Learning to like disgust: neuronal correlates of counterconditioning

Abstract

Converging lines of research suggest that exaggerated disgust responses play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of certain anxiety disorders. One strategy that might effectively alter disgust responses is counterconditioning. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine if the neuronal bases of disgust responses are altered through a counterconditioning procedure. One disgust picture (conditioned stimulus: CS+disg) announced a monetary reward, while a second disgust picture (CS-disg) was never paired with the reward. Two neutral control pictures (CS+con/CS-con) were conditioned in the same manner. Analyses of evaluative conditioning showed that both CS+ were rated significantly more positive after conditioning as compared to the corresponding CS−. Thereby, the CS+disg and the CS+con received an equal increase in valence ratings. Regarding the fMRI data, ANOVA results showed main effects of the conditioning procedure (i.e., CS+ vs. CS−) in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Further, main effects of the picture category (disgust vs. control) were found in the bilateral insula and the orbitofrontal cortex. No interaction effects were detected. In conclusion, the results imply that learning and anticipation of reward was not significantly influenced by the disgust content of the CS pictures. This suggests that the affect induced by the disgust pictures and the affect created by the anticipation of reward may not influence the processing of each other.

Neural correlates of subjective CS/UCS association in appetitive conditioning

“…For preprocessing, all EPI images were coregistered to an EPI template, realigned, slice time‐corrected, normalized to the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) standard space based on segmentation parameters derived from the T1 image that was aligned with a T1 template beforehand, resampled to a 2 mm isovoxel resolution using trilinear interpolation, and smoothed with a Gaussian kernel at 6 mm FWHM. Functional data were analyzed for outlying volumes using a distribution‐free approach for skewed data (Schweckendiek et al, ). Each resulting outlying volume was later modeled as a regressor of no interest within the general linear model (GLM).…”

Effective behavioural strategies for reducing disgust in contamination-related OCD: A review

“…For example pairing disgusting images with small money rewards has been unsuccessful in changing disgust as indexed by self-reported, behavioural, and neuroimaging assessment (Scweckendiek et al, 2013). When an intense pleasant US is used, researchers have found that counterconditioning is more effective than exposure in reducing disgust-related emotions (Engelhard et al, 2014).…”

Affective learning in adults with intellectual disability: an experiment using evaluative conditioning

“…Little is known about the neurological bases of evaluative conditioning. There is some preliminary evidence for the involvement of key structures such as the dorsal anterior cingulate and the amygdala (Tabbert et al ; Schweckendiek et al ). It will be important in future research to consider the neurofunctional bases of evaluative conditioning along with the neurological impairments known to occur in specific syndromes.…”