysis did not show a clear incubation effect; instead an increased resistance to extinction of SCR probability in association to the high-UCS and the short unreinforced CS presentation was evident. Findings support partially Eysenck's incubation theory of fear/anxiety.

Effects of Behavioral Responding on Skin Conductance Level

1969 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 599-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Germana
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Behavioral Response ◽  
Skin Conductance Level ◽  
Individual Response ◽  
Behavioral Requirements ◽  
Conductance Level

The effects of behavioral response requirements on skin conductance level (SCL) were studied. Initial Ss were placed in either a “non-respond” (NR) or a “respond” (R) condition. No clear effects were observed other than large differences in individual response to both conditions. Subsequent use of a within- Ss replication design showed, however, that behavioral requirements have a tonic effect on SCL and that anticipatory changes in SCL may occur prior to the R condition. The results support the hypothesis that autonomic and behavioral events are essentially integrated and, in addition, suggest the efficacy of the within- Ss replication design in treating individual differences.

scholarly journals Salience Network Connectivity Modulates Skin Conductance Responses in Predicting Arousal Experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 827-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenjie Xia ◽  
Alexandra Touroutoglou ◽  
Karen S. Quigley ◽  
Lisa Feldman Barrett ◽  
Bradford C. Dickerson
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Salience Network ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Additional Variance ◽  
Connectivity Strength

Individual differences in arousal experience have been linked to differences in resting-state salience network connectivity strength. In this study, we investigated how adding task-related skin conductance responses (SCR), a measure of sympathetic autonomic nervous system activity, can predict additional variance in arousal experience. Thirty-nine young adults rated their subjective experience of arousal to emotionally evocative images while SCRs were measured. They also underwent a separate resting-state fMRI scan. Greater SCR reactivity (an increased number of task-related SCRs) to emotional images and stronger intrinsic salience network connectivity independently predicted more intense experiences of arousal. Salience network connectivity further moderated the effect of SCR reactivity: In individuals with weak salience network connectivity, SCR reactivity more significantly predicted arousal experience, whereas in those with strong salience network connectivity, SCR reactivity played little role in predicting arousal experience. This interaction illustrates the degeneracy in neural mechanisms driving individual differences in arousal experience and highlights the intricate interplay between connectivity in central visceromotor neural circuitry and peripherally expressed autonomic responses in shaping arousal experience.

scholarly journals Explorations with Conditioned Stimuli in Autoshaping Procedures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill F. Nehrbas ◽  
Elizabeth B. Smedley ◽  
S. Smith Kyle
Keyword(s):  
Water Sources ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Sign Tracking ◽  
Conditioning Experiment ◽  
Conditioned Responses ◽  
Tracking Response

AbstractSign-tracking is a form of autoshaping where by animals reliably develop conditioned responses toward stimuli that predict an outcome. While the assignment of some value to a predictive cue may be adaptive (i.e., to be alerted to food and water sources), the attribution of value to predictive cues can be maladaptive as seen in behaviors elicited during addiction. Here we test if responding to the predictive cue changes in the context of other cues that are only partially predictive (Experiment 1). Previous work on sequential cues leading to reward have shown a bias in responding toward the first cue in the sequence over learning (Smedley and Smith 2018a, 2018b). Here we test if this effect is unique to discrete cues or if a bias in responding can be seen in a single, long cue (Experiment 2). Finally, we investigate if sign-tracking responses can reliably develop towards a cue that arrives after the delivery of reward (backwards conditioning, Experiment 3). Together, we aim to address various gaps in knowledge about the nature of the sign-tracking response.

scholarly journals PRELIMINARY STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF POST-RETRIEVAL EXTINCTION ON THE RETURN OF CONDITIONED RESPONSES IN HUMANS

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Fonseca Zuccolo ◽  
Maria Helena Leite Hunziker
Keyword(s):  
Pavlovian Conditioning ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Test Phase ◽  
Extinction Procedure ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
The Us ◽  
Minute Interval ◽  
Single Presentation ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
Conditioned Responses

We conducted a preliminary study to replicate the experiment by Schiller et al. (2010), who found that conditional responses (CR) may be permanently inhibited through post-retrieval extinction, a procedure in which subjects are exposed to a stimulus that was present during conditioning (retrieval cue), such as the presentation of the CS without the US or a single presentation of the US alone, followed by extinction. Eleven adult participants underwent Pavlovian conditioning with three colored squares (CS), two of which (CSa+ and CSb+) were paired with a mild electrical stimulation (US), whereas a third stimulus was never paired with a US (CS-). Twenty-four hours later, the participants were divided into two groups (experimental and control) and underwent extinction, which consisted of presenting all CSs without the US. For the experimental group only, a retrieval cue consisting of a single presentation of the CSa+ and CS- without the US was administered 10 min before extinction. In the test phase, the US was administered four times and then followed by a ten-minute interval and a new extinction procedure. Skin conductance responses to the stimuli were measured. Groups did not differ from each other. They presented equivalent levels of conditioning and extinction as well as an increase in CR amplitudes following the presentation of all stimuli in the test phase. These data do not replicate findings from the original study, suggesting that further analyses are needed to identify variables that control Pavlovian conditioning and extinction in humans. Key words: Pavlovian conditioning, post-retrieval extinction, reconsolidation, skin conductance, humans.

Effects of UCS Intensity and Duration of Exposure of Nonreinforced CS on Conditioned Electrodermal Responses: An Experimental Analysis of the Incubation Theory of Anxiety

1993 ◽  
Vol 73 (3_part_1) ◽  
pp. 931-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Chorot ◽  
Bonifacio Sandín
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Experimental Analysis ◽  
High Intensity ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Conditioning Experiment ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Electrodermal Responses ◽  
Delay Differential

Eysenck's incubation theory of fear or anxiety was examined in a human Pavlovian conditioning experiment with skin-conductance responses as the dependent variable. The conditioned stimuli (CSs) were fear-relevant slides (snakes and spiders) and the unconditioned stimuli (UCSs) were aversive tones. Different groups of subjects were presented two tone intensities during the acquisition phase and three durations of nonreinforced CS (extinction phase) in a delay differential conditioning paradigm. Resistance to extinction of conditioned skin-conductance responses (conditioned fear responses) exhibited was largest for high intensity of tone and short presentations of the nonreinforced CS (CS + presented alone). The result tends to support Eysenck's incubation theory of anxiety.

scholarly journals Arm Deflation in the Rare Thorny Sea Star, Poraniopsis inflatus (Asteroidea: Poraniidae), A Defensive Response to other Sea Stars?

2010 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Roland C. Anderson ◽  
Ronald L. Shimek
Keyword(s):  
Coelomic Fluid ◽  
Defensive Response ◽  
Sea Star ◽  
Sea Stars ◽  
Defensive Reaction ◽  
Northeastern Pacific

The Thorny Sea Star, Poraniopsis inflatus, is rare in the Northeastern Pacific. It lacks pedicellariae or other overt defenses for protection against other predatory sea stars. During an earlier study, a P. inflatus confronted by an asteroid-eating sea star was observed to exhibit a possible defensive reaction: "arm deflation." It was 15 years before another P. inflatus specimen could be obtained and that hypothesis confirmed by testing with individuals of 18 other sea-star species. Contact with individuals of four predatory sea-stars, Asterina miniata, Crossaster papposus, Solaster dawsoni, and Pycnopodia helianthoides, elicited the reaction in the P. inflatus. The specimen collapsed ("deflated") an arm closest to the predatory star, possibly by expelling coelomic fluid, exposing more of its embedded thorns (hence its common name) which may discourage other sea stars from attempting to eat it.

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