The Influence of State Anxiety on Fear Discrimination and Extinction in Females

Dibbets, Pauline; Evers, Elisabeth A. T.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00347

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The upward shift in the baseline responses could, alone, be a byproduct of increased anxiety associated with a more difficult task, i.e. stressed mice tend to be more cautious [31,32]. We predicted that, if this is the case, increasing anxiety without decreasing the safe-to-conditioned ΔF would result in an increased baseline.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Wide sensory filters underlie performance in memory-based discrimination and generalization

2019

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The way animals respond to a stimulus depends largely on an internal comparison between the current sensation and the memory of previous stimuli and outcomes. We know little about the accuracy with which the physical properties of the stimuli influence this type of memory-based discriminative decisions. Research has focused largely on discriminations between stimuli presented in quick succession, where animals can make relative inferences (same or different; higher or lower) from trial to trial. In the current study we used a memory-based task to explore how the stimulus’ physical properties, in this case tone frequency, affect auditory discrimination and generalization in mice. Mice performed ad libitum while living in groups in their home quarters. We found that the frequency distance between safe and conditioned sounds had a constraining effect on discrimination. As the safe-to-conditioned distance decreased across groups, performance deteriorated rapidly, even for frequency differences significantly larger than reported discrimination thresholds. Generalization width was influenced both by the physical distance and the previous experience of the mice, and was not accompanied by a decrease in sensory acuity. In conclusion, memory-based discriminations along a single stimulus dimension are inherently hard, reflecting a high overlap between the memory traces of the relevant stimuli. Memory-based discriminations rely therefore on wide sensory filters.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anxiety influences learning and generalization [32,52,61]. In the PPI data, acoustic startle responses were larger in mice trained in the Audiobox with a smaller ΔF.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wide sensory filters underlie performance in memory-based discrimination and generalization

2019

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“…Stimuli paired with screams induce higher skin conductance 29 and startle responses 30,31 as well as higher subjective anxiety reports 32 compared to unpaired stimuli. However, as most past studies using screams delivered them with a potentially painful intensity (around or above 90 dB) 26,27,29,[33][34][35] , the aversive nature of screams and the potential painful experience may have both contributed to the observed responses. Nevertheless, some studies did succeed in evoking acute fear responses using intensities lower or equal to 80 dB 30,32,36 .…”

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confidence: 99%

The ‘Threat of Scream’ paradigm: a tool for studying sustained physiological and subjective anxiety

Beaurenaut

Tokarski

Dezecache

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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progress in understanding the emergence of pathological anxiety depends on the availability of paradigms effective in inducing anxiety in a simple, consistent and sustained manner. The Threatof-Shock paradigm has typically been used to elicit anxiety, but poses ethical issues when testing vulnerable populations. Moreover, it is not clear from past studies whether anxiety can be sustained in experiments of longer durations. Here, we present empirical support for an alternative approach, the 'Threat-of-Scream' paradigm, in which shocks are replaced by screams. In two studies, participants were repeatedly exposed to blocks in which they were at risk of hearing aversive screams at any time vs. blocks in which they were safe from screams. Contrary to previous 'Threat-of-Scream' studies, we ensured that our screams were neither harmful nor intolerable by presenting them at low intensity. We found higher subjective reports of anxiety, higher skin conductance levels, and a positive correlation between the two measures, in threat compared to safe blocks. These results were reproducible and we found no significant change over time. The unpredictable delivery of low intensity screams could become an essential part of a psychology toolkit, particularly when investigating the impact of anxiety in a diversity of cognitive functions and populations.

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“…Furthermore, low self-efficacy levels are associated with greater severity of anxiety (Richards et al., 2002; Thomasson and Psouni, 2010) and an increased usage (Thomasson and Psouni, 2010). Interestingly, both heightened trait anxiety (Chan and Lovibond, 1996) and state anxiety (Dibbets and Evers, 2017) have been linked to systematic alterations in fear conditioning. While these preliminary findings suggest a mutual relationship between perceived self-efficacy, anxiety levels, and conditioning processes which could contribute to the development and maintenance of pathological fear and anxiety, the evidence so far is restricted to correlative analyses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Perceived Self-Efficacy Impedes Discriminative Fear Learning

et al. 2019

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Perceived self-efficacy refers to a subject’s expectation about the outcomes his/her behavior will have in a challenging situation. Low self-efficacy has been implicated in the origins and maintenance of phobic behavior. Correlational studies suggest an association between perceived self-efficacy and learning. The experimental manipulation of perceived self-efficacy offers an interesting approach to examine the impact of self-efficacy beliefs on cognitive and emotional functions. Recently, a positive effect of an experimentally induced increased self-efficacy on associative learning has been demonstrated. Changes in associative learning constitute a central hallmark of pathological fear and anxiety. Such alterations in the acquisition and extinction of conditioned fear may be related to cognitive and neurobiological factors that predict a certain vulnerability to anxiety disorders. The present study builds on previous own work by investigating the effect of an experimentally induced low perceived self-efficacy on fear acquisition, extinction and extinction retrieval in a differential fear conditioning task. Our results suggest that a negative verbal feedback, which leads to a decreased self-efficacy, is associated with changes in the acquisition of conditioned fear. During fear acquisition, the negative verbal feedback group showed decreased discrimination of fear responses between the aversive and safe conditioned stimuli (CS) relative to a group receiving a neutral feedback. The effects of the negative verbal feedback on the acquisition of fear discrimination learning were indexed by an impaired ability to discriminate the probability of receiving a shock during acquisition upon presentation of the aversive (CS+) relative to the safe stimuli (CS−). However, the effects of low self-efficacy on discrimination learning were limited to fear acquisition. No differences between the groups were observed during extinction and extinction retrieval. Furthermore, analysis of other outcome measures, i.e., skin conductance responses and CS valence ratings, revealed no group differences during the different phases of fear conditioning. In conclusion, lower perceived self-efficacy alters cognitive/expectancy components of discrimination during fear learning but not evaluative components and physiological responding. The pattern of findings suggests a selective, detrimental role of low(er) self-efficacy on the subject’s ability to learn the association between ambiguous cues and threat/safety.

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The Influence of State Anxiety on Fear Discrimination and Extinction in Females

Cited by 13 publications

References 48 publications

Wide sensory filters underlie performance in memory-based discrimination and generalization

Wide sensory filters underlie performance in memory-based discrimination and generalization

The ‘Threat of Scream’ paradigm: a tool for studying sustained physiological and subjective anxiety

Low Perceived Self-Efficacy Impedes Discriminative Fear Learning

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