Thought suppression inhibits the generalization of fear extinction

Hennings, Augustin C.; Bibb, Sophia A.; Lewis-Peacock, Jarrod A.; Dunsmoor, Joseph E.

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2020.112931

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The lack of differentiation in concordance between phases is consistent with the suppression hypothesiswhere it is believed that those with alexithymia overuse suppression as an emotion regulation strategy resulting in a paradoxical experiencing of emotional distress/intensity coupled with lower correlations between emotional responses (i.e. physiology, behaviour and appraisal; Butler, Gross, & Barnard, 2014) and threat expectancy (Hennings, Bibb, Lewis-Peacock, & Dunsmoor, 2021). A lack of observed differentiation in emotion response concordance may be due to individuals with alexithymia reaching their peak emotion response disconcordance during neutral phases (anticipation of impending emotion), limiting resources for adaptive modulation to acute emotional demands (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Emotion response disconcordance among trauma-exposed adults: the impact of alexithymia

et al. 2022

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Background Emotion processing deficits have been identified as a critical transdiagnostic factor that facilitates distress after trauma exposure. Limited skills in identifying and labelling emotional states (i.e. alexithymia) may present on the more automated (less conscious) end of the spectrum of emotional awareness and clarity. Individuals with alexithymia tend to exhibit a disconcordance between subjective experience and autonomic activity (e.g. where high levels of subjective emotional intensity are associated with low physiological arousal), which may exacerbate distress. Although there is a robust link between alexithymia and trauma exposure, no work to date has explored whether alexithymia is associated with emotional response disconcordance among trauma-exposed adults. Method Using a validated trauma script paradigm, the present study explored the impact of alexithymia on emotion response concordance [skin conductance (Galvanic Skin Response, GSR) and Total Mood Disturbance (TMD)] among 74 trauma-exposed adults recruited via a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment clinic and student research programme. Results Unlike posttraumatic symptom severity, age, sex, participant type and mood (which showed no effect on emotion response concordance), alexithymia was associated with heightened emotion response disconcordance between GSR and TMD [F(1, 37) = 8.93, p = 0.006], with low GSR being associated with high TMD. Observed effects of the trauma script were entirely accounted for by the interaction with alexithymia, such that those with alexithymia showed a negligible association between subjective and physiological states. Conclusion This finding is paramount as it shows that a large proportion of trauma-exposed adults have a divergent emotion engagement profile.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Emotion response disconcordance among trauma-exposed adults: the impact of alexithymia

et al. 2022

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“…While contextual extinction during fear conditioning has been found to reduce fear responses [70][71][72] , we observed the opposite with the Ctx group. This procedure led to an increase in drug-seeking behavior to the level or greater than that of animals experiencing home-cage abstinence.…”

Section: Forced Abstinence Modalitiescontrasting

confidence: 73%

Transcriptional characterization of cocaine withdrawal versus extinction within nucleus accumbens

Martínez-Rivera,

Holt,

Minier-Toribio

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Substance use disorder is characterized by a maladaptive imbalance wherein drug seeking persists despite negative consequences or drug unavailability. This imbalance correlates with neurobiological alterations some of which are amplified during forced abstinence, thereby compromising the capacity of extinction-based approaches to prevent relapse. Cocaine use disorder (CUD) exemplifies this phenomenon in which neurobiological modifications hijack brain reward regions such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc) to manifest craving and withdrawal-like symptoms. While increasing evidence links transcriptional changes in the NAc to specific phases of addiction, genome-wide changes in gene expression during withdrawal vs. extinction (WD/Ext) have not been examined in a context- and NAc-subregion-specific manner. Here, we used cocaine self-administration (SA) in rats combined with RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) of NAc subregions (core and shell) to transcriptionally profile the impact of experiencing withdrawal in the home cage or in the previous drug context or experiencing extinction training. As expected, home-cage withdrawal maintained drug seeking in the previous drug context, whereas extinction training reduced it. By contrast, withdrawal involving repetitive exposure to the previous drug context increased drug-seeking behavior. Bioinformatic analyses of RNA-seq data revealed gene expression patterns, networks, motifs, and biological functions specific to these behavioral conditions and NAc subregions. Comparing transcriptomic analysis of the NAc of patients with CUD highlighted conserved gene signatures, especially with rats that were repetitively exposed to the previous drug context. Collectively, these behavioral and transcriptional correlates of several withdrawal-extinction settings reveal fundamental and translational information about potential molecular mechanisms to attenuate drug-associated memories.

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“…Lavy and van den Hout (1994) studied the delayed effects of cognitive avoidance, finding that cognitive avoidance caused subsequent attentional bias toward a previously neutral category of stimuli. Additionally, cognitive control in the form of both thought suppression (Hennings et al, 2021), and attentional avoidance (O'Malley & Waters, 2018) during a fear extinction procedure have been shown to detrimentally impact fear extinction, similar to would be expected in relation to behavioral avoidance (Cornwell et al, 2013;Rattel et al, 2017). Hooper and colleagues (Hooper, 2010;Hooper et al, 2018;Hooper, Saunders, et al, 2010;Hooper, Villatte, et al, 2010;Hooper & McHugh, 2013a, 2013b have investigated the consequences of thought suppression and similar cognitive control strategies from an experiential avoidance perspective.…”

Section: Cognitive Control Of Mental States As Experiential Avoidancementioning

confidence: 98%

I Don’t Want to Hear It : Cognitive Control Strategies in Response to Task-Irrelevant Sound

Kolbeinsson

2022

Linköping Studies in Behavioural Science

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suppression would result in hypervigilance toward previously suppressed stimuli. Results from the two experiments reported in Study III did not provide support for this hypothesis.In conclusion, results from the studies presented in the current thesis suggest that people regularly use cognitive control strategies in response to task-irrelevant sound, and that the use of these strategies may be related to subjective emotional experiences of the sound. Additionally, attempting to mentally suppress awareness of a sound may result in delayed consequences, but the circumstance under which these delayed consequences can be demonstrated are not yet understood. The included studies provide initial indications that developing adaptive strategies of coping with distracting sound can reduce the risk of long-term maladaptive consequences.

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Thought suppression inhibits the generalization of fear extinction

Cited by 12 publications

References 38 publications

Emotion response disconcordance among trauma-exposed adults: the impact of alexithymia

Emotion response disconcordance among trauma-exposed adults: the impact of alexithymia

Transcriptional characterization of cocaine withdrawal versus extinction within nucleus accumbens

I Don’t Want to Hear It : Cognitive Control Strategies in Response to Task-Irrelevant Sound

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