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Fear conditioning in posttraumatic stress disorder: evidence for delayed extinction of autonomic, experiential, and behavioural responses.
Behav Res Ther. 2007 Sep; 45(9):2019-33.BR

Abstract

Aversive conditioning has been proposed as an important factor involved in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, it is not yet fully understood exactly which learning mechanisms are characteristic for PTSD. PTSD patients (n=36), and healthy individuals with and without trauma exposure (TE group, n=21; nTE group, n=34), underwent a differential fear conditioning experiment consisting of habituation, acquisition, and extinction phases. An electrical stimulus served as the unconditioned stimulus (US), and two neutral pictures as conditioned stimuli (CS+, paired; CS-, unpaired). Conditioned responses were quantified by skin conductance responses (SCRs), subjective ratings of CS valence and US-expectancy, and a behavioural test. In contrast to the nTE group, PTSD patients showed delayed extinction of SCRs to the CS+. Online ratings of valence and US-expectancy as well as the behavioural test confirmed this pattern. These findings point to a deficit in extinction learning and highlight the role of affective valence appraisals and cognitive biases in PTSD. In addition, there was some evidence that a subgroup of PTSD patients had difficulties in learning the CS-US contingency, thereby providing preliminary evidence of reduced discrimination learning.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Blechert J
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute for Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 60/62, CH-4055 Basel, Switzerland. jens.blechert@unibas.ch
Michael T
No affiliation info available
Vriends N
No affiliation info available
Margraf J
No affiliation info available
Wilhelm FH
No affiliation info available

MeSH

AdultAnalysis of VarianceConditioning, ClassicalElectroshockExtinction, PsychologicalFearFemaleGalvanic Skin ResponseHabituation, PsychophysiologicHumansMaleMiddle AgedPsychometricsStress Disorders, Post-Traumatic

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

17442266

Citation

Blechert, Jens, et al. "Fear Conditioning in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Evidence for Delayed Extinction of Autonomic, Experiential, and Behavioural Responses." Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 45, no. 9, 2007, pp. 2019-33.
Blechert J, Michael T, Vriends N, et al. Fear conditioning in posttraumatic stress disorder: evidence for delayed extinction of autonomic, experiential, and behavioural responses. Behav Res Ther. 2007;45(9):2019-33.
Blechert, J., Michael, T., Vriends, N., Margraf, J., & Wilhelm, F. H. (2007). Fear conditioning in posttraumatic stress disorder: evidence for delayed extinction of autonomic, experiential, and behavioural responses. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(9), 2019-33.
Blechert J, et al. Fear Conditioning in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Evidence for Delayed Extinction of Autonomic, Experiential, and Behavioural Responses. Behav Res Ther. 2007;45(9):2019-33. PubMed PMID: 17442266.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Fear conditioning in posttraumatic stress disorder: evidence for delayed extinction of autonomic, experiential, and behavioural responses. AU - Blechert,Jens, AU - Michael,Tanja, AU - Vriends,Noortje, AU - Margraf,Jürgen, AU - Wilhelm,Frank H, Y1 - 2007/03/12/ PY - 2006/08/29/received PY - 2007/02/26/revised PY - 2007/02/28/accepted PY - 2007/4/20/pubmed PY - 2008/3/8/medline PY - 2007/4/20/entrez SP - 2019 EP - 33 JF - Behaviour research and therapy JO - Behav Res Ther VL - 45 IS - 9 N2 - Aversive conditioning has been proposed as an important factor involved in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, it is not yet fully understood exactly which learning mechanisms are characteristic for PTSD. PTSD patients (n=36), and healthy individuals with and without trauma exposure (TE group, n=21; nTE group, n=34), underwent a differential fear conditioning experiment consisting of habituation, acquisition, and extinction phases. An electrical stimulus served as the unconditioned stimulus (US), and two neutral pictures as conditioned stimuli (CS+, paired; CS-, unpaired). Conditioned responses were quantified by skin conductance responses (SCRs), subjective ratings of CS valence and US-expectancy, and a behavioural test. In contrast to the nTE group, PTSD patients showed delayed extinction of SCRs to the CS+. Online ratings of valence and US-expectancy as well as the behavioural test confirmed this pattern. These findings point to a deficit in extinction learning and highlight the role of affective valence appraisals and cognitive biases in PTSD. In addition, there was some evidence that a subgroup of PTSD patients had difficulties in learning the CS-US contingency, thereby providing preliminary evidence of reduced discrimination learning. SN - 0005-7967 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/17442266/Fear_conditioning_in_posttraumatic_stress_disorder:_evidence_for_delayed_extinction_of_autonomic_experiential_and_behavioural_responses_ L2 - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0005-7967(07)00041-1 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -