Associations between anxiety-related traits and fear acquisition and extinction - an item-based content and meta-analysis [Stage 1 Registered Report]

Abstract

Background: Dysregulated processing of fear and safety has been linked to anxietysymptoms and related traits, e.g., neuroticism, intolerance of uncertainty or negative emotionality. Yet, different studies focus on different aspects of fear acquisition and extinction, outcome measures, and anxiety-related traits, making an integrative approach to the association of anxiety-related traits and fear acquisition and extinction difficult. This limits effective translation of experimental insights on these etiology- and treatment-relevant processes to the clinic.Methods: To address this gap, a systematic literature search and meta-analysis of the associations between anxiety-related traits and fear acquisition and extinction will be conducted following PRISMA guidelines. A series of nested random effects models will be used to investigate associations between anxiety-related traits and frequently used outcome measures of fear acquisition and extinction (i.e., psychophysiological and self-reports). Different questionnaires used in these studies to assess anxiety-related traits will be further used as moderators to investigate whether identified associations between fear acquisition and extinction performance and traits are contingent on the specific questionnaire used.Furthermore, an item-based content analysis of the questionnaires used in the identified studies will be conducted to assess content overlap between the different anxiety-related traits. This analysis will help to evaluate the content-based similarities (or dissimilarities) between different anxiety-related traits as assessed through different questionnaires and hence further inform the interpretation of the meta-analytical results.