Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis
Intense fear responses observed in trauma-, stressor-, and anxiety-related disorders can be elicited by a wide range of stimuli similar to those that were present during the traumatic event. The present study investigated the experimental utility of fear-potentiated startle paradigms to study this p...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4201100/ |
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pubmed-42011002014-11-03 Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis Norrholm, Seth Davin Jovanovic, Tanja Briscione, Maria A. Anderson, Kemp M. Kwon, Cliffe K. Warren, Victor T. Bosshardt, Lauren Bradley, Bekh Neuroscience Intense fear responses observed in trauma-, stressor-, and anxiety-related disorders can be elicited by a wide range of stimuli similar to those that were present during the traumatic event. The present study investigated the experimental utility of fear-potentiated startle paradigms to study this phenomenon, known as stimulus generalization, in healthy volunteers. Fear-potentiated startle refers to a relative increase in the acoustic startle response to a previously neutral stimulus that has been paired with an aversive stimulus. Specifically, in Experiment 1 an auditory pure tone (500 Hz) was used as the conditioned stimulus (CS+) and was reinforced with an unconditioned stimulus (US), an airblast to the larynx. A distinct tone (4000 Hz) was used as the nonreinforced stimulus (CS−) and was never paired with an airblast. Twenty-four hours later subjects underwent Re-training followed by a Generalization test, during which subjects were exposed to a range of generalization stimuli (GS) (250, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 Hz). In order to further examine the point at which fear no longer generalizes, a follow-up experiment (Experiment 2) was performed where a 4000 Hz pure tone was used as the CS+, and during the Generalization test, 2000 and 8000 Hz were used as GS. In both Experiment 1 and 2 there was significant discrimination in US expectancy responses on all stimuli during the Generalization Test, indicating the stimuli were perceptually distinct. In Experiment 1, participants showed similar levels of fear-potentiated startle to the GS that were adjacent to the CS+, and discriminated between stimuli that were 2 or more degrees from the CS+. Experiment 2 demonstrated no fear-potentiated startle generalization. The current study is the first to use auditory cues to test generalization of conditioned fear responses; such cues may be especially relevant to combat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) where much of the traumatic exposure may involve sounds. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-10-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4201100/ /pubmed/25368559 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00361 Text en Copyright © 2014 Norrholm, Jovanovic, Briscione, Anderson, Kwon, Warren, Bosshardt and Bradley. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| 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 |
Norrholm, Seth Davin Jovanovic, Tanja Briscione, Maria A. Anderson, Kemp M. Kwon, Cliffe K. Warren, Victor T. Bosshardt, Lauren Bradley, Bekh |
| spellingShingle |
Norrholm, Seth Davin Jovanovic, Tanja Briscione, Maria A. Anderson, Kemp M. Kwon, Cliffe K. Warren, Victor T. Bosshardt, Lauren Bradley, Bekh Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis |
| author_facet |
Norrholm, Seth Davin Jovanovic, Tanja Briscione, Maria A. Anderson, Kemp M. Kwon, Cliffe K. Warren, Victor T. Bosshardt, Lauren Bradley, Bekh |
| author_sort |
Norrholm, Seth Davin |
| title |
Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis |
| title_short |
Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis |
| title_full |
Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis |
| title_fullStr |
Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis |
| title_sort |
generalization of fear-potentiated startle in the presence of auditory cues: a parametric analysis |
| description |
Intense fear responses observed in trauma-, stressor-, and anxiety-related disorders can be elicited by a wide range of stimuli similar to those that were present during the traumatic event. The present study investigated the experimental utility of fear-potentiated startle paradigms to study this phenomenon, known as stimulus generalization, in healthy volunteers. Fear-potentiated startle refers to a relative increase in the acoustic startle response to a previously neutral stimulus that has been paired with an aversive stimulus. Specifically, in Experiment 1 an auditory pure tone (500 Hz) was used as the conditioned stimulus (CS+) and was reinforced with an unconditioned stimulus (US), an airblast to the larynx. A distinct tone (4000 Hz) was used as the nonreinforced stimulus (CS−) and was never paired with an airblast. Twenty-four hours later subjects underwent Re-training followed by a Generalization test, during which subjects were exposed to a range of generalization stimuli (GS) (250, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000 Hz). In order to further examine the point at which fear no longer generalizes, a follow-up experiment (Experiment 2) was performed where a 4000 Hz pure tone was used as the CS+, and during the Generalization test, 2000 and 8000 Hz were used as GS. In both Experiment 1 and 2 there was significant discrimination in US expectancy responses on all stimuli during the Generalization Test, indicating the stimuli were perceptually distinct. In Experiment 1, participants showed similar levels of fear-potentiated startle to the GS that were adjacent to the CS+, and discriminated between stimuli that were 2 or more degrees from the CS+. Experiment 2 demonstrated no fear-potentiated startle generalization. The current study is the first to use auditory cues to test generalization of conditioned fear responses; such cues may be especially relevant to combat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) where much of the traumatic exposure may involve sounds. |
| publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4201100/ |
| _version_ |
1613146113483735040 |