Aversive contexts enhance defensive responses to conditioned threat.
anxiety
emotion
fear
heart rate
learning
threat
Journal
Psychophysiology
ISSN: 1469-8986
Titre abrégé: Psychophysiology
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 0142657
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
06 Jun 2024
06 Jun 2024
Historique:
revised:
23
04
2024
received:
06
11
2023
accepted:
23
05
2024
medline:
7
6
2024
pubmed:
7
6
2024
entrez:
7
6
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
The ability to flexibly transition between defensive states is crucial for adaptive responding in life-threatening situations. Potentially threatening situations typically induce a sustained feeling of apprehension in association with hypervigilance, while acute threat is usually characterized by an intense and transient response to cope with the imminent danger. While potential and acute threat states have traditionally been viewed as mutually exclusive, this distinction is being challenged by a growing body of evidence suggesting a more complex interplay during simultaneous activation of these states. However, the interaction between potential and acute threat on a psychophysiological level remains elusive. To fill this gap, 94 healthy individuals participated in one of two contextual fear-conditioning paradigms. In both paradigms, a differential fear-learning phase was conducted, followed by a test phase in which the conditioned stimuli were presented in front of either conditioned or inherently aversive contextual images compared to neutral contexts. To capture defensive responses, we recorded subjective (threat and expectancy ratings) and physiological (electrodermal and cardiovascular) activity to the conditioned stimuli as a function of contextual threat. Besides indices of successful fear conditioning, our results revealed stronger threat and unconditioned stimulus expectancy ratings, cardiac deceleration, and skin conductance responses for threat and safety cues presented in inherently aversive compared to neutral contexts. Conditioned contexts had less impact on physiological responses to threat and safety cues than inherently aversive contexts. These findings provide new insights into the additive nature of defensive responses to fear cues and situations of contextual threat.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e14626Informations de copyright
Psychophysiology© 2024 The Author(s). Psychophysiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research.
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