Overgeneralization of fear, but not avoidance, following acute stress

Lemmens, Anke; Beckers, Tom; Dibbets, Pauline; Kang, Sahaj; Smeets, Tom

doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108151

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…One reason for the absence of differential generalization gradients between groups in our study could be successful acquisition of conditioned fear in all groups. In line with previous studies, participants found CS+ more arousing, unpleasant, more likely to be followed by the US, and more physiologically arousing compared to CS- (Ahrens et al, 2016;Dunsmoor et al, 2017;Herzog et al, 2021;Lemmens et al, 2021;McClay et al, 2020;Stegmann et al, 2020). Impaired discriminative fear learning is often found in people with anxiety and stressor-related disorders (Cha et al, 2014;Greenberg et al, 2013;Huggins et al, 2021;Lissek et al, 2009Lissek et al, , 2010Lissek et al, , 2014Milad et al, 2007) and is hypothesized to carry over into the generalization phase leading to less steep (i.e., more linear) generalization gradients.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…The latter being coined as an indicator of over-generalization, as innocuous GSs that merely resemble the CS+ still evoke conditioned fear. Responses to the CSs and GSs have been measured using threat ratings (Ahrens et al, 2016;Lemmens et al, 2021;Lissek et al, 2009;Tinoco-González et al, 2015;Wong & Lovibond, 2017), psychophysiological measures such as fear-potentiated startle response (Andreatta et al, 2015;Lissek et al, 2009Lissek et al, , 2010, skin conductance response (SCR; Ahrens et al, 2016;Dunsmoor et al, 2017;Herzog et al, 2021;Lemmens et al, 2021Lemmens et al, , 2021Wong & Lovibond, 2017), steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs; McTeague et al, 2015;Stegmann et al, 2020), heart rate (Ahrens et al, 2016) as well as brain imaging (Cha et al, 2014;Greenberg et al, 2013). However, it is not yet entirely clear why these differences in generalization responses between patients and healthy individuals exist and why they have been found in some disorders such as panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (Kaczkurkin et al, 2017;Lissek et al, 2010Lissek et al, , 2014 but evidence remain mixed for others such as generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder (Ahrens et al, 2016;Lissek et al, 2014;Tinoco-González et al, 2015).…”

Section: No Influence Of Threat Uncertainty On Fear Generalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the inherent uncertainty associated with partial reinforcement rates, studies on fear generalization use various reinforcement schedules during acquisition, ranging from 33% (Morey et al, 2015) to 75% or even 100% (Lemmens et al, 2021;Lissek et al, 2010) making it difficult to compare. To our knowledge the only study that directly investigated the effect of partial and continuous reinforcement schedules on fear generalization is the one by Zhao et al (2022).…”

Section: No Influence Of Threat Uncertainty On Fear Generalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a variety of factors that interact in fear generalization: from threat detection and threat vs. safety discrimination to the selection of the correct behavioral response. This multifaceted nature of fear generalization is reflected in the dissociations found between different measures such as visuocortical (McTeague et al, 2015) and fear-potentiated startle (Lissek et al, 2008), heart rate and SCR (Ahrens et al, 2016), US-expectancy and SCR (Lemmens et al, 2021). Notably, although most measures used to study fear generalization show either a quadratic or linear gradient with stronger responses to CS+ and decreasing responses along the stimulus dimension as the stimuli resemble more the CS-, the visual cortex shows a different function.…”

Section: No Influence Of Threat Uncertainty On Fear Generalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No Influence of Threat Uncertainty on Fear Generalization

Aslanidou

Andreatta

Wong

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Fear overgeneralization and perceived uncertainty about future outcomes have been suggested as risk factors for clinical anxiety. However, little is known regarding how they influence each other. In this study, we investigated whether different levels of threat uncertainty influence fear generalization. Three groups of healthy participants underwent a differential fear conditioning protocol followed by a generalization test. All groups learned to associate one female face (conditioned stimulus, CS+) with a female scream (unconditioned stimulus, US) while the other face (CS-) was not associated with the scream. In order to manipulate threat uncertainty, one group (low uncertainty, n = 26) received 80%, the second group (moderate uncertainty, n = 32) received 60%, and the third group (high uncertainty, n = 30) 40% CS-US contingency. In the generalization test, all groups saw CS+ and CS- again as well as four morphs that varied in similarity with the CS+ in steps of 20%. Subjective (expectancy, valence, and arousal ratings), psychophysiological (skin conductance response, SCR), and visuocortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials, ssVEPs) indices of fear were registered. Participants expected the US in accordance with their reinforcement schedules but displayed stronger skin conductance with more uncertainty. However, acquisition of conditioned fear was not evident in ssVEPs. During the generalization test, we found no effect of threat uncertainty in any of the measured variables, but the strength of generalization for threat expectancy ratings was positively correlated with dispositional intolerance of uncertainty. This study suggests that mere threat uncertainty does not modulate fear generalization.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: No Influence Of Threat Uncertainty On Fear Generalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: No Influence Of Threat Uncertainty On Fear Generalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: No Influence Of Threat Uncertainty On Fear Generalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

No Influence of Threat Uncertainty on Fear Generalization

Aslanidou

Andreatta

Wong

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Research on avoidance behavior in fear conditioning paradigms has focused on avoidance as a central element of the procedure, deliberately giving participants the option to avoid an aversive event (e.g., Klein et al, 2021b ; Klein, Berger, Vervliet, & Shechner, 2021a ; Lemmens, Beckers, Dibbets, Kang, & Smeets, 2021 ). This study suggests paying attention to participants’ avoidance behavior as a control variable in paradigms where the researcher has no direct control over avoidance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibrating your own fears: Feasibility of a remote fear conditioning paradigm with semi-subjective stimulus calibration and differences in fear learning

2022

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Fear conditioning studies have occurred mostly in the laboratory, but recently researchers have started to adapt fear conditioning procedures for remote application. Standardization of aversive stimulus material not causing unnecessarily strong discomfort remains an issue especially relevant to research without experimental supervision. The present study introduces a novel semi-subjective method to calibrate aversive sounds in a remotely conducted fear conditioning paradigm. To demonstrate feasibility and proof of concept, 165 participants completed the paradigm, calibrating the loudness of an aversive sound without the guidance of an experimental instructor. This study also aimed to replicate existing findings of participant groups that differed in their early CS-UCS contingency awareness. Participants were classified as Accurate (UCS more likely after the CS+ than CS–), Poor (UCS more likely after the CS- than CS+, or UCS unlikely after either CS), and Threat Biased (UCS equally likely after the CS+ and CS–). Results indicated both the feasibility and efficacy of the paradigm, with participants showing typical patterns of fear learning. Threat Biased participants showed significantly higher uncertainty towards safety signals. There were no differences between the groups in terms of personality traits, thus questioning whether these attributes mediate differences in fear learning and the emergence of anxiety disorders. Using semi-subjective sound calibration appears to be functional, and future studies may consider implementing the new method when remotely administering fear conditioning paradigms.

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Avoiding a feared stimulus: Modelling costly avoidance of learnt fear in a sensory preconditioning paradigm

Wong

Pittig

2022

Biological Psychology

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Overgeneralization of fear, but not avoidance, following acute stress

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

No Influence of Threat Uncertainty on Fear Generalization

No Influence of Threat Uncertainty on Fear Generalization

Calibrating your own fears: Feasibility of a remote fear conditioning paradigm with semi-subjective stimulus calibration and differences in fear learning

Avoiding a feared stimulus: Modelling costly avoidance of learnt fear in a sensory preconditioning paradigm

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