scholarly journals Neural substrates of individual differences in human fear learning: Evidence from concurrent fMRI, fear-potentiated startle, and US-expectancy data

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja van Well ◽  
Renée M. Visser ◽  
H. Steven Scholte ◽  
Merel Kindt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Fear Potentiated Startle

scholarly journals Feature Specific Attention and Return of Fear after Extinction

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom J. Barry ◽  
Bram Vervliet ◽  
Dirk Hermans
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Common Condition ◽  
Similar Stimulus ◽  
Return Of Fear ◽  
The Common ◽  
Fear Potentiated Startle ◽  
Report Measure ◽  
Unique Condition

Anxiety disorders are often treated by repeatedly presenting stimuli that are perceptually similar to original stimuli to which fear was originally acquired. Fear can return after it is extinguished because of the differences between these stimuli. It may possible to attenuate return of fear by manipulating attention to the commonalities between feared stimuli and extinction stimuli. After acquiring fear for an animal-like stimulus by pairing with an electro-cutaneous shock, fear was extinguished by repeatedly presenting a similar stimulus. During extinction participants were asked questions that instructed them to attend towards the features in common between the acquisition and extinction stimulus or towards the unique features of the extinction stimulus. Return of fear was assessed by presenting a second perceptually similar stimulus after extinction. Participants showed a return in skin conductance responding after extinction in the unique condition, and not in the common condition. Both groups showed a return in self-report ratings of US expectancy. Neither group showed a return in fear potentiated startle, but there was evidence that this may have been due to individual differences in emotional attentional control. Our conclusions are limited by the use of a self-report measure of emotional attentional control and the absence of limits on the length of time participants could take to answer the extinction questions. It may be possible to enhance extinction and prevent a return of the physiological aspects of fear by manipulating attention during extinction. However, this does not appear to influence explicit expectancy of aversive outcomes. Individual differences in attentional control may influence this process.

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.

047 Fear-Potentiated Startle and Sleep in Trauma-Exposed Men and Women with and without PTSD

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A20-A20
Author(s):  
Anne Richards ◽  
Sabra Inslicht ◽  
J Russell Huie ◽  
Leslie Yack ◽  
Laura Straus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Stress Condition ◽  
Sleep Onset ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Safety Signal ◽  
Ptsd Symptoms ◽  
Learning Retention ◽  
Fear Potentiated Startle ◽  
Learning And Change ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Introduction Animal and human studies indicate that fear conditioning disrupts subsequent sleep, including REM sleep (REMS). REMS is thought to be central to fear information processing. We utilized an afternoon nap protocol to examine the effects of fear-potentiated startle (FPS), a variant of fear conditioning, on subsequent sleep integrity and REMS in trauma-exposed participants with varying levels of PTSD. We also examined the effects of changes in sleep integrity and REMS on subsequent retention and extinction of pre-sleep learning. Methods Participants (N=47) participated in 3 nap visits. The first was an adaptation nap. The second and third nap visits were counterbalanced: a stress-condition nap, during which participants underwent FPS procedures prior to a nap and assessment of retention of fear and safety signal learning and fear extinction after the nap, and a control visit during which participants had a nap opportunity without stressful procedures. Canonical correlation analysis assessed the relationship between FPS responses and change in subsequent sleep relative to a control nap, as well as the relationship between change in sleep from control to stress condition and both subsequent fear and safety learning retention, and subsequent extinction. Results Results demonstrated a relationship between fear learning and change in sleep and supported a relationship between safety signal learning and subsequent REMS, as well as differential conditioning and wake after sleep onset. Sleep did not predict measures of fear retention or extinction. PTSD symptoms did not predict fear learning or sleep measures. Conclusion These findings replicate prior work showing a relationship between safety learning and REMS, suggesting that this is a core mechanism through which stress impacts fear processing. Further research is critical to further understand this effect, and to examine how different aspects of fear learning impact different components of sleep. This study also demonstrates that nap studies can be a valuable approach for studying the stress-sleep relationship. Support (if any) VA Career Development Award to Dr. Richards (5IK2CX000871-05)

scholarly journals Plasma oxytocin explains individual differences in neural substrates of social perception

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Lancaster ◽  
C. Sue Carter ◽  
Hossein Pournajafi-Nazarloo ◽  
Themistoclis Karaoli ◽  
Travis S. Lillard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Social Perception ◽  
Neural Substrates

scholarly journals Secure attachment priming protects against relapse of fear in Young adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Metaxia Toumbelekis ◽  
Belinda J. Liddell ◽  
Richard A. Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Fear Learning ◽  
Secure Attachment ◽  
Attachment Figure ◽  
Fear Potentiated Startle ◽  
Reinstatement Test

AbstractPrevious studies have shown that activating the attachment system attenuates fear learning. This study aimed to explore whether attachment priming can also impact on fear extinction processes, which underpin the management of anxiety disorders. In this study, 81 participants underwent a standard fear conditioning and extinction protocol on day 1 and returned 24 h later for an extinction recall and reinstatement test. Half the participants were primed to imagine their closest attachment figure prior to undergoing extinction training, while the other half were instructed to imagine a positive situation. Fear-potentiated startle and subjective expectancies of shock were measured as the primary indicators of fear. Attachment priming led to less relapse during the reinstatement test at the physiological but not subjective levels. These findings have translational potential to imply that activating awareness of attachment figures might augment long-term safety memories acquired in existing treatments to reduce relapse of fear.

scholarly journals Precise Memory is Predicted by Learning-Induced Sensory System Neurophysiological Plasticity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena K. Rotondo ◽  
Kasia. M. Bieszczad
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Auditory Learning ◽  
Acoustic Frequency ◽  
Specific Memory ◽  
Subsequent Behavior ◽  
Induced Signal ◽  
Induced Changes ◽  
Brain Behavior

AbstractDespite identical learning experiences, individuals differ in the memory formed of those experiences. Memory formed with sensory specificity determines its utility for selectively cueing subsequent behavior, even in novel situations. If an individual forms generalized memory, then there is potential for novel sensory cues to interfere with accurate behavioral performance. Here, a rodent model of auditory learning capitalized on individual differences in learning-induced auditory neuroplasticity to identify and characterize neural substrates for sound-specific (vs. general) memory of the training signal’s acoustic frequency. Animals with naturally or pharmacologically induced signal-“specific” memory revealed behaviorally, exhibited long-lasting signal-specific neurophysiological plasticity in auditory cortical and subcortical evoked responses, while learning-induced changes were not detected in animals with “general” memories. Individual differences validated this brain-behavior relationship, such that the degree of change in neurophysiological responses could be used to determine the precision of memory formation.

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