Does fear expectancy prime fear? An autonomic study in spider phobics

Sebastiani, Laura; D'Alessandro, Luigi; Gemignani, Angelo

doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2013.10.014

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This result corroborates the idea that the relevance of the emotional stimuli was a key factor to reveal this association. In this same vein, stimulus type has been shown relevant for individuals when studying phobia, which showed cardiac acceleration when viewing pictures of their phobic object ( Klorman et al, 1977 ; Hamm et al, 1997 ; Wendt et al, 2008 ; Sebastiani et al, 2014 ). Furthermore, samples of traumatized PTSD patients have also been reported to experience marked heart rate acceleration in response to pictures with trauma cues ( Elsesser et al, 2004 ; Ehlers et al, 2010 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…In addition, individual differences in threat perception feed into this transition. For instance, phobic individuals experience cardiac acceleration when viewing pictures of their phobic object ( Klorman et al, 1977 ; Hamm et al, 1997 ; Wendt et al, 2008 ; Sebastiani et al, 2014 ). Individual differences may be a key factor in generating different physiological responses to emotional stimuli.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exposure to trauma-relevant pictures is associated with tachycardia in victims who had experienced an intense peritraumatic defensive response: the tonic immobility

et al. 2014

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Tonic immobility is an involuntary, last-ditch defensive reaction characterized by physical inactivity in a context of inescapable threat that has been described in many species, including humans. The occurrence of this defensive response is a predictor of the severity of psychiatric disorders and may be considered as an index of an intense reaction to a traumatic event. Here, we investigated whether the retrospective reports of peritraumatic tonic immobility reaction in participants exposed to a traumatic event would modify their cardiac responses to pictures related to their trauma. Using a questionnaire of life-threating events, we selected students who experienced violent crime as their most intense trauma and students who had never experienced a violent crime trauma, but experienced other traumatic events. All participants completed a questionnaire that estimated the intensity of tonic immobility during their most intense trauma. Electrocardiographic recordings were collected during exposure to pictures. Participants viewed emotional pictures (human attack with guns) and neutral pictures. These emotional stimuli were selected to be trauma-relevant to the violent crime group and non trauma-relevant to the no violent crime trauma group. Violent crime group showed a positive correlation between heart rate changes after viewing trauma-related pictures and tonic immobility scores. We observed that low tonic immobility scores were associated with bradycardia and high scores with tachycardia in response to trauma-relevant pictures. For the no violent crime group, no significant correlation was detected. These results suggest that the relevance of the stimuli and the magnitude of the defensive response during a previous trauma event were important factors triggering more intense defensive responses.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to trauma-relevant pictures is associated with tachycardia in victims who had experienced an intense peritraumatic defensive response: the tonic immobility

et al. 2014

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“…More proximal influences between processes related to expectancies and attention are also imaginable. For instance, expectancies might exert a top-down influence on the engagement of attention simply because highly fearful individuals who expect to encounter spiders with a comparably high likelihood are more strongly motivated to overcome obstacles; this increased motivation might then be expressed in stronger vigilance.2 Along these lines, other research indeed suggests that confirmation versus disconfirmation of expectancies may impact physiological responding (e.g.,Mendes, Blascovich, Hunter, Lickel, & Jost, 2007;Sebastiani, D'Alessandro, & Gemignani, 2014). Expectancy Influences on Attention to Threat 45…”

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confidence: 99%

Expectancy influences on attention to threat are only weak and transient: Behavioral and physiological evidence

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Chauvigné

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et al. 2016

Biological Psychology

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Can prior expectancies shape attention to threat? To answer this question, we manipulated the expectancies of spider phobics and nonfearful controls regarding the appearance of spider and bird targets in a visual search task. We observed robust evidence for expectancy influences on attention to birds, reflected in error rates, reaction times, pupil diameter, and heart rate (HR). We found no solid effect, however, of the same expectancies on attention to spiders; only HR revealed a weak and transient impact of prior expectancies on the orientation of attention to threat. Moreover, these asymmetric effects for spiders versus birds were observed in both phobics and controls. Our results are thus consistent with the notion of a threat detection mechanism that is only partially permeable to current expectancies, thereby increasing chances of survival in situations that are mistakenly perceived as safe.

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“…The finding that people's emotional responding toward cued (and thus expected) aversive outcomes is reduced is not restricted to inherently negative stimuli. Also when spider fearful participants were presented with validly cued pictures of spiders, they responded with less intense emotional responses than when presented with uncued spider stimuli or when spiders were presented when they expected to see neutral stimuli on the screen (Sebastiani, D'Alessandro, & Gemignani, 2014). Thus, when it concerns controllable threats/aversive events, heightened outcome expectations result in lowered emotional responding to the cued aversive events, probably because individuals are then in a position to effectively prepare for the upcoming aversive outcome.…”

Section: Uncontrollability Of Expected Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%