scholarly journals Behavioral, Physiological and EEG Activities Associated with Conditioned Fear as Sensors for Fear and Anxiety

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (23) ◽  
pp. 6751
Author(s):  
Jui-Hong Chien ◽  
Luana Colloca ◽  
Anna Korzeniewska ◽  
Timothy J. Meeker ◽  
O. Joe Bienvenu ◽  
...  

Anxiety disorders impose substantial costs upon public health and productivity in the USA and worldwide. At present, these conditions are quantified by self-report questionnaires that only apply to behaviors that are accessible to consciousness, or by the timing of responses to fear- and anxiety-related words that are indirect since they do not produce fear, e.g., Dot Probe Test and emotional Stroop. We now review the conditioned responses (CRs) to fear produced by a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus CS+) when it cues a painful laser unconditioned stimulus (US). These CRs include autonomic (Skin Conductance Response) and ratings of the CS+ unpleasantness, ability to command attention, and the recognition of the association of CS+ with US (expectancy). These CRs are directly related to fear, and some measure behaviors that are minimally accessible to consciousness e.g., economic scales. Fear-related CRs include non-phase-locked phase changes in oscillatory EEG power defined by frequency and time post-stimulus over baseline, and changes in phase-locked visual and laser evoked responses both of which include late potentials reflecting attention or expectancy, like the P300, or contingent negative variation. Increases (ERS) and decreases (ERD) in oscillatory power post-stimulus may be generalizable given their consistency across healthy subjects. ERS and ERD are related to the ratings above as well as to anxious personalities and clinical anxiety and can resolve activity over short time intervals like those for some moods and emotions. These results could be incorporated into an objective instrumented test that measures EEG and CRs of autonomic activity and psychological ratings related to conditioned fear, some of which are subliminal. As in the case of instrumented tests of vigilance, these results could be useful for the direct, objective measurement of multiple aspects of the risk, diagnosis, and monitoring of therapies for anxiety disorders and anxious personalities.

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neville J. King ◽  
Eleonora Gullone ◽  
Bruce J. Tonge

Despite their significance, childhood anxiety disorders, compared to those of adults, have been neglected by researchers. However, recent years have witnessed increasing research on childhood anxiety disorders. Normative and developmental aspects of fear and anxiety are briefly discussed and we examine the classification and diagnostic reliability of childhood anxiety disorders. In relation to assessment, we focus on some recent research developments on self-report instruments and behavioural avoidance tests. An integrative behavioural treatment model is presented in which the need for age-appropriate intervention is emphasised. Also, data on the social validity of fear reduction procedures are presented. Finally, we outline several directions for future research.


2001 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 85-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn A Campbell ◽  
Ronald M Rapee ◽  
Susan H Spence

The present study examined whether wording changes in a self-report anxiety scale for children were better able to distinguish anxious from non-anxious children than traditional wording. Furthermore, the study explored whether phrasing the items as either stimulus or consequences (outcomes) of events, would give a better assessment of fear and anxiety in children and adolescents. The four questionnaires were administered to an anxiety-disordered group and a non-anxious group of children aged from 6 to 15 years. Anxious children reported that they thought more about negative outcomes than non-anxious children. However, there were no differences in scores between the two groups using stimulus items. All children regarded negative physical consequences as aversive. However, anxious children reported thinking more frequently about negative physical outcomes than did non-anxious children. All children also thought about negative social outcomes. However, anxiety-disordered children rated negative social outcomes as more aversive than did non-anxious children. None of the four measures discriminated between the different anxiety disorders. Implications for children's self-report data on anxiety are discussed.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Ottosson ◽  
Martin Grann ◽  
Gunnar Kullgren

