Contextual conditioning in rats as an animal model for generalized anxiety disorder

Luyten, Laura; Vansteenwegen, Debora; Kuyck, Kris van; Gabriëls, Loes; Nuttin, Bart

doi:10.3758/s13415-011-0021-6

Cited by 49 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 161 publications

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“…seems to be better modeled as the result from context rather than cue conditioning (Davis, 1998;Luyten, Vansteenwegen, van Kuyck, Gabriëls, & Nuttin, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conditioned Fear Acquisition and Generalization in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

et al. 2015

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Abnormal fear conditioning processes (including fear acquisition and conditioned fear-generalization) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. Previous research has shown that individuals with panic disorder present enhanced conditioned fear-generalization in comparison to healthy controls. Enhanced conditioned fear-generalization could also characterize generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), but research so far is inconclusive. An important confounding factor in previous research is comorbidity. The present study examined conditioned fear-acquisition and fear-generalization in 28 patients with GAD and 30 healthy controls using a recently developed fear acquisition and generalization paradigm assessing fear-potentiated startle and online expectancies of the unconditioned stimulus. Analyses focused on GAD patients without comorbidity but included also patients with comorbid anxiety disorders. Patients and controls did not differ as regards fear acquisition. However, contrary to our hypothesis, both groups did not differ either in most indexes of conditioned fear-generalization.Moreover, dimensional measures of GAD symptoms were not correlated with conditioned fear-generalization indexes. Similar results were obtained for patients with comorbidity.These results suggest that conditioned fear-generalization is not enhanced in GAD. Results are discussed with special attention to the possible effects of comorbidity on fear learning abnormalities.

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“…seems to be better modeled as the result from context rather than cue conditioning (Davis, 1998;Luyten, Vansteenwegen, van Kuyck, Gabriëls, & Nuttin, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conditioned Fear Acquisition and Generalization in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

et al. 2015

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“…63 In addition, several other factors can influence the effects of SSRIs, including the timing of drug administration, the kind of CS stimulus, and the intervals between acquisition and expression of conditioned fear. 54,64 Other animal models of anxiety…”

Section: Fear Conditioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal models of anxiety disorders and stress

Campos

Fogaça

Aguiar

et al. 2013

Rev. Bras. Psiquiatr.

378

246

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Anxiety and stress-related disorders are severe psychiatric conditions that affect performance in daily tasks and represent a high cost to public health. The initial observation of Charles Darwin that animals and human beings share similar characteristics in the expression of emotion raise the possibility of studying the mechanisms of psychiatric disorders in other mammals (mainly rodents). The development of animal models of anxiety and stress has helped to identify the pharmacological mechanisms and potential clinical effects of several drugs. Animal models of anxiety are based on conflict situations that can generate opposite motivational states induced by approach-avoidance situations. The present review revisited the main rodent models of anxiety and stress responses used worldwide. Here we defined as ''ethological'' the tests that assess unlearned/unpunished responses (such as the elevated plus maze, light-dark box, and open field), whereas models that involve learned/ punished responses are referred to as ''conditioned operant conflict tests'' (such as the Vogel conflict test). We also discussed models that involve mainly classical conditioning tests (fear conditioning). Finally, we addressed the main protocols used to induce stress responses in rodents, including psychosocial (social defeat and neonatal isolation stress), physical (restraint stress), and chronic unpredictable stress.

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“…We were primarily interested in the comparison between ANX and CTRL rats, to gain more insight into the neurocircuitry of contextual conditioning and because of the potential relevance of these findings to anxiety disorders (Luyten et al, 2011b). We hope that, in the long run, our results will stimulate the development of new treatment options for patients suffering from anxiety disorders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, less is known about contextual conditioning than about cued fear conditioning, which has been studied for almost 100 years (Watson and Rayner, 1920;Pavlov and Anrep, 1927). However, interest is growing, in part because contextual conditioning in rats serves as an animal model for human pathological anxiety such as in generalized anxiety disorder (Grillon et al, 2006;Zanoveli et al, 2007;Luyten et al, 2011b). So far, the neurocircuitry of conditioning has been studied primarily through lesion or inactivation experiments in rodents (often pretraining interventions) (Kim and Jung, 2006;Walker et al, 2009) and, to a lesser degree, using autoradiography or histochemistry techniques (Gonzalez-Lima and Scheich, 1986;Beck and Fibiger, 1995;Poremba et al, 1998;Plakke et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of Rat Brain Metabolism during Expression of Contextual Conditioning

Luyten¹,

Casteels²,

Vansteenwegen³

et al. 2012

J. Neurosci.

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Using 18F-fluorodeoxygluose microPET imaging, we investigated the neurocircuitry of contextual anxiety versus control in awake, conditioned rats (n ϭ 7-10 per group). In addition, we imaged a group expressing cued fear. Simultaneous measurements of startle amplitude and freezing time were used to assess conditioning. To the best of our knowledge, no neuroimaging studies in conditioned rats have been conducted thus far, although visualizing and quantifying the metabolism of the intact brain in behaving animals is clearly of interest. In addition, more insight into the neurocircuitry involved in contextual anxiety may stimulate the development of new treatments for anxiety disorders. Our main finding was hypermetabolism in a cluster comprising the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BST) in rats expressing contextual anxiety compared with controls. Analysis of a subset of rats showing the best behavioral results (n ϭ 5 per subgroup) confirmed this finding. We also observed hypermetabolism in the same cluster in rats expressing contextual anxiety compared with rats expressing cued fear. Our results provide novel evidence for a role of the BST in the expression of contextual anxiety.

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Contextual conditioning in rats as an animal model for generalized anxiety disorder

Cited by 49 publications

References 161 publications

Conditioned Fear Acquisition and Generalization in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Conditioned Fear Acquisition and Generalization in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Animal models of anxiety disorders and stress

Micro-Positron Emission Tomography Imaging of Rat Brain Metabolism during Expression of Contextual Conditioning

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