Memory effects on symptom reporting in a respiratory learning paradigm.

Abstract

With odors as conditioned stimuli (CSs) and CO 2 -enriched air as the unconditioned stimulus, participants learned to exhibit respiratory responses and somatic complaints on presentation of only the odor CS+. Studied was whether complaints during CS+-only trials were inferred from the conditioned somatic responses or were based on activated memory of the complaints during acquisition. Participants (N = 56) were either attentionally directed away or not from the complaints during acquisition, and the effects on somatic complaints during test were studied. Respiratory responses, heart rate, and somatic complaints were measured. No physiological conditioning effects were found. However, more complaints were reported to the CS+ than to the CS-odor, but only when the CS+ was foul smelling. This effect was modulated by the attention manipulation, showing that the learned complaints during the test phase were based on memory of the acquisition complaints and not on physiological responses during the test.

Blood-injection-injury fears: Harm- vs. disgust-relevant selective outcome associations

“…One way to test this idea would be to use CO 2 inhalations as the aversive outcome (cf. Forsyth & Eifert, 1998;Van den Bergh, Stegen, & Van de Woestijne, 1998).…”

Resistance to extinction in an odor–20% CO2 inhalation paradigm: Further evidence for a symptom learning account of multiple chemical sensitivity

“…Self-reported symptoms were measured immediately after each trial using a 16-item checklist [7,11,13]. For each item, participants indicated the intensity of the experienced symptoms (not at all to very strongly, scored from 1 to 5).…”

“…Typically, self-reported symptoms are elevated in response to the CS+ odor compared to the CS− odor. Acquired symptoms appear specific, mimicking CO 2 -inhalation-evoked symptoms; they generalize to new odors and can be extinguished [9][10][11]. Symptom learning is facilitated when odors are foul smelling and when individuals score high on negative affectivity (NA) [9,12] or have a psychosomatic disorder [13].…”

Resting End-Tidal CO2 and Negative Affectivity

“…Depending on the condition, expired air was sampled close to the mouthpiece (side stream) or through a nasal cannula. In the mouthpiece condition, the setup used by Stegen (23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29) was replicated: participants wore a nose clip and had to breathe via a mouthpiece that was connected to a pneumotachograph (Fleisch no. 2, Switzerland).…”