A pragmatic comparison of noise burst and electric shock unconditioned stimuli for fear conditioning research with many trials

Sperl, Matthias F.J.; Panitz, Christian; Hermann, Christiane; Mueller, Erik M.

doi:10.1111/psyp.12677

Cited by 52 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 134 publications

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“…Elevated pain ratings of the CT group in the beginning of the test phase supposedly reflect the successful induction of threat in response to the conditioning procedure. However, after the CS+ was presented for several times without the US, fear extinction is very likely (Milad and Quirk, 2012; Sperl et al , 2016). In the IT group instead, threat persist over time and even might increase in the course of the experiment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxious anticipation and pain: the influence of instructedvsconditioned threat on pain

Reicherts

Wiemer

Gerdes

et al. 2016

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Negative emotions such as anxiety enhance pain perception. However, certain threat characteristics are discussed to have different or even divergent effects on pain (hypoalgesia vs hyperalgesia). In order to investigate the neurobiological basis of different threats, we compared the impact of conditioned threat (CT) vs instructed threat (IT) on pain using fMRI. In two groups, participants underwent either Pavlovian threat conditioning or an instructed threat procedure. Afterwards, in an identical test phase participants watched the same visual cues from the previous phase indicating potential threat or safety, and received painful thermal stimulation. In the test phase, pain ratings were increased in both groups under threat. Group comparisons show elevated responses in amygdala and hippocampus for pain under threat in the CT group, and higher activation of the mid-cingulate gyrus (MCC) in the IT group. Psychophysiological interaction analyses in CT demonstrated elevated connectivity of the amygdala and the insula for the comparison of pain under threat vs safety. In IT, the same comparison revealed elevated functional connectivity of the MCC and the insula. The results suggest a similar pain augmenting effect of CT and IT, which, however, seems to rely on different networks mediating the impact of threat on pain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxious anticipation and pain: the influence of instructedvsconditioned threat on pain

Reicherts

Wiemer

Gerdes

et al. 2016

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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show abstract

“…Responses lower than 0.02 μS were scored as zero. Responses were then range corrected separately for each day (see also, Sperl et al, 2016). Alike the startle response, we calculated mean scores for each CS (i.e., CS+ and CS-) within each context (i.e., CTX+, CTX-, G-CTX) separately for each phase (Acquisition 1, Acquisition 2, Generalization 1, Generalization 2).…”

Section: Data Reductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Context-dependent generalization of conditioned responses to threat and safety signals

Andreatta

Genheimer

Wieser

et al. 2020

International Journal of Psychophysiology

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Contextual information can modulate the conditioned response to a threat signal (conditioned stimulus, CS+): fear responses are either potentiated or attenuated depending on whether the context is threatening or safe. In this study, we investigated the influence of context on conditioned fear as well as on generalization of conditioned fear. Thirty-two participants underwent a cue-in-context learning protocol in virtual reality (VR). On Day 1 (acquisition), participants received a mild painful electric shock (unconditioned stimulus, US) in one virtual room (fear context, CTX+) at the offset of one colored light (CS+), but never at the offset of another colored light (CS-). In a second room (safety context, CTX-), the two lights were also presented, but not the US. Successful cue conditioning was indicated by aversive ratings and startle potentiation but not skin conductance responses (SCR) to CS+ versus CS-in CTX+ and not in CTX-. On Day 2 (generalization), participants re-visited both fear and safety contexts plus a generalization context (G-CTX), which was an equal mix of CTX+ and CTX-. The two CSs were shown again in all three contexts. Generalization of conditioned fear was revealed in affective ratings (CS+ was rated more aversive than CS-in G-CTX), but not in physiological measures (equal startle potentiation to CS+ versus CS-in all contexts). In sum, contextual information modulates the responses to a threat signal such that a safety context can inhibit conditioned fear. Interestingly, generalization processes also depend on contextual information. Germany.

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“…< 500 ms; Miskovic and Keil, 2012), it is unknown, whether enhanced visual attention is 28 types was permutated and balanced across participants. The US was a 1 s white noise burst at 95 23 dB(A) delivered by a room speaker as we had previously shown that noise bursts are particularly well 24 suited for threat conditioning with many trials (Sperl et al, 2016). In every trial, a fixation cross (1 s 25 duration) was presented before participants saw the CS for 4 s. In paired trials the CS co-terminated 26 with the US for 1 s. A black screen (jittered duration, 6-8 s) was presented between trials.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction-resistant attention to long-term conditioned threat is indexed by selective visuocortical alpha suppression in humans

Panitz

Keil

Mueller

2019

Preprint

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1 2 While ERP studies have shown heightened early visual attention to conditioned threat, it is unknown 3 whether this attentional prioritization is sustained throughout later processing stages and whether it is 4 robust to extinction. To investigate sustained visual attention, we assessed visuocortical alpha 5 suppression in response to conditioned and extinguished threat. We reanalysed data from N = 87 male 6 participants that had shown successful long-term threat conditioning and extinction in self reports and 7 physiological measures in a two-day conditioning paradigm. The current EEG time-frequency 8 analyses on recall test data on Day 2 revealed that previously threat-conditioned vs. safety cues 9 evoked stronger occipital alpha power suppression from 600 to 1200 ms. Notably, this suppression 10 was resistant to previous extinction. The present study showed for the first time that threat 11 conditioning enhances sustained modulation of visuocortical attention to threat in the long term. Long-12 term stability and extinction resistance of alpha suppression suggest a crucial role of visuocortical 13 attention mechanisms in the maintenance of learned fears. 14 15

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A pragmatic comparison of noise burst and electric shock unconditioned stimuli for fear conditioning research with many trials

Cited by 52 publications

References 134 publications

Anxious anticipation and pain: the influence of instructedvsconditioned threat on pain

Anxious anticipation and pain: the influence of instructedvsconditioned threat on pain

Context-dependent generalization of conditioned responses to threat and safety signals

Extinction-resistant attention to long-term conditioned threat is indexed by selective visuocortical alpha suppression in humans

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