Startle modulation before, during and after exposure to emotional stimuli

Dichter, Gabriel S.; Tomarken, Andrew J.; Baucom, Brian R.

doi:10.1016/s0167-8760(01)00170-2

Cited by 67 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Affective startle modulation was not significantly influenced by sex in our sample which is in line with some previous findings [28,29] but contrary to other findings [25][26][27]. There was also no effect of menstrual cycle on FPS or PAS although there were sex differences in the valence and arousal ratings of the affective pictures.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Stronger FPS has been found in women compared to men (e.g. [25][26][27]) while other studies found no sex differences in FPS or PAS [28,29]. Furthermore, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that compared to young men premenopausal women show smaller PPI [30][31][32][33] while there are no differences in PPI between postmenopausal women and men of similar age [32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The impact of sex and menstrual cycle on the acoustic startle response

Armbruster¹,

Strobel²,

Kirschbaum

et al. 2014

Behavioural Brain Research

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The impact of sex and menstrual cycle on the acoustic startle response

Armbruster¹,

Strobel²,

Kirschbaum

et al. 2014

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…This unpredicted result did not replicate findings reported by prior studies examining the anticipation of emotionally salient, arousing pictures, which have generally found larger blink responses to emotional than to neutral stimuli (Dichter et al, 2002;Lipp et al, 2001;Nitschke et al, 2002;Sabatinelli et al, 2001), or eventually larger responses to unpleasant than to pleasant pictures -interpreted as the affective startle modulation typically found during perception (Allen et al, 1996;Erickson et al, 1995).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 98%

Emotional Reactivity during Anticipation and Perception of Affective Pictures

et al. 2014

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The focus of the present study was on further exploring anticipatory responses to emotional stimuli by measuring the eyeblink startle reflex in a variation of the picture-picture affective learning procedure. Participants (113 undergraduate women) were not explicitly instructed before the experiment began. Instead, they had to learn the specific relations between cues (geometrical shapes) and emotional pictures based on pairings during the first part of the task. Plausible contingency learning effects were tested afterwards, in a parallel sequence of trials including auditory probes during cues and pictures processing during the second part of the task. Results did show the typical affective startle modulation pattern during perception, linear F(1, 200) = 52.67, p < .0001, but unexpected inhibition for both pleasant and unpleasant, compared to neutral cues, during anticipation, quadratic F(1, 200) = 7.07, p < .009. All patterns of startle modulation were independent of cue-picture contingency awareness (all interactions Fs < 1). Skin conductance changes showed the predictable quadratic trend either during picture perception or anticipatory periods (greater activity for emotional vs. neutral; overall quadratic F(1, 224) = 7.04, p < .01), only for participants fully aware of the cue-picture contingency, quadratic F(1, 158) = 5.86, p < .02. Overall, our results during anticipation (cues processing) seem to suggest that more resources were allocated to highly arousing pictures that engage attention. Differences between the present results and prior research may be attributed to procedural variations in the sample, cues, or instructions. Future studies should also explore in more detail the role of the contingency awareness during anticipation.

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“…Supporting this idea, the amygdala, a key structure implied in fear responses, plays a critical role in the evocation of the fearpotentiated startle reflex 21,39,46,60,61 . Furthermore, research on personal pain experience has consistently shown that participants display a fear-potentiated startle when experiencing or 18 anticipating pain 25,38,41,47 , particularly when pain is perceived as highly threatening 7 Observers' distress towards pain signals in others likely serve a protective function of preparing observers for dealing with impending threat 40 . Specifically, observers' distress responses may instigate avoid/escape tendencies 72,81 .…”

Section: Self-report Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Negative Emotional Responses Elicited by the Anticipation of Pain in Others: Psychophysiological Evidence

Caes

Uzieblo

Crombez

et al. 2012

The Journal of Pain

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Limited evidence is available about factors influencing observers' anticipatory emotional responses to another's pain. We investigated fear and distress towards the threat of pain in others, and the moderating role of observers' psychopathic traits and catastrophizing about own or other's pain. Thirty-six dyads of healthy participants were randomly assigned to either the role of observer or observed participant. Both participants were instructed that one coloured slide (blue or yellow) signalled that a pain stimulus could possibly be delivered to the observed participant (= pain signal), whereas no pain stimulus would be delivered when a differently coloured slide was presented (= safety signal). Observers' self-reported fear, fearpotentiated startle and corrugator EMG activity during pain and safety signals were measured. Furthermore, observers rated the presence of pain after each trial allowing assessment of observers' perceptual sensitivity to other's pain. Results indicated that selfreported fear, fear-potentiated startle and corrugator EMG activity were augmented during pain signals compared to safety signals. Moreover, these negative emotional responses were heightened in observers highly catastrophizing about other's pain, but reduced in observers with heightened psychopathic traits. Psychopathic traits were also related with a diminished perceptual sensitivity to other's pain. The results are discussed in light of affectivemotivational perspectives on pain.

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Startle modulation before, during and after exposure to emotional stimuli

Cited by 67 publications

References 11 publications

The impact of sex and menstrual cycle on the acoustic startle response

The impact of sex and menstrual cycle on the acoustic startle response

Emotional Reactivity during Anticipation and Perception of Affective Pictures

Negative Emotional Responses Elicited by the Anticipation of Pain in Others: Psychophysiological Evidence

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