Summary: Short-term stability or test-retest reliability of self-reported personality traits is likely to be biased if the respondent is affected by a depressive or anxiety state. However, in some studies, DSM-oriented self-reported instruments have proved to be reasonably stable in the short term, regardless of co-occurring depressive or anxiety disorders. In the present study, we examined the short-term test-retest reliability of a new self-report questionnaire for personality disorder diagnosis (DIP-Q) on a clinical sample of 30 individuals, having either a depressive, an anxiety, or no axis-I disorder. Test-retest scorings from subjects with depressive disorders were mostly unstable, with a significant change in fulfilled criteria between entry and retest for three out of ten personality disorders: borderline, avoidant and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Scorings from subjects with anxiety disorders were unstable only for cluster C and dependent personality disorder items. In the absence of co-morbid depressive or anxiety disorders, mean dimensional scores of DIP-Q showed no significant differences between entry and retest. Overall, the effect from state on trait scorings was moderate, and it is concluded that test-retest reliability for DIP-Q is acceptable.


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 179-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Cooper ◽  
Adam M. Perkins ◽  
Philip J. Corr

Abstract. Recent revisions to the reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality have highlighted the distinction between the emotions of fear and anxiety. These revisions have substantial implications for self-report measurement; in particular, they raise the question of whether separate traits of fear and anxiety exist and, if so, their interrelationship. To address this question, the current study used confirmatory factor analytic procedures to examine the convergent and discriminant validity of measures of trait anxiety, fear, and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS). We also examined measurement and structural invariance across gender in 167 males and 173 females who completed the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Carver and White BIS Scale, and the Fear Survey Schedule (FSS). The findings suggested that trait anxiety and the BIS scale are relatively distinct from Tissue Damage Fear (FSS). Further, the final model showed measurement and structural invariance across gender. The implications of the results for future self-report assessment in RST research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Roz Shafran ◽  
Stanley Rachman ◽  
Maureen Whittal ◽  
Adam Radomsky ◽  
Anna Coughtrey

2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (9) ◽  
pp. 979-987 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Marie Mathew ◽  
Lauren Hale ◽  
Anne-Marie Chang

AbstractThere is a lack of research on associations of social jetlag with eating behaviours and obesity among adolescents. We examined the associations of social jetlag with eating behaviours and BMI in adolescents before and after adjustment for potential confounders. Self-report data were collected from 3060 adolescents (48·1 % female, mean age 15·59 (sd 0·77) years) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. In regression models, social jetlag predicted odds of consumption of breakfast, fruits/vegetables, fast food and sweetened drinks and BMI percentile. Primary models adjusted for school night sleep duration, sex, age, household income and youth living arrangements; secondary models further adjusted for race/ethnicity. In fully adjusted models, greater social jetlag was associated with lower odds of consumption of breakfast (OR = 0·92, P = 0·003) and fruits/vegetables (OR = 0·92, P = 0·009) and higher odds of consumption of fast food (OR = 1·18, P < 0·001) and sweetened drinks (OR = 1·18, P < 0·001). Social jetlag was positively associated with BMI percentile after additional adjustment for eating behaviours (b = 0·84, P = 0·037), but this relationship was attenuated after adjustment for race/ethnicity (b = 0·72, P = 0·072). Ethnoracial differences in social jetlag may attenuate the association of social jetlag with BMI and should be considered in future studies of circadian misalignment, eating behaviours and obesity markers.


e-Neuroforum ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Sachser ◽  
K.-P. Lesch

AbstractIndividual differences in fear, anxiety, and the etiology of anxiety disorders develop dur­ing ontogeny. They are due to both genet­ic and environmental factors. With regard to the role of the environment, the organism is most susceptible to external influences dur­ing early development. Accordingly, stressors that impinge on the maternal organism dur­ing pregnancy evoke high levels of anxiety in the offspring later in life, as does an adverse early postnatal environment. However, anxi­ety-related circuits in the central nervous sys­tem retain their plasticity in adulthood, i.e., levels of anxiety can also be modified by ex­perience across the entire successive lifespan. Notably, the effects of external stressors on the individual’s level of anxiety are modulat­ed by genotype. Such genotype-by-environ­ment interactions are particularly well stud­ied in relation to genetic variants that modu­late the function of the serotonin transport­er. Thus, this review focuses on this candidate gene to elucidate the interplay of genotype and environment in the development of fear and anxiety.


