How Bad Could It Be? Alcohol Dampens Stress Responses to Threat of Uncertain Intensity

Bradford, Daniel E.; Shapiro, Benjamin L.; Curtin, John J.

doi:10.1177/0956797613499923

Cited by 83 publications

(129 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The NPU task has been used to examine drug administration and deprivation effects on negative affective response 4,34 and etiological mechanisms in mood and anxiety disorders [22][23][24][41][42][43] . In other research, Curtin and colleagues have also developed variants of these cued threat tasks that precisely manipulate threat uncertainty about WHEN (shock timing) 5,29,44 ; WHERE (administration location on body for shock) 25 ; and HOW BAD (shock intensity) 7 . While Curtin et al's use of these tasks has thus far focused on the effects of drug administration and withdrawal in healthy participants; all of these tasks could be used to study anxiety and fear responses in patients with anxiety and other mental disorders Curtin and colleagues have used all of the aforementioned classes of cued threat tasks in a program of research that has probed the boundary conditions of alcohol's anxiolytic effects on anxiety expressed during uncertain threat, broadly defined.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers interested in anxiety and fear acquisition, rather than expression, can modify the instructions and stimulus parameters in the Threat Probability Task to better serve their research questions. As noted earlier, retrospective self-report of anxiety/fear after each set or at the end of the task can be obtained easily 7 . Online measurement of perceived shock likelihood can also be obtained via keyboard press or voice recording to ensure that participants maintain attention and understanding of instructions throughout the task (for an example see 47 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Threat Probability task described here manipulates uncertainty about IF a shock will occur while holding all other dimensions of uncertainty constant thus making clear what aspect of uncertainty is responsible for the effects the task presents. Tasks that use startle potentiation to cued threat are flexible and can also be modified by affective scientists to manipulate uncertainty about WHERE the shocks are going to occur 25 and HOW BAD they will be 7,26 . Of all of these tasks, the Threat Probability Task is one of the easiest to interpret due to its focus on one dimension of uncertainty and most straightforward to implement due to its inclusion of only two threat uncertainty variants (low probability and high probability shock).…”

Section: Translational Research With Animals Using the Startle Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, increased anxiety related physiological responding during uncertain threat of shock versus fear related physiological responding during certain threat of shock in laboratory tasks may provide a physiological marker for anxiety disorders 3 . Dampening of anxiety to uncertain threats specifically may be a critical component of the stress response dampening properties of drugs such as alcohol [4][5][6][7] . Increased anxiety during uncertain threat may mark a neuroadaptation in the brain's stress circuitry following chronic drug use 4,8 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Bradford

Magruder

Korhumel

et al. 2014

JoVE

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Fear of certain threat and anxiety about uncertain threat are distinct emotions with unique behavioral, cognitive-attentional, and neuroanatomical components. Both anxiety and fear can be studied in the laboratory by measuring the potentiation of the startle reflex. The startle reflex is a defensive reflex that is potentiated when an organism is threatened and the need for defense is high. The startle reflex is assessed via electromyography (EMG) in the orbicularis oculi muscle elicited by brief, intense, bursts of acoustic white noise (i.e., "startle probes"). Startle potentiation is calculated as the increase in startle response magnitude during presentation of sets of visual threat cues that signal delivery of mild electric shock relative to sets of matched cues that signal the absence of shock (no-threat cues). In the Threat Probability Task, fear is measured via startle potentiation to high probability (100% cue-contingent shock; certain) threat cues whereas anxiety is measured via startle potentiation to low probability (20% cue-contingent shock; uncertain) threat cues. Measurement of startle potentiation during the Threat Probability Task provides an objective and easily implemented alternative to assessment of negative affect via self-report or other methods (e.g., neuroimaging) that may be inappropriate or impractical for some researchers. Startle potentiation has been studied rigorously in both animals (e.g., rodents, non-human primates) and humans which facilitates animal-to-human translational research. Startle potentiation during certain and uncertain threat provides an objective measure of negative affective and distinct emotional states (fear, anxiety) to use in research on psychopathology, substance use/abuse and broadly in affective science. As such, it has been used extensively by clinical scientists interested in psychopathology etiology and by affective scientists interested in individual differences in emotion. Video LinkThe video component of this article can be found at

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Translational Research With Animals Using the Startle Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Bradford

Magruder

Korhumel

et al. 2014

JoVE

Self Cite

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“…Moreover, evidence from threat-of-shock paradigms has suggested that uncertainty elicits defensive motivation, which is associated with increased physiological reactivity and hypervigilance. For example, the startle reflex-a somatic marker of defensive motivation (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1992)-is enhanced during the anticipation of unpredictable as compared to predictable shocks (Bradford, Shapiro, & Curtin, 2013;Grillon, Baas, Lissek, Smith, & Milstein, 2004;Hefner & Curtin, 2012;Shankman, Robison-Andrew, Nelson, Altman, & Campbell, 2011), and fMRI research involving similar contrasts has indicated sustained hyperactivity in attentional networks (Carlsson et al, 2006;Hasler et al, 2007). Consistently, unpredictable threat of shock facilitates early perceptual and attentional processing, even with uncertainty-independent neutral stimuli (Baas, Milstein, Donlevy, & Grillon, 2006;Cornwell et al, 2007;Nelson, Hajcak, & Shankman, 2015;Shackman, Maxwell, McMenamin, Greischar, & Davidson, 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

Uncertainty is associated with increased selective attention and sustained stimulus processing

Dieterich

Endraß

Kathmann

2016

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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Uncertainty about future threat has been found to be associated with an overestimation of threat probability and is hypothesized to elicit additional allocation of attention. We used event-related potentials to examine uncertainty-related dynamics in attentional allocation, exploiting brain potentials' high temporal resolution and sensitivity to attention. Thirty participants performed a picture-viewing task in which cues indicated the subsequent picture valence. A certain-neutral and a certain-aversive cue accurately predicted subsequent picture valence, whereas an uncertain cue did not. Participants overestimated the effective frequency of aversive pictures following the uncertain cue, both during and after the task, signifying expectancy and covariation biases, and they tended to express lower subjective valences for aversive pictures presented after the uncertain cue. Pictures elicited increased P2 and LPP amplitudes when their valence could not be predicted from the cue. For the LPP, this effect was more pronounced in response to neutral pictures. Uncertainty appears to enhance the engagement of early phasic and sustained attention for uncertainly cued targets. Thus, defensive motivation related to uncertainty about future threat elicits specific attentional dynamics implicating prioritization at various processing stages, especially for nonthreatening stimuli that tend to violate expectations.

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Exercise decreases defensive responses to unpredictable, but not predictable, threat

et al. 2018

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How Bad Could It Be? Alcohol Dampens Stress Responses to Threat of Uncertain Intensity

Cited by 83 publications

References 33 publications

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Using the Threat Probability Task to Assess Anxiety and Fear During Uncertain and Certain Threat

Uncertainty is associated with increased selective attention and sustained stimulus processing

Exercise decreases defensive responses to unpredictable, but not predictable, threat

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