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Fear extinction models have a key role in our understanding of anxiety disorders and their treatment with exposure therapy. Here, we tested whether individual differences in fear extinction learning and fear extinction recall in the laboratory were associated with the outcomes of an exposure therapy analog (ETA). Fifty adults with fear of spiders participated in a two-day fear-learning paradigm assessing fear extinction learning and fear extinction recall, and then underwent a brief ETA. Correlational analyses indicated that enhanced extinction learning was associated with better ETA outcome. Our results partially support the idea that individual differences in fear extinction learning may be associated with exposure therapy outcome, but suggest that further research in this area is needed.

Evidence is growing that two modalities of computer-based exposure therapies—virtual reality and computer-aided psychotherapy—are effective in treating anxiety disorders, including fear of flying. However, they have not yet been directly compared. The aim of this study was to analyze the efficacy of three computer-based exposure treatments for fear of flying: virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), computer-aided exposure with a therapist’s (CAE-T) assistance throughout exposure sessions, and self-administered computer-aided exposure (CAE-SA). A total of 60 participants with flying phobia were randomly assigned to VRET, CAE-T, or CAE-SA. Results indicate that the three interventions were effective in reducing fear of flying at posttreatment and at 1-year follow-up; furthermore, there were no significant differences between them in any of the outcome measure. Large within-group effect sizes were found for all three treatment conditions at both posttreatment and at follow-up. The results suggest that therapist involvement might be minimized during computer-based treatments and that CAE can be as effective as VRET in reducing fear of flying.

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Relationships between electroencephalographic (EEG) slow-and fast-wave frequency bands are considered to be of interest in the study of dispositional affective traits, emotion regulation, and attentional phenomena. However, to date, no previous studies had explored whether both state performance-based and self-reported attentional control (AC) measures potentially relate to different patterns of spontaneous EEG measures, in the absence of emotional stimuli. In the present study, individual differences in spontaneous EEG theta/beta ratio and delta-beta coupling at frontal and parietal sites were explored in a sample of 110 healthy volunteers as potential correlates of individual differences in performancebased attentional network functioning, as measured through the Attentional Network Test for Interactions (ANT-I) and self-reported AC. We found that stronger delta-beta coupling at parietal sites was associated with higher self-reported AC. However, no significant associations were found between executive control network functioning and the EEG ratio or coupling measures. Furthermore, a lower spontaneous frontoparietal theta/beta ratio was found to be associated with better orienting network functioning. These results are discussed with a focus on the potential utility of spontaneous EEG measures in several cortical regions for capturing trait-like individual differences in temperament-related factors.Keywords Spontaneous EEG . Theta/beta ratio . Delta-beta coupling . Attentional network functioning . Attentional control Relationships between spontaneous electroencephalographic (EEG) slow-wave (SW; i.e., the theta 4-7 Hz, delta 1-3 Hz bands) and fast-wave (FW; i.e., the beta 13-30 Hz band) frequency band activity may reflect the cortical-subcortical interactions involved in affective processes (Knyazev, 2007) and are considered to be of interest in the study of emotional states, dispositional affective traits, emotion regulation, and related processes and capabilities (e.g., Arns, Conners, & Kraemer, 2013;Massar, Kenemans, & Schutter, 2014;Putman, Arias-Garcia, Pantazi, & van Schie, 2012;Schutter & Knyazev, 2012;Schutter & Van Honk, 2005a;van Peer, Roelofs, & Spinhoven, 2008;Velikova et al., 2010).Two often-used EEG indices are the SW/FW ratio and SW-FW coupling. The SW/FW ratio results from dividing the SW power density (i.e., theta) by the FW power density (i.e., beta) for each individual participant's EEG recording at a selected brain site or selected sites, with higher ratio scores reflecting relatively more SW than FW power. It has been postulated that a relative predominance of SW over FW power may reflect reduced cortical control function over subcortical drives related to motivational imbalances (Schutter & Van Honk, 2005a). On the other hand, SW-FW coupling (usually delta-beta coupling) is operationalized as the positive correlation between SW and FW in a selected sample, which usually compares samples that have scored high or low on a criterion variable (e.g., trait anxiety; see Putman et al., ...

Ample evidence supports the use of Virtual Reality (VR) for anxiety disorders. Nonetheless, currently there is no evidence about moderators or potential negative effects of VR treatment strategies. An Individual Patient Data (IPD) approach was employed with 15 retrieved datasets. The current study sample was composed of 810 patients. Randomized control trials (RCTs) for each primary outcome measure were performed, in addition to moderator analyses of the socio-demographic variables. Deterioration rates were 14 patients (4.0%) in VR, 8 (2.8%) in active control conditions, and 27 (15%) in the WL condition. With regard to receiving treatment, patients in a waiting list control condition had greater odds of deteriorating than in the two active conditions, odds ratios (ORs) 4.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.05, 0.67]. In the case of the socio-demographic variables, none of them were associated with higher or lower odds of deterioration, with the exception of marital status in the WL condition; married people presented a significantly lower probability of deterioration, OR 0.19, 95% CI [0.05, 0.67]. Finally, when comparing pooled effects of VR versus all control conditions, the OR was 0.61 (95% CI 0.31-1.23) in favor of VR, although this result was not statistically significant. This study provides evidence about the deterioration rates of a therapeutic VR approach, showing that the number of deteriorated patients coincides with other therapeutic approaches, and that deterioration is less likely to occur, compared to patients in WL control groups.

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