1
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Rosenberg BM, Young KS, Nusslock R, Zinbarg RE, Craske MG. Anhedonia is associated with overgeneralization of conditioned fear during late adolescence and early adulthood. J Anxiety Disord 2024; 105:102880. [PMID: 38833961 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2024.102880] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2023] [Revised: 04/24/2024] [Accepted: 05/22/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Pavlovian fear paradigms involve learning to associate cues with threat or safety. Aberrances in Pavlovian fear learning correlate with psychopathology, especially anxiety disorders. This study evaluated symptom dimensions of anxiety and depression in relation to Pavlovian fear acquisition and generalization. METHODS 256 participants (70.31 % female) completed a Pavlovian fear acquisition and generalization paradigm at ages 18-19 and 21-22 years. Analyses focused on indices of learning (self-reported US expectancy, skin conductance). Multilevel models tested associations with orthogonal symptom dimensions (Anhedonia-Apprehension, Fears, General Distress) at each timepoint. RESULTS All dimensions were associated with weaker acquisition of US expectancies at each timepoint. Fears was associated with overgeneralization only at age 21-22. General Distress was associated with overgeneralization only at age 18-19. Anhedonia-Apprehension was associated with overgeneralization at ages 18-19 and 21-22. CONCLUSIONS Anhedonia-Apprehension disrupts Pavlovian fear acquisition and increases overgeneralization of fear. These effects may emerge during adolescence and remain into young adulthood. General Distress and Fears also contribute to overgeneralization of fear, but these effects may vary as prefrontal mechanisms of fear inhibition continue to develop during late adolescence. Targeting specific symptom dimensions, particularly Anhedonia-Apprehension, may decrease fear generalization and augment interventions built on Pavlovian principles, such as exposure therapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin M Rosenberg
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| | - Katherine S Young
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Robin Nusslock
- Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA; Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Richard E Zinbarg
- Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA; The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Michelle G Craske
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
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2
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Navarro-Sánchez M, Gil-Miravet I, Montero-Caballero D, Castillo-Gómez E, Gundlach AL, Olucha-Bordonau FE. Some key parameters in contextual fear conditioning and extinction in adult rats. Behav Brain Res 2024; 462:114874. [PMID: 38266780 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.114874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/19/2024] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Contextual fear conditioning is a behavioral paradigm used to assess hippocampal-dependent memory in experimental animals. Perception of the context depends on activation of a distinct population of neurons in the hippocampus and in hippocampal-related areas that process discrete aspects of context perception. In the absence of any putatively associated cue, the context becomes the salient element that may warn of an upcoming aversive event; and in particular conditions, animals generalize this warning to any new or similar context. In this study we evaluated the effects of the number of sessions, the number of unconditioned stimuli per acquisition session and the distribution of extinction sessions to assess fear acquisition and extinction and determine under which conditions generalization occurred in adult, male rats. We observed that the organization and spacing of sessions were relevant factors in the acquisition and extinction of contextual fear memories. Extinction occurred with significantly greater robustness when sessions were spread over two days. Furthermore, results indicated that exposure to a single 0.3 mA, 0.5 s footshock in two different sessions could produce context-specific fear, while more acquisition sessions or more footshocks within a single session produced a generalization of the fear response to a new context. Notably, when generalization occurred, successive re-exposure to the generalized context produced extinction in a similar way to the paired exposure. Together, the present findings identify clear procedural and behavioral parameters amenable to neural systems analysis of three clinically relevant outcomes of contextual fear conditioning, i.e., memory acquisition, storage and extinction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mónica Navarro-Sánchez
- Unitat Predepartamental de Medicina, Facutat de Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Spain
| | - Isis Gil-Miravet
- Unitat Predepartamental de Medicina, Facutat de Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Spain
| | - Daniel Montero-Caballero
- Unitat Predepartamental de Medicina, Facutat de Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Spain
| | - Esther Castillo-Gómez
- Unitat Predepartamental de Medicina, Facutat de Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Spain; Spanish Stress Research Network, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Valencia, Spain; Spanish National Network for Research in Mental Health (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain
| | - Andrew L Gundlach
- The Florey Institute for Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Florey Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health and Department of Anatomy and Physiology, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Drug Discovery Biology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Francisco E Olucha-Bordonau
- Unitat Predepartamental de Medicina, Facutat de Ciències de la Salut, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló de la Plana, Spain; Spanish Stress Research Network, Ministry of Science and Innovation, Valencia, Spain; Spanish National Network for Research in Mental Health (CIBERSAM), Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
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3
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Zhou X, Gu Y, Huang L, Lei Y. Individual differences in contextual threat generalisation and uncertainty: The role of intolerance of uncertainty. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2023. [PMID: 37105530 DOI: 10.1002/ijop.12911] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2022] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/29/2023]
