Impact of Healthy Aging on Awareness and Fear Conditioning.

LaBar, Kevin S.; Cook, Craig A.; Torpey, Dana C.; Welsh-Bohmer, Kathleen A.

doi:10.1037/0735-7044.118.5.905

Cited by 62 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…Several studies have shown impaired conditioning with increasing age (Bellebaum & Daum, 2004;Knuttinen, Power, Preston, & Disterhoft, 2001;LaBar, Cook, Torpey, & Welsh-Bohmer, 2004;Solomon, Pomerleau, Bennett, James, & Morse, 1989;Woodruff-Pak & Thompson, 1988). In the present study, the age (61 years) of one member of the trace group fell in a range that has previously shown impairment relative to younger subjects (Bellebaum & Daum, 2004;LaBar et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

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The role of awareness in delay and trace fear conditioning in humans

Knight

Nguyen

Bandettini

2006

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

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Expression of conditional fear without awareness has been previously demonstrated during delay conditioning, a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (UCS) overlap. However, less is known about the role of awareness in trace fear conditioning, where an interval of time separates the CS and UCS. The present study assessed skin conductance response (SCR) and UCS expectancy during delay and trace conditioning. UCS predictability was varied on a trial-bytrial basis by presenting perithreshold auditory CSs. Differential UCS expectancies were demonstrated only on perceived delay and trace trials. Learning-related SCRs were observed during both perceived and unperceived delay CSs. In contrast, differential SCRs were demonstrated only for perceived trace CSs. These data suggest that awareness is necessary for conditional responding during trace, but not delay, fear conditioning.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

“…Furthermore, exclusion of this data did not alter the statistical results. However, previous findings clearly show that age can have a significant impact on awareness and CR acquisition (Bellebaum & Daum, 2004;Knuttinen et al, 2001;LaBar et al, 2004;Solomon et al, 1989;Woodruff-Pak & Thompson, 1988).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

The role of awareness in delay and trace fear conditioning in humans

Knight

Nguyen

Bandettini

2006

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

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“…The responses were monitored at 200 Hz and stored offline using AcqKnowledge Software for subsequent analysis (BIOPAC Systems). The physiologic data were time locked to cue-card onset, scored for the amplitude of the first interval response, and square-root transformed to attain normality according to conventional methods, as previously described (LaBar et al 2004). Missing data occurred for five participants, and 12 participants were classified as "nonresponders," meaning that they did not show any measurable SCRs, and were removed from the analyses (LaBar et al 2004).…”

Section: Skin Conductance Responses (Scr)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The physiologic data were time locked to cue-card onset, scored for the amplitude of the first interval response, and square-root transformed to attain normality according to conventional methods, as previously described (LaBar et al 2004). Missing data occurred for five participants, and 12 participants were classified as "nonresponders," meaning that they did not show any measurable SCRs, and were removed from the analyses (LaBar et al 2004). The SCR data were scored from the remaining 61 participants (16 controls in the emotional condition, 20 controls in the neutral condition, 14 fearful participants in the emotional condition, and 11 fearful participants in the neutral condition).…”

Section: Skin Conductance Responses (Scr)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fear relevancy, strategy use, and probabilistic learning of cue-outcome associations

Thomas¹,

LaBar²

2008

Learn. Mem.

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The goal of this study was to determine how the fear relevancy of outcomes during probabilistic classification learning affects behavior and strategy use. Novel variants of the "weather prediction" task were created, in which cue cards predicted either looming fearful or neutral outcomes in a between-groups design. Strategy use was examined by goodness-of-fit estimates of response patterns across trial blocks to mathematical models of simple, complex, and nonidentifiable strategies. Participants in the emotional condition who were fearful of the outcomes had greater skin conductance responses compared with controls and performed worse, used suboptimal strategies, and had less insight into the predictive cue features during initial learning. In contrast, nonfearful participants in the emotional condition used more optimal strategies than the other groups by the end of the two training days. Results have implications for understanding how individual differences in fear relevancy alter the impact of emotion on feedback-based learning.Learning from emotional experiences is an important survival skill across species. Environmental contingencies predicting negative or positive outcomes provide key information useful for assessing the motivational value of selected actions and to assist decision-making processes in guiding future behavior. One form of contingency learning involves the gradual acquisition of cueoutcome associations guided by feedback (procedural or habit learning) (Mishkin et al. 1984). While much research has examined the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying this form of learning, the influence of emotion has not been systematically addressed as it has for other domains of memory (LaBar and Cabeza 2006). Here we examine how individual differences in fear relevancy modulate behavioral performance and strategy use on a probabilistic classification learning (PCL) task that involves trial-and-error learning of associations between cues and outcomes that vary in emotional salience.In the standard version of a PCL task (the "weather prediction" task) (Knowlton et al. 1994), participants predict the weather in a foreign city (rain or sunshine) based on the presence of a combination of four cue cards. Across training, participants learn to probability match the appearance of the cue cards by choosing the outcome with the same probability that they are reinforced. Given that individuals tend to have little insight into their performance, there has been interest in characterizing the underlying response patterns, or strategies used to solve the task. To accomplish this objective, each participant's data is mathematically modeled across trial blocks to determine the goodness-of-fit to an "ideal" responder following particular response patterns. Least-mean-square estimates indicate that participants use at least three classes of strategies varying in optimality: (1) no identifiable strategy, (2) simple strategies involving the use of one cue to make predictions, and (3) complex strategies involving the use o...

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“…Contingency awareness also appears to be dependent on the age of the subjects in the experiment (LaBar, Cook, Torpey, & Welsh-Bohmer, 2004;LaBar & Disterhoft, 1998). LaBar and colleagues analyzed fear conditioning using skin conductance and found that younger subjects were more likely to be aware of stimulus contingencies as measured by a postexperimental interview.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Contingency awareness and fear inhibition in a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm.

Jovanović¹,

Norrholm²,

Keyes³

et al. 2006

Behavioral Neuroscience

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Fear-potentiated startle is defined as an increase in the magnitude of the startle reflex in the presence of a stimulus that was previously paired with an aversive event. It has been proposed that a subject's awareness of the contingencies in the experiment may affect fear-potentiated startle. The authors adapted a conditional discrimination procedure (AX+/BX−), previously validated in animals, to a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm in 50 healthy volunteers. This paradigm allows for an assessment of fear-potentiated startle during threat conditions as well as inhibition of fear-potentiated startle during safety conditions. A response keypad was used to assess contingency awareness on a trial-by-trial basis. Both aware and unaware subjects showed fearpotentiated startle. However, awareness was related to stimulus discrimination and fear inhibition.

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Impact of Healthy Aging on Awareness and Fear Conditioning.

Cited by 62 publications

References 98 publications

The role of awareness in delay and trace fear conditioning in humans

The role of awareness in delay and trace fear conditioning in humans

Fear relevancy, strategy use, and probabilistic learning of cue-outcome associations

Contingency awareness and fear inhibition in a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm.

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