Conscious knowledge of CS-UCS contingency information affects extinction retrieval of conditioned disgust responses: Findings from an online de novo disgust conditioning task

Objective: The present study aimed to establish and develop an online de novo conditioning paradigm for the measurement of conditioned disgust responses. We further explored the effects of explicit instructions about the CS-UCS contingency on extinction learning and retrieval of conditioned disgust responses. Method: The study included a sample of 115 healthy participants. Geometric figures served as conditioned stimuli (CS) and disgust-evoking pictures as unconditioned stimuli (UCS). During disgust conditioning, the CS+ was paired with the UCS (66% reinforcement) and the CS- remained unpaired; during extinction and retrieval, no UCS was presented. Half of the participants (n = 54) received instructions prior to the disgust extinction stating that the UCS will not be presented anymore. 1-2 days or 7-8 days later participants performed a retrieval test. CS-UCS contingency, disgust and valence ratings were used as dependent measures. Results: Successful acquisition of conditioned disgust response was observed on the level of CS-UCS contingency, disgust and valence ratings. While some decline in valence and disgust ratings during the extinction stage was observed, contingency instructions did not significantly affect extinction performance. Retrieval one week later revealed that contingency instructions increased the discrimination of the CSs. Conclusions: Extinction of conditioned disgust responses is not affected by explicit knowledge of the CS-UCS contingencies. However, contingency instructions prior to extinction seem to have a detrimental effect on long-term extinction retrieval. (AU)

The role of self-efficacy in specific fears.

Low self-efficacy for threatening stimuli and situations has been proposed as an important etiological factor in the development and maintenance of specific phobias. The present study examined the relationships between general self-efficacy (GSE), specific self-efficacy (SSE) and specific fears in a representative sample (n = 717). While GSE was associated with higher self-reported fear and avoidance, SSE (e.g. SSE in the presence of animal-related fear) was more related to specific fears. SSE turned out to be a significant predictor of specific fear even after controlling for trait anxiety, age and gender. Interestingly, the association between SSE and specific fear differed across the different fear categories. Fear and avoidance of blood/injection/injuries showed the highest associations with SSE. In contrast, the association between natural environment-related fear and avoidance and GSE or SSE together was only modest. Exploratory analyses revealed a gender-specific effect on the strength of the association between SSE and specific fears. Women scored higher in animal-related fears and SSE. Our findings support the self-efficacy hypothesis of anxiety disorder development and provide a more detailed insight into the role of GSE and SSE in specific fears and phobias.

Conscious knowledge of CS-UCS contingency information affects extinction retrieval of conditioned disgust responses: Findings from an online de novo disgust conditioning task.

Objective: The present study aimed to establish and develop an online de novo conditioning paradigm for the measurement of conditioned disgust responses. We further explored the effects of explicit instructions about the CS-UCS contingency on extinction learning and retrieval of conditioned disgust responses. Method: The study included a sample of 115 healthy participants. Geometric figures served as conditioned stimuli (CS) and disgust-evoking pictures as unconditioned stimuli (UCS). During disgust conditioning, the CS+ was paired with the UCS (66% reinforcement) and the CS- remained unpaired; during extinction and retrieval, no UCS was presented. Half of the participants (n = 54) received instructions prior to the disgust extinction stating that the UCS will not be presented anymore. 1-2 days or 7-8 days later participants performed a retrieval test. CS-UCS contingency, disgust and valence ratings were used as dependent measures. Results: Successful acquisition of conditioned disgust response was observed on the level of CS-UCS contingency, disgust and valence ratings. While some decline in valence and disgust ratings during the extinction stage was observed, contingency instructions did not significantly affect extinction performance. Retrieval one week later revealed that contingency instructions increased the discrimination of the CSs. Conclusions: Extinction of conditioned disgust responses is not affected by explicit knowledge of the CS-UCS contingencies. However, contingency instructions prior to extinction seem to have a detrimental effect on long-term extinction retrieval.

Training the anxious brain: using fMRI-based neurofeedback to change brain activity in adolescence.

Anxiety disorders are a leading cause of morbidity and entail a lot of costs. Adolescence is characterized by social fears and poor emotion regulation abilities which together increase the likelihood of the emergence of anxiety disorders. This emotion dysregulation is potentially caused by the emotion regulating brain areas, such as the prefrontal cortex and temporal cortex, that are still undergoing developmental changes throughout late adolescence. Recently, new approaches have used functional magnetic resonance imaging-based neurofeedback to help participants gain control over emotion regulation brain networks by receiving real-time feedback on their brain activity and to use effective emotion regulation abilities. In this review, we provide an overview of the developmental changes in the brain and the corresponding behavioural changes, and explore how these can be influenced during adolescence using neurofeedback. We conclude that recent studies show promising results that children and adolescents can self-regulate emotion regulation brain networks thereby supporting the development of effective emotion regulation abilities. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Functional magnetic resonance imaging-based neurofeedback can be used for brain self-regulation in development. The emotion regulation networks play a key role in treating social anxiety with neurofeedback.

Modulatory effects of dynamic fMRI-based neurofeedback on emotion regulation networks in adolescent females.

Research has shown that difficulties with emotion regulation abilities in childhood and adolescence increase the risk for developing symptoms of mental disorders, e.g anxiety. We investigated whether functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-based neurofeedback (NF) can modulate brain networks supporting emotion regulation abilities in adolescent females. We performed three experiments (Experiment 1: N â€‹= â€‹18; Experiment 2: N â€‹= â€‹30; Experiment 3: N â€‹= â€‹20). We first compared different NF implementations regarding their effectiveness of modulating prefrontal cortex (PFC)-amygdala functional connectivity (fc). Further we assessed the effects of fc-NF on neural measures, emotional/metacognitive measures and their associations. Finally, we probed the mechanism underlying fc-NF by examining concentrations of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters. Results showed that NF implementations differentially modulate PFC-amygdala fc. Using the most effective NF implementation we observed important relationships between neural and emotional/metacognitive measures, such as practice-related change in fc was related with change in thought control ability. Further, we found that the relationship between state anxiety prior to the MRI session and the effect of fc-NF was moderated by GABA concentrations in the PFC and anterior cingulate cortex. To conclude, we were able to show that fc-NF can be used in adolescent females to shape neural and emotional/metacognitive measures underlying emotion regulation. We further show that neurotransmitter concentrations moderate fc-NF-effects.