Fear conditioning and fear generalization in children and adolescents with anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders Childhood and adolescence Development Fear conditioning Fear generalization Overgeneralization

Journal

European child & adolescent psychiatry
ISSN: 1435-165X
Titre abrégé: Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
Pays: Germany
ID NLM: 9212296

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
04 Oct 2023
Historique:
received: 03 03 2022
accepted: 10 09 2023
medline: 5 10 2023
pubmed: 5 10 2023
entrez: 4 10 2023
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

Overgeneralization of conditioned fear is associated with anxiety disorders (AD). Most results stem from studies done in adult patients, but studies with children are rare, although the median onset of anxiety disorders lies already in childhood. Thus, the goal of the present study was to examine fear learning and generalization in youth participants, aged 10-17 years, with AD (n = 39) compared to healthy controls (HC) (n = 40). A discriminative fear conditioning and generalization paradigm was used. Ratings of arousal, valence, and US expectancy (the probability of an aversive noise following each stimulus) were measured, hypothesizing that children with AD compared to HC would show heightened ratings of arousal and US expectancy, and decreased positive valence ratings, respectively, as well as overgeneralization of fear. The results indicated that children with AD rated all stimuli as more arousing and less pleasant, and demonstrated higher US expectancy ratings to all stimuli when compared to HC. Thus, rather than displaying qualitatively different generalization patterns (e.g., a linear vs. quadratic slope of the gradient), differences between groups were more quantitative (similar, but parallel shifted gradient). Therefore, overgeneralization of conditioned fear does not seem to be a general marker of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1007/s00787-023-02304-7 PMID: 37794273
pubmed: 37794273
doi: 10.1007/s00787-023-02304-7
pii: 10.1007/s00787-023-02304-7
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Informations de copyright

© 2023. The Author(s).

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Auteurs

Julia Reinhard (J)

Center of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. Reinhard_J@ukw.de.
ORCID: 0000-0002-5595-2581

Anna Mittermeier (A)

Center of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Lisa Brandstetter (L)

Center of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Kimberly Mowat (K)

Center of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Anna Slyschak (A)

Center of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Andrea M F Reiter (AMF)

Center of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Matthias Gamer (M)

Department of Psychology (Experimental Clinical Psychology), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Marcel Romanos (M)

Center of Mental Health, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.

Classifications MeSH