Fear conditioning models key processes related to the development, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders and is associated with group differences in anxiety. However, laboratory administration of tasks is time and cost intensive, precluding assessment in large samplesnecessary for the analysis of individual differences. This study introduces a newly developed smartphone app that delivers a fear conditioning paradigm remotely using a loud human scream as an aversive stimulus. Three groups of participants (total n = 152) took part in three studies involving a differential fear conditioning experiment to assess the reliability and validity of a smartphone administered fear conditioning paradigm. This comprised of fear acquisition, generalisation, extinction, and renewal phases during which online US-expectancy ratings were collected during every trial with evaluative ratings of negative affect at three time points. We show that smartphone app delivery of a fear conditioning paradigm results in a pattern of fear learning comparable to traditional laboratory delivery and is able to detect individual differences in performance that show comparable associations with anxiety to the prior group differences literature.

Objectives: We aimed to examine differences in fear conditioning between anxious and nonanxious participants in a single large sample. Materials and methods:We employed a remote fear conditioning task (FLARe) to collect data from participants from the Twins Early Development Study (n = 1,146; 41% anxious vs. 59% nonanxious). Differences between groups were estimated for their expectancy of an aversive outcome towards a reinforced conditional stimulus (CS+) and an unreinforced conditional stimulus (CS−) during acquisition and extinction phases.Results: During acquisition, the anxious group (vs. nonanxious group) showed greater expectancy towards the CS−. During extinction, the anxious group (vs. nonanxious group) showed greater expectancy to both CSs. These comparisons yielded effect size estimates (d = 0.26-0.34) similar to those identified in previous meta-analyses. Conclusion:The current study demonstrates that remote fear conditioning can be used to detect differences between groups of anxious and nonanxious individuals, which appear to be consistent with previous meta-analyses including in-person studies.

Background and objectives Fear conditioning paradigms use various measures to assess learned fear, including autonomic arousal responses like skin conductance, and self-reports of both associative (US-expectancies) and evaluative (affective ratings) learning. The present study uses a dimensional approach to examine associations among fear indices directly. Methods Seventy-three participants completed a differential fear conditioning experiment, during which a neutral stimulus (CS+) was paired with an electric shock (US), while another stimulus (CS-) was never paired with the shock (partially instructed fear acquisition). Ten minutes later, both stimuli were presented without any shocks (fear extinction). Skin conductance responses and US-expectancy ratings were recorded during each phase, while self-reported negative affect was assessed for each CS at the end of extinction. Results Results showed a positive association among US-expectancy ratings and skin conductance responses during acquisition and early extinction. US-expectancy ratings during overall extinction were positively associated with post-extinction negative affect. Limitations The lack of affective ratings post-acquisition may have obscured associations between associative and evaluative learning indices. Conclusions Results provide evidence for the expected correspondence among different indices of associative fear learning. Findings emphasize the need for incorporating both associative and evaluative learning measures in fear conditioning paradigms.

Fear conditioning models key processes related to the development, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders and is associated with group differences in anxiety. However, laboratory administration of tasks is time and cost intensive, precluding assessment in large samples, necessary for analysis of individual differences. This study introduces a newly developed smartphone app that delivers a fear conditioning paradigm remotely. Three groups of participants (total n=152) took part in three studies involving a differential fear conditioning experiment to assess the reliability and validity of a smartphone administered fear conditioning paradigm. This comprised of fear acquisition, generalisation, extinction, and renewal phases. We show that smartphone app delivery of a fear conditioning paradigm results in a pattern of fear learning comparable to traditional laboratory delivery, and is able to detect individual differences in performance that show comparable associations with anxiety to the prior group differences literature.

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by anxiety-driven behaviors, such as food avoidance and distressing persistent thoughts about weight gain and body image. The present study used a classical fear conditioning procedure to test the processes of fear acquisition and generalization, extinction, and renewal in patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls. An app-based fear conditioning procedure was administered remotely to 64 patients and 60 healthy controls, over two sessions. A human female scream served as the unconditioned stimulus (US) and two neutral shapes were used as either the paired conditioned stimulus (danger cue; CSþ) or the unpaired conditioned stimulus (safe cue; CSÀ). Patients with anorexia nervosa reported greater threat expectancy in response to the danger cue during the extinction and renewal phases and overall higher levels of negative affect throughout the task, compared with controls. Future research is warranted to replicate these findings and highlight the role that anxiety plays in explaining fear conditioning responses in patients with anorexia nervosa. General Scientific SummaryThis preliminary study investigated fear conditioning in anorexia nervosa. Patients with anorexia nervosa had greater threat expectancy in response to stimuli previously associated with a loud scream, even when the stimuli were no longer presented with the scream. If replicated, these results might contribute to explaining patients' difficulties to extinguish fear in relation to eating and its consequences.