Abstract
Threat generalisation is an adaptive process that is essential for individual survival. In contrast, over-generalisation is a pathological process that underlies the development of anxiety disorders. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is an individual characteristic known to influence threat generalisation by altering the responses to threat in uncertain situations. However, how it affects contextual threat generalisation remains unclear. Here, we used a novel paradigm to investigate whether contextual threat generalisation varied between individuals depending on their IU level (high or low) and the predictability of a situation (predictable or unpredictable). We analysed shock expectancy in 82 participants (age: 18-27 years) during threat acquisition and generalisation. Results showed that compared with the low IU group, the high IU group exhibited increased contextual threat generalisation to threat-related cues in unpredictable situation. These findings suggest that IU could be a marker for anxiety disorder susceptibility, as well as a target for anxiety treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Zhou
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yuanyuan Gu
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
| | - Lihui Huang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yi Lei
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
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4
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Sjouwerman R, Illius S, Kuhn M, Lonsdorf TB. A data multiverse analysis investigating non-model based SCR quantification approaches. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e14130. [PMID: 35780077 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14130] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2021] [Revised: 03/11/2022] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Electrodermal signals are commonly used outcome measures in research on arousal, emotion, and habituation. Recently, we reported on heterogeneity in skin conductance response quantification approaches and its impact on replicability. Here we provide complementary work focusing on within-approach heterogeneity of specifications for skin conductance response quantification. We focus on heterogeneity within the baseline-correction approach (BLC) which appeared as particularly heterogeneous-for instance with respect to the pre-CS baseline window duration, the start, and end of the peak detection window. We systematically scrutinize the robustness of results when applying different BLC approach specifications to one representative pre-existing data set (N = 118) in a (partly) pre-registered study. We report high agreement between different BLC approaches for US and CS+ trials, but moderate to poor agreement for CS- trials. Furthermore, a specification curve of the main effect of CS discrimination during fear acquisition training from all potential and reasonable combinations of specifications (N = 150) and a prototypical trough-to-peak (TTP) approach indicates that resulting effect sizes are largely comparable. A second specification curve (N = 605 specific combinations) highlights a strong impact of different transformation types. Crucially, however, we show that BLC approaches often misclassify the peak value-particularly for CS- trials, leading to stimulus-specific biases and challenges for post-processing and replicability of CS discrimination across studies applying different approaches. Lastly, we investigate how negative skin conductance values in BLC, appearing most frequently for CS- (CS- > CS+ > US), correspond to values in TTP quantification. We discuss the results considering prospects and challenges of the multiverse approach and future directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel Sjouwerman
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
- Experimental Health Psychology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Sabrina Illius
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
- ICAN Institute for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Manuel Kuhn
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress, Research, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Tina B Lonsdorf
- Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
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5
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Fraunfelter L, Gerdes ABM, Alpers GW. Fear one, fear them all: A systematic review and meta-analysis of fear generalization in pathological anxiety. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022; 139:104707. [PMID: 35643120 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/03/2021] [Revised: 05/14/2022] [Accepted: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
It is a defining feature of anxiety disorders that fear is elicited by a circumscribed class of stimuli rather than by only one specific exemplar of that class. Therefore, fear generalization, a mechanism by which associative fear extends from one conditioned stimulus to similar cues, has been central to theories on anxiety. Yet, experimental evidence for the link between generalization and pathological anxiety, as well as its moderators, has not been formally integrated. This systematic review and meta-analysis of empirical findings clarifies the relationship between fear generalization and pathological anxiety. In conclusion, enhanced fear generalization is associated with several anxiety disorders and stress-related disorders, which is supported statistically by a small, but robust effect size of g = 0.44 for risk ratings as an index of fear generalization. However, empirical results are inconsistent across disorders and they rarely allow for conclusions on their causality in the disorders' etiology. Therefore, based on theoretical considerations, we recommend directions for intensified research, especially on the causal relationship between overgeneralization and pathological fear.
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Affiliation(s)
- L Fraunfelter
- University of Mannheim, School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, L13, 17, 68131 Mannheim, Germany.
| | - A B M Gerdes
- University of Mannheim, School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, L13, 17, 68131 Mannheim, Germany.
| | - G W Alpers
- University of Mannheim, School of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, L13, 17, 68131 Mannheim, Germany.
