Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation
The present study examined the effects of sustained anticipatory anxiety on the affective modulation of the eyeblink startle reflex. Towards this end, pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures were presented as a continuous stream during alternating threat-of-shock and safety periods, which were cue...
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Public Library of Science
2013
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3546963/ |
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pubmed-35469632013-01-22 Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation Bublatzky, Florian Guerra, Pedro M. Pastor, M. Carmen Schupp, Harald T. Vila, Jaime Research Article The present study examined the effects of sustained anticipatory anxiety on the affective modulation of the eyeblink startle reflex. Towards this end, pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures were presented as a continuous stream during alternating threat-of-shock and safety periods, which were cued by colored picture frames. Orbicularis-EMG to auditory startle probes and electrodermal activity were recorded. Previous findings regarding affective picture valence and threat-of-shock modulation were replicated. Of main interest, anticipating aversive events and viewing affective pictures additively modulated defensive activation. Specifically, despite overall potentiated startle blink magnitude in threat-of-shock conditions, the startle reflex remained sensitive to hedonic picture valence. Finally, skin conductance level revealed sustained sympathetic activation throughout the entire experiment during threat- compared to safety-periods. Overall, defensive activation by physical threat appears to operate independently from reflex modulation by picture media. The present data confirms the importance of simultaneously manipulating phasic-fear and sustained-anxiety in studying both normal and abnormal anxiety. Public Library of Science 2013-01-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3546963/ /pubmed/23342060 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0054003 Text en © 2013 Bublatzky et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Bublatzky, Florian Guerra, Pedro M. Pastor, M. Carmen Schupp, Harald T. Vila, Jaime |
| spellingShingle |
Bublatzky, Florian Guerra, Pedro M. Pastor, M. Carmen Schupp, Harald T. Vila, Jaime Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation |
| author_facet |
Bublatzky, Florian Guerra, Pedro M. Pastor, M. Carmen Schupp, Harald T. Vila, Jaime |
| author_sort |
Bublatzky, Florian |
| title |
Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation |
| title_short |
Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation |
| title_full |
Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation |
| title_fullStr |
Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Additive Effects of Threat-of-Shock and Picture Valence on Startle Reflex Modulation |
| title_sort |
additive effects of threat-of-shock and picture valence on startle reflex modulation |
| description |
The present study examined the effects of sustained anticipatory anxiety on the affective modulation of the eyeblink startle reflex. Towards this end, pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures were presented as a continuous stream during alternating threat-of-shock and safety periods, which were cued by colored picture frames. Orbicularis-EMG to auditory startle probes and electrodermal activity were recorded. Previous findings regarding affective picture valence and threat-of-shock modulation were replicated. Of main interest, anticipating aversive events and viewing affective pictures additively modulated defensive activation. Specifically, despite overall potentiated startle blink magnitude in threat-of-shock conditions, the startle reflex remained sensitive to hedonic picture valence. Finally, skin conductance level revealed sustained sympathetic activation throughout the entire experiment during threat- compared to safety-periods. Overall, defensive activation by physical threat appears to operate independently from reflex modulation by picture media. The present data confirms the importance of simultaneously manipulating phasic-fear and sustained-anxiety in studying both normal and abnormal anxiety. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3546963/ |
| _version_ |
1611947615534972928 |