Background Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent with an early age of onset. Understanding the aetiology of disorder emergence and recovery is important for establishing preventative measures and optimising treatment. Experimental approaches can serve as a useful model for disorder and recovery relevant processes. One such model is fear conditioning. We conducted a remote fear conditioning paradigm in monozygotic and dizygotic twins to determine the degree and extent of overlap between genetic and environmental influences on fear acquisition and extinction. Methods In total, 1937 twins aged 22–25 years, including 538 complete pairs from the Twins Early Development Study took part in a fear conditioning experiment delivered remotely via the Fear Learning and Anxiety Response (FLARe) smartphone app. In the fear acquisition phase, participants were exposed to two neutral shape stimuli, one of which was repeatedly paired with a loud aversive noise, while the other was never paired with anything aversive. In the extinction phase, the shapes were repeatedly presented again, this time without the aversive noise. Outcomes were participant ratings of how much they expected the aversive noise to occur when they saw either shape, throughout each phase. Results Twin analyses indicated a significant contribution of genetic effects to the initial acquisition and consolidation of fear, and the extinction of fear (15, 30 and 15%, respectively) with the remainder of variance due to the non-shared environment. Multivariate analyses revealed that the development of fear and fear extinction show moderate genetic overlap (genetic correlations 0.4–0.5). Conclusions Fear acquisition and extinction are heritable, and share some, but not all of the same genetic influences.

Background: Despite being considered a measure of environmental risk, reported life events are partly heritable. One mechanism that may contribute to this heritability is genetic influences on sensitivity, relating to how individuals process and interpret internal and external signals. The aim of this study was to explore the genetic and environmental overlap between self-reported life events and measures of sensitivity. Methods: At age 17, 2,939 individuals from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) completed measures of anxiety sensitivity (Children's Anxiety Sensitivity Index), environmental sensitivity (Highly Sensitive Child Scale) and reported their experience of 20 recent life events. Using multivariate Cholesky decomposition models, we investigated the shared genetic and environmental influences on the associations between these measures of sensitivity and the number of reported life events, as well as both negative and positive ratings of life events. Results: The majority of the associations between anxiety sensitivity, environmental sensitivity and reported life events were explained by shared genetic influences (60%-75%), with the remainder explained by nonshared environmental influences (25%-40%). Environmental sensitivity showed comparable genetic correlations with both negative and positive ratings of life events (r A = .21 and .15), anxiety sensitivity only showed a significant genetic correlation with negative ratings of life events (r A = .33). Approximately 10% of the genetic influences on reported life events were accounted for by influences shared with anxiety sensitivity and environmental sensitivity. Conclusion: Differences in how individuals process the contextual aspects of the environment or interpret their own physical and emotional response to environmental stimuli may be one mechanism through which genetic liability influences the subjective experience of life events.

BackgroundAnxiety disorders are highly prevalent with an early age of onset. Understanding the aetiology of disorder emergence and recovery is important for establishing preventative measures and optimising treatment. Experimental approaches can serve as a useful model for disorder and recovery relevant processes. One such model is fear conditioning. We conducted a remote fear conditioning paradigm in monozygotic and dizygotic twins to determine the degree and extent of overlap between genetic and environmental influences on fear acquisition and extinction.Methods1937 twins aged 22-25 years, including 538 complete pairs from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) took part in a fear conditioning experiment delivered remotely via the Fear Learning and Anxiety Response (FLARe) smartphone app.In the fear acquisition phase participants were exposed to two neutral shape stimuli, one of which was repeatedly paired with a loud aversive noise, while the other was never paired with anything aversive. In the extinction phase the shapes were repeatedly presented again, this time without the aversive noise. Outcomes were participant ratings of how much they expected the aversive noise to occur when they saw either shape, throughout each phase.ResultsTwin analyses indicated a significant contribution of genetic effects to the initial acquisition and consolidation of fear, and the extinction of fear (15%, 30% and 15% respectively) with the remainder of variance due to the non-shared environment. Multivariate analyses revealed that the development of fear and fear extinction show moderate genetic overlap (genetic correlations .4-.5).ConclusionsFear acquisition and extinction are heritable, and share some, but not all of the same genetic influences.