No effect of trait anxiety on differential fear conditioning or fear generalization

Torrents-Rodas, David; Fullana, Miquel À.; Bonillo, Albert; Caseras, Xavier; Andión, Óscar; Torrubia, Rafael

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2012.10.006

Cited by 95 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Indeed, group (PTSD versus trauma control subjects)-by-stimulus type quadratic trends indicated that quadratic components of negative gradients were significantly stronger in trauma control subjects relative to PTSD subjects in both the left ventral hippocampus/amygdala and the left ventral hippocampus (see Table S3 in the online data supplement). This finding was also made in the left ventral hippocampus (p=0.01), right ventral hippocampus (p=0.04), and right caudate head (p=0.04) ( [17]). Thus, less steep increases in responses from CS+ to GS to CS-in the ventral hippocampus and caudate head, found among those with PTSD, suggest that presented stimuli require more differentiation from CS+ before safety-related processes come online in those with PTSD compared with those without PTSD.…”

Section: Fmri Resultsmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Thus, fear-related brain activations to CS+ found repeatedly in the amygdala (13), anterior insula (13,14), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (13)(14)(15), dorsal anterior cingulate (14), inferior parietal lobule (14), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (16) are predicted to decrease as the presented GS diverge from CS+. Conversely, safetyrelated activations to CS-repeatedly found by human neuroimaging studies in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (17), hippocampus (17), and precuneus (17) are predicted to gradually increase as the GS become less similar to CS+. Results from recent fMRI studies of fear generalization are largely consistent with these predictions and find gradually decreasing activations in the anterior insula (11,16,(18)(19)(20), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (11,18,19), inferior parietal lobule (11), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (11) (downward gradients) and gradually increasing activations in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (11,(18)(19)(20), hippocampus (11,20), and precuneus (11) (upward gradients) as the presented GS differentiate from CS+.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

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Neural Substrates of Overgeneralized Conditioned Fear in PTSD

Kaczkurkin

Burton

Chazin

et al. 2017

AJP

222

175

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Objective: Heightened generalization of fear from an aversively reinforced conditioned stimulus (CS+, a conditioned danger cue) to resembling stimuli is widely accepted as a pathogenic marker of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Indeed, a distress response to benign stimuli that "resemble" aspects of the trauma is a central feature of the disorder. To date, the link between overgeneralization of conditioned fear and PTSD derives largely from clinical observations, with limited empirical work on the subject. This represents the first effort to examine behavioral and brain indices of generalized conditioned fear in PTSD using systematic methods developed in animals known as generalization gradients: the gradual decline in conditioned responding as the presented stimulus gradually differentiates from CS+.Method: Gradients of conditioned fear generalization were assessed using functional MRI and behavioral measures in U.S. combat veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and had PTSD (N=26), subthreshold PTSD (N=19), or no PTSD (referred to as trauma control subjects) (N=17). Presented stimuli included rings of graded size, with extreme sizes serving as CS+ (paired with shock) and as a nonreinforced conditioned stimulus (CS-, a conditioned safety cue), and with intermediate sizes forming a continuum of similarity between CS+ and CS-. Generalization gradients were assessed as response slopes from CS+, through intermediate ring sizes, to CS-, with less steep slopes indicative of stronger generalization.Results: Relative to trauma control subjects, PTSD patients showed stronger conditioned generalization, as evidenced by less steep generalization gradients in both behavioral risk ratings and brain responses in the left and right anterior insula, left ventral hippocampus, dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and caudate nucleus. Severity of PTSD symptoms across the three study groups was positively correlated with levels of generalization at two such loci: the right anterior insula and left ventral hippocampus. Conclusions:The results point to evidence of brain-based markers of overgeneralized fear conditioning related to PTSD. These findings provide further understanding of a central yet understudied symptom of trauma-related psychopathology. Am J Psychiatry 2017; 174:125-134; doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016 Generalization of conditioned fear is a basic, cross-species, associative-learning process whereby fear acquired to a conditioned stimulus (CS+), paired with an aversive unconditioned stimulus, transfers to safe stimuli resembling the CS+ (1). Heightened levels of generalized conditioned fear have been adopted as a core feature of trauma-related psychopathology (2), and DSM-5 criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include heightened distress to situations "resembling" aspects of the trauma. The pathogenic contribution of conditioned generalization to PTSD follows from the undue proliferation of trauma cues in an individual's posttrauma environment that then increases and/or sustains PTSD sympt...

