The neuropsychology of fear learning and fear regulation

Hamm, Alfons O.; Weike, Almut I.

doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2005.01.006

Cited by 249 publications

(248 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…In conclusion, the current data clearly revealed a dissociation between fear learning as indexed by conditioned startle potentiation and the learning of stimulus relationships as indexed by conditioned SCR discrimination, thus supporting a two-level account of human fear conditioning (Hamm and Weike, 2005;Ö hman and Mineka, 2001). In a typical human fear conditioning experiment, the subjects not only learn to fear the CS (emotional learning) (LeDoux, 1996) but they also learn on a cognitive level that one CS predicts the occurrence of the UCS [contingency learning (Rescorla, 1988); propositional learning (Lovibond and Shanks, 2002)].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Fear Conditioning following Unilateral Temporal Lobectomy: Dissociation of Conditioned Startle Potentiation and Autonomic Learning

Weike¹,

Hamm²,

Schupp³

et al. 2005

J. Neurosci.

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The present study investigated fear-potentiated startle and autonomic learning in brain-lesioned patients in a classical fear-conditioning paradigm. Startle blink and skin conductance responses of 30 patients who underwent unilateral temporal lobectomy because of drugresistant epilepsy were compared with those of 32 healthy controls. As expected, temporal lobectomy patients showed a general impairment in fear conditioning relative to controls. This impairment did not differ with respect to the affected hemisphere. Moreover, while fear-conditioned startle potentiation in healthy controls was independent of contingency awareness, skin conductance discrimination was only observed for those participants who correctly recognized the stimulus contingencies. Patients who acquired a declarative memory of the contingencies also showed intact skin conductance discrimination but failed to exhibit fear-potentiated startle. The present findings support a two-levels-of-learning account of human fear conditioning and also demonstrate that the amygdala is crucially involved in fear learning.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Fear Conditioning following Unilateral Temporal Lobectomy: Dissociation of Conditioned Startle Potentiation and Autonomic Learning

Weike¹,

Hamm²,

Schupp³

et al. 2005

J. Neurosci.

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“…Furthermore, the enhanced SCL to G-CTX in the remote-test group might be explained by a rather strong fear generalization on the explicit cognitive level in this group and a strong influence of such cognitive processes on electrodermal responses (Hamm and Weike 2005). We speculate that such interplay between cognitive and electrodermal responses may be stronger, the weaker the memory traces are, thus in the remote-test group.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Effects of context preexposure and delay until anxiety retrieval on generalization of contextual anxiety

et al. 2016

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Animal studies suggest that time delay between acquisition and retrieval of contextual anxiety increases generalization. Moreover, such generalization is prevented by preexposure to the context (CTX), presumably due to an improved representation of such context. We investigated whether preexposure and time-passing modulate generalization of contextual anxiety, in humans. On Day 1, 42 participants (preexposure group) explored two virtual offices, while 41 participants (no-preexposure group) explored a virtual stadium. On Day 2 (24 h later), all participants learned to associate one office (CTX+) with unpredictable unconditioned stimuli (USs), and another office (CTX2) with safety. On Day 3, either 24 h (recent test) or 2 wk (remote test) later, participants revisited CTX2 and CTX+ without USs, as well as a generalization context (G-CTX). Results revealed successfully conditioned anxiety and anxiety generalization for ratings (G-CTX was as aversive as CTX+ was), while safety generalization was found for startle responses (G-CTX elicited startle attenuation as CTX2 did). Time between learning and testing enhanced generalization as reflected by comparable startle responses to all three offices in the remote test. Contextual preexposure facilitated extinction of explicit conditioned anxiety assessed with ratings. These results suggest that memory trace of a context degrades with passage of time in humans like in animals and, consequently, anxiety generalization enhances. After context preexposure, high cognitive processes seem to be crucially involved in facilitating extinction (or safety) learning.

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“…This is supported by a number of studies that show that verbal instructions can result in the acquisition of defensive responses (Cameron et al, 2016;Costa, Bradley, & Lang, 2015;Grillon, Ameli, Woods, Merikangas, & Davis, 1991) and subjective feelings of fear and distress (Raes, De Houwer, De Schryver, Brass, & Kalisch, 2014;Soeter & Kindt, 2012), which are considered to be affective measures of fear (Hamm & Weike, 2005;Soeter & Kindt, 2012). Such results call into question whether distinctions should be made between the processes underlying learning via verbal instructions and other types of learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Affective learning is the acquisition of defensive responses to potentially threatening stimuli. This type of learning is proposed to take place in an automatic way and is assumed to be independent of cognitive contingency learning (Hamm & Weike, 2005;Mineka & Öhman, 2002). Cognitive contingency learning, on the other hand, refers to the purely cognitive learning of contingencies between events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can prepared fear conditioning result from verbal instructions?

Mertens

Raes

Houwer

2016

Learning and Motivation

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Evolutionary fear-relevant stimuli such as snakes or spiders are thought to be prepared to elicit fear reactions. This implies that the acquisition of conditioned fear responses is facilitated when these stimuli serve as conditioned stimuli (CSs). Moreover, extinction of conditioned fear responses is delayed when CSs are prepared stimuli. The research presented in this article addresses the question whether such selective learning effects can be obtained even when participants do not experience pairings of CSs and US but receive only instructions about those pairings. Two experiments were conducted in which participants were verbally informed about the relationship between fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant CSs and the presence of an electrical stimulus (US). However, CSs were never actually paired with the US. US expectancy ratings and skin conductance responses were recorded during multiple CS only trials. In the first experiment, we observed acquisition, extinction and reinstatement of fear on the basis of instructions, but these effects were not modulated by the fear-relevance of the CSs. In the second experiment, we manipulated whether participants actually experienced the CS-US contingencies or were merely instructed. We obtained facilitated acquisition for the merely instructed fear-relevant CS+. We discuss these results in relation to the evolutionary fear learning model of Öhman and Mineka (2001) and the expectancy bias model of Davey (1992).

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The neuropsychology of fear learning and fear regulation

Cited by 249 publications

References 45 publications

Fear Conditioning following Unilateral Temporal Lobectomy: Dissociation of Conditioned Startle Potentiation and Autonomic Learning

Fear Conditioning following Unilateral Temporal Lobectomy: Dissociation of Conditioned Startle Potentiation and Autonomic Learning

Effects of context preexposure and delay until anxiety retrieval on generalization of contextual anxiety

Can prepared fear conditioning result from verbal instructions?

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