2007 ◽  
Vol 41 (10) ◽  
pp. 836-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Phillips ◽  
Louise Sharpe ◽  
Stephen Matthey

Objective: Depression and anxiety are known to be common among women presenting to residential mother–infant programmes for unsettled infant behaviour but most studies have used self-report measures of psychological symptomatology rather than diagnostic interviews to determine psychiatric diagnoses. The aim of the present study was to determine rates of depressive and anxiety disorders and rates of comorbidity among clients of the Karitane residential mother–infant programme for unsettled infant behaviour. Method: One hundred and sixty women with infants aged 2 weeks–12 months completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and were interviewed for current and lifetime history of depressive and anxiety disorders using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV diagnosis (Research version). Results: A total of 25.1% of the sample met criteria for a current diagnosis of major depression, 31.7% had met criteria for major depression since the start of the pregnancy, and 30.5% of clients met criteria for a current anxiety disorder. Of note were the 21.6% who met criteria for generalized anxiety disorder or anxiety disorder not otherwise specified (worry confined to the topics of the baby or being a mother). High levels of comorbidity were confirmed in the finding that 60.8% of those with an anxiety disorder had experienced major or minor depression since the start of their pregnancy and 46.3% of those who had experienced depression since the start of their pregnancy also met criteria for a current anxiety disorder. Conclusions: There are high levels of psychiatric morbidity among clients attending residential mother–infant units for unsettled infant behaviour, highlighting the importance of providing multifaceted interventions in order to address both infant and maternal psychological issues.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birthe Macdonald ◽  
Tom Johnstone

In this study we trialled a novel paradigm that aims to bridge the gap between the research into the extinction of conditioned responses and the instructed regulation of emotion via a prescribed strategy. This was done through a process we called Selective Extinction through Cognitive Evaluation (SECE). Participants were conditioned to associate a previously neutral stimulus (letter, CS+) with an aversive burst of white noise (US) and another letter with no aversive event (CS-). In a second phase, the same letters were presented within words belonging to two distinct categories. One group did not receive any more noise bursts during this phase which lead to the extinction of the conditioned responses (extinction group). The other group (SECE group) was told that the CS+ now only carried a risk of the noise occurring when it was presented in one (dangerous), but not the other word category (safe). Affective responses were assessed using skin conductance responses (SCR). We found overall increased SCR’s in response to CS+ (safe and dangerous) compared to CS- trials in the SECE group, and also increased SCR’s in response to dangerous compared to safe CS+ trials. This suggests that the conditioned response (CR) can be reduced through the cognitive evaluation of additional information and it is possible that extinction mechanisms are involved in this process. We did not find any effects in the extinction group. It is possible that extinction was completed too quickly so that any differences between conditions could not be captured. We therefore conducted a second study to pilot an improved paradigm. We visually amended the trials, amended the reinforcement schedule, and changed to a fully within-subjects design. Here we once again found significantly reduced SCR to safe compared to dangerous CS+ trials. Future experiments will use these results as a basis for an improved paradigm to better capture changes in SCR as well as BOLD fMRI in future experiments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 811-814
Author(s):  
Christina L. Boisseau ◽  
Sarah L. Garnaat

Converging lines of research highlight the significance of cognitive and behavioral flexibility in the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of fear and anxiety disorders. We have developed a Special Issue to highlight recent empirical investigations, contemporary theory, and novel directions for future study. It is hoped that this special issue will (a) underscore the centrality of cognitive and behavioral flexibility to fear- and anxiety-related psychopathology, (b) call attention to cognitive science approaches investigating related neuropsychological correlates, and (c) highlight novel experimental and theoretical research on germane contextual factors.


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