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Section: Fmri Resultsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Neural Substrates of Overgeneralized Conditioned Fear in PTSD

Kaczkurkin

Burton

Chazin

et al. 2017

AJP

222

175

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…During the past years, the importance for adaptive responding of the latter inhibitory safety learning processes has gained increasing attention (Kong et al 2014, Pollak et al 2010, and pathological anxiety has been linked to deficits in inhibitory fear M a n u s c r i p t 4 processing and/or maladaptive stimulus generalization during fear learning (Gazendam et al, 2013;Haddad et al, 2012;Indovina et al, 2011;Kindt and Soeter, 2014), extinction (Gazendam et al, 2013;Sehlmeyer et al, 2011) and return of fear (Kindt et al, 2009;Kindt and Soeter, 2013;Soeter and Kindt, 2010). However, these results (Martínez et al, 2012;Torrents-Rodas et al, 2013) and results based on other measures of negative affect (Fredrikson and Georgiades, 1992;Otto et al, 2007;Pineles et al, 2009) are not unequivocal with respect to the impact of anxiety levels on fear-related processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…This is of critical importance, as anxiety has been linked to a tendency for context conditioning (Grillon, 2002) and as fear extinction has been shown to be inherently bound to the context in which (extinction) learning takes place Bouton and King, 1983;Maren et al, 2013). M a n u s c r i p t 5 In previous studies investigating an association between conditioning/extinction and trait anxiety, dichotomous classifications have mostly been employed (such as median-split (Haddad et al, 2012;Kindt and Soeter, 2014) or recruitment of extreme groups (Gazendam et al, 2013;Torrents-Rodas et al, 2013) while only few studies have employed truly dimensional approaches (Indovina et al, 2011;Martínez et al, 2012;Sehlmeyer et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the currently observed association between STAI trait scores and subjective fear ratings on day 1 is robust, it has to be acknowledged that others did not find associations between fear conditioning and STAI scores (Martínez et al, 2012;Torrents-Rodas et al, 2013) or other measures of negative affect such as neuroticism (Fredrikson and Georgiades, 1992;Otto et al, 2007;Pineles et al, 2009). These negative findings might be attributed to a lack of power due to rather small sample sizes employed in these studies.…”

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confidence: 95%

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Deficient inhibitory processing in trait anxiety: Evidence from context-dependent fear learning, extinction recall and renewal

Haaker

Lonsdorf

Schümann

et al. 2015

Biological Psychology

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Paternal expressed emotion influences psychobiological indicators of threat and safety learning in daughters: A preliminary study

Mullins

Zhou

Glenn

et al. 2021

Developmental Psychobiology

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This preliminary study examined the association of children's anxiety, paternal expressed emotion (EE), and their interaction with psychophysiological indices of children's threat and safety learning. Participants included 24 father–daughter dyads. Daughters (ages 8–13 years, 100% Latina) self‐reported their anxiety levels and completed a differential threat conditioning and extinction paradigm, during which psychophysiological responding was collected. Fathers completed a Five‐Minute Speech Sample, from which paternal EE (i.e., criticism, emotional overinvolvement) was assessed. Anxiety‐dependent associations emerged between paternal EE and individual differences in daughters’ psychophysiological responding to safety signals during threat conditioning. Paternal EE was positively associated with psychophysiological responding to safety in daughters with high and mean, but not low, levels of anxiety. Although previous work suggests that chronic harsh maternal parenting is a potential risk factor for children's general threat and safety learning, these preliminary findings implicate milder forms of negative parenting behavior in fathers, particularly for highly anxious children.

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No effect of trait anxiety on differential fear conditioning or fear generalization

Cited by 95 publications

References 26 publications

Neural Substrates of Overgeneralized Conditioned Fear in PTSD

Neural Substrates of Overgeneralized Conditioned Fear in PTSD

Deficient inhibitory processing in trait anxiety: Evidence from context-dependent fear learning, extinction recall and renewal

Paternal expressed emotion influences psychobiological indicators of threat and safety learning in daughters: A preliminary study

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