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6
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Andreatta M, Pauli P. Contextual modulation of conditioned responses in humans: A review on virtual reality studies. Clin Psychol Rev 2021; 90:102095. [PMID: 34763127 DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2021] [Revised: 10/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Conditioned response (CRs) triggered by stimuli predicting aversive consequences have been confirmed across various species including humans, and were found to be exaggerated in anxious individuals and anxiety disorder patients. Importantly, contextual information may strongly modulate such conditioned responses (CR), however, there are several methodological boundaries in the translation of animal findings to humans, and from healthy individuals to patients. Virtual Reality (VR) is a useful technological tool for overcoming such boundaries. In this review, we summarize and evaluate human VR conditioning studies exploring the role of the context as conditioned stimulus or occasion setter for CRs. We observe that VR allows successful acquisition of conditioned anxiety and conditioned fear in response to virtual contexts and virtual cues, respectively. VR studies also revealed that spatial or temporal contextual information determine whether conditioned anxiety and conditioned fear become extinguished and/or return. Novel contexts resembling the threatening context foster conditioned fear but not conditioned anxiety, suggesting distinct context-related generalization processes. We conclude VR contexts are able to strongly modulate CRs and therefore allow a comprehensive investigation of the modulatory role of the context over CR in humans leading to conclusions relevant for non-VR and clinical studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Andreatta
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Educational Sciences, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Center of Mental Health, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
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7
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Dos Santos Corrêa M, Vaz BDS, Menezes BS, Ferreira TL, Tiba PA, Fornari RV. Corticosterone differentially modulates time-dependent fear generalization following mild or moderate fear conditioning training in rats. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2021; 184:107487. [PMID: 34242811 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2021] [Revised: 06/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Stressful and emotionally arousing experiences create strong memories that seem to lose specificity over time. It is uncertain, however, how the stress system contributes to the phenomenon of time-dependent fear generalization. Here, we investigated whether post-training corticosterone (CORT-HBC) injections, given after different training intensities, affect contextual fear memory specificity at several time points. We trained male Wistar rats on the contextual fear conditioning (CFC) task using two footshock intensities (mild CFC, 3 footshocks of 0.3 mA, or moderate CFC, 3x 0.6 mA) and immediately after the training session we administered CORT-HBC systemically. We first tested the animals in a novel context and then in the training context at different intervals following training (2, 14, 28 or 42 days). By measuring freezing in the novel context and then contrasting freezing times shown in both contexts, we inferred contextual fear generalization for each rat, classifying them into Generalizers or Discriminators. Following mild CFC training, the glucocorticoid injection promoted an accurate contextual memory at the recent time point (2 days), and increase the contextual memory accuracy 28 days after training. In contrast, after the moderate CFC training, CORT-HBC facilitated contextual generalization at 14 days, compared to the control group that maintained contextual discrimination at this timepoint. For this training intensity, however, CORT-HBC did not have any effect on recent memory specificity. These findings indicate that treatment with CORT-HBC immediately after the encoding of mild or moderately arousing experiences may differentially modulate memory consolidation and time-dependent fear generalization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moisés Dos Santos Corrêa
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.
| | - Barbara Dos Santos Vaz
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.
| | - Beatriz Scazufca Menezes
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.
| | - Tatiana Lima Ferreira
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.
| | - Paula Ayako Tiba
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.
| | - Raquel Vecchio Fornari
- Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition (CMCC), Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), São Bernardo do Campo, SP, Brazil.
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8
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Andreatta M, Neueder D, Herzog K, Genheimer H, Schiele MA, Deckert J, Domschke K, Reif A, Wieser MJ, Pauli P. Generalization of Conditioned Contextual Anxiety and the Modulatory Effects of Anxiety Sensitivity. Neurotherapeutics 2020; 17:1239-1252. [PMID: 31933066 PMCID: PMC7609477 DOI: 10.1007/s13311-020-00831-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Anxiety patients overgeneralize fear responses, possibly because they cannot distinguish between cues never been associated with a threat (i.e., safe) and threat-associated cues. However, as contexts and not cues are discussed as the relevant triggers for prolonged anxiety responses characterizing many anxiety disorders, we speculated that it is rather overgeneralization of contextual anxiety, which constitutes a risk factor for anxiety disorders. To this end, we investigated generalization of conditioned contextual anxiety and explored modulatory effects of anxiety sensitivity, a risk factor for anxiety disorders. Fifty-five participants underwent context conditioning in a virