The development of skin conductance fear conditioning in children from ages 3 to 8 years

Gao, Yu; Raine, Adrian; Venables, Peter H.; Dawson, Michael E.; Mednick, Sarnoff A.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00874.x

Cited by 56 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(75 reference statements)

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“…Differential threat conditioning is consistently observed across studies of unaffected youth as evidenced by larger skin conductance response (SCR), fear potentiated startle (FPS), and/or self-report (SR) to a CS+ (a CS that is paired with the US) compared to a CS- (a CS that is explicitly not paired with the US) [36,40,55-68]. Differential conditioning has been reliably observed in children starting at around six years of age [56], with SCR and FPS magnitudes increasing with age [59,61] and peaking during adolescence [40]. Although gender [59] and neuroticism [63] do not appear to be associated with differential conditioning in unaffected youth, several other influential factors have been identified.…”

Section: Threat Conditioning and Extinction In Unaffected Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Differential conditioning has been reliably observed in children starting at around six years of age [56], with SCR and FPS magnitudes increasing with age [59,61] and peaking during adolescence [40]. Although gender [59] and neuroticism [63] do not appear to be associated with differential conditioning in unaffected youth, several other influential factors have been identified. These include the type of conditioned stimuli [62], contingency awareness [61], attention bias [60], parental clinical psychopathology [64], and youth subclinical psychopathology [65,66].…”

Section: Threat Conditioning and Extinction In Unaffected Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extinction learning in childhood anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder: implications for treatment

McGuire

Orr

Essoe

et al. 2016

Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics

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Introduction Threat conditioning and extinction play an important role in anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Although these conditions commonly affect children, threat conditioning and extinction have been primarily studied in adults. However, differences in phenomenology and neural architecture prohibit the generalization of adult findings to youth. Areas covered A comprehensive literature search using PubMed and PsycInfo was conducted to identify studies that have used differential conditioning tasks to examine threat acquisition and extinction in youth. The information obtained from this review helps to clarify the influence of these processes on the etiology and treatment of youth with OCD, PTSD and other anxiety disorders. Thirty studies of threat conditioning and extinction were identified. Expert Commentary Youth with anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD have largely comparable threat acquisition relative to unaffected controls, with some distinctions noted for youth with PTSD or youth who have suffered maltreatment. However, impaired extinction was consistently observed across youth with these disorders and appears to be consistent with deficiencies in inhibitory learning. Incorporating strategies to improve inhibitory learning may improve extinction learning within extinction-based treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Strategies to improve inhibitory learning in CBT are discussed.

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Section: Threat Conditioning and Extinction In Unaffected Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Threat Conditioning and Extinction In Unaffected Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction learning in childhood anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder: implications for treatment

McGuire

Orr

Essoe

et al. 2016

Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Developmental studies of human fear learning corroborate findings in animals of the early maturation of fear learning. Children as young as 3 years show evidence of fear acquisition (Gao et al, 2010), with discrimination between an aversively conditioned and a neutral stimulus (CS þ 4CS À ) improving with age (Gao et al, 2010;Glenn et al, 2012). This increased discrimination ability with age continues into adulthood, and is associated with distinct developmental patterns of neural activity during fear learning (Lau et al, 2011).…”

Section: Developmental Changes In Fear-learning Circuitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitive Periods in Affective Development: Nonlinear Maturation of Fear Learning

Hartley

Lee

2014

Neuropsychopharmacol

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At specific maturational stages, neural circuits enter sensitive periods of heightened plasticity, during which the development of both brain and behavior are highly receptive to particular experiential information. A relatively advanced understanding of the regulatory mechanisms governing the initiation, closure, and reinstatement of sensitive period plasticity has emerged from extensive research examining the development of the visual system. In this article, we discuss a large body of work characterizing the pronounced nonlinear changes in fear learning and extinction that occur from childhood through adulthood, and their underlying neural substrates. We draw upon the model of sensitive period regulation within the visual system, and present burgeoning evidence suggesting that parallel mechanisms may regulate the qualitative changes in fear learning across development.

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“…The few available developmental studies of human fear conditioning indicate that children as young as 3 years show evidence of fear acquisition (Gao, Raine, Venables, Dawson, & Mednick, 2010), with discrimination between an aversively conditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus (CS+ > CS−) gradually improving with age (Gao et al, 2010; Glenn et al, 2012). This increased discrimination ability with age continues into adulthood and is associated with distinct developmental patterns of neural activity during fear learning (Lau et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A developmental analysis of threat/safety learning and extinction recall during middle childhood

Michalska

Shechner

Hong

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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The current study examined developmental changes in fear learning and generalization in 54 healthy 5–10-year old children using a novel fear conditioning paradigm. In this task, the conditioned stimuli (CS+/CS−) were two blue and yellow colored cartoon bells, and the unconditioned stimulus was an unpleasant loud alarm sound presented with a red cartoon bell. Physiological and subjective data were acquired. Three weeks after conditioning, 48 of these participants viewed the CS−, CS+, and morphed images resembling the CS+. Participants made threat–safety discriminations while appraising threat and remembering the CS+. Although no age-related differences in fear learning emerged, patterns of generalization were qualified by child age. Older children demonstrated better discrimination between the CS+ and CS morphs than younger age groups and also reported more fear to stimuli resembling the CS+ than younger children. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

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The development of skin conductance fear conditioning in children from ages 3 to 8 years

Cited by 56 publications

References 52 publications

Extinction learning in childhood anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder: implications for treatment

Extinction learning in childhood anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder: implications for treatment

Sensitive Periods in Affective Development: Nonlinear Maturation of Fear Learning

A developmental analysis of threat/safety learning and extinction recall during middle childhood

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