Constraint, alcoholism, and electrodermal response in aversive classical conditioning and mismatch novelty paradigms

Abstract

This study investigated whether low levels of the personality trait of constraint and early-onset alcoholism would be associated with deficits in aversive conditioning and smaller responses to novelty in a stimulus mismatch protocol. Personality traits (constraint and socialization) and skin conductance responses (SCRs) during conditioning and novelty paradigms were assessed in alcoholics (n=41) and non-alcoholics (n = 32). The conditioning protocol involved measuring SCRs after conditioned stimuli (CS+: tones) paired with shock, CS- tones unpaired with shock, and CS+ probes unpaired with shock. The mismatch protocol involved measuring SCRs to auditory stimuli consisting of a series of 5 pure tones of the same pitch followed a shorter white noise stimulus (the novel stimulus). Contrary to the hypothesis, alcoholics did not differ from non-alcoholics in SCRs to CS+ probes or on the mismatch measure (SCR novel tone-SCR to 5th tone). Higher levels of constraint and self-reports of fear during conditioning were associated with smaller responses to both the CS+ probes and the CS- tones as well as the mismatch measure within non-alcoholics, but not within alcoholics. In alcoholics, low constraint was associated with greater habituation to CS+ probes, and poor differential conditioning on measures of change across trials in SCR to CS+ probes and CS- stimuli. The results suggest that different processes influence levels of constraint in non-alcoholics and alcoholics. The data indicate that low constraint in non-alcoholics is associated with allocating fewer processing resources to potentially significant stimuli, rather than being associated with a specific deficit in aversive conditioning per se.

Binocular rivalry between emotional and neutral stimuli: A validation using fear conditioning and EEG

“…The average intensities resulting from this were 3.96 mA (S.D. = 2.25) and thus similar to other experiments with painful stimuli (Finn et al, 2001).…”

Measures of skin conductance and heart rate in alcoholic men and women during memory performance

“…Autonomic responses have been measured in studies of chronic alcoholics with mixed results ( Maltzman & Marinkovic, 1996 ). Some studies failed to find abnormalities in responsivity ( Wrase et al, 2002 ; Reid et al, 2006 ; Pomerleau et al, 1983 ), or have observed lower sensitivity and greater habituation in alcoholic participants compared to nonalcoholic controls ( Finn et al, 2001 ). In the present study, SCR results indicated lower sympathetic arousal levels in alcoholics, in agreement with previous reports of lower skin conductance orienting responses to novel stimuli in alcoholic Korsakoff patients ( Oscar-Berman & Gade, 1979 ).…”

Decision making in Parkinson's disease: Analysis of behavioral and physiological patterns in the Iowa gambling task

“…To assess the baseline level of SCR responsivity, SCRs were measured in response to the nonemotional stimulus, mismatch in sounds18 (12 of the PD patients and 6 of the NC subjects). We presented the two sets of eight sound stimuli (80 db SPL, intertrial interval varied between 11 and 19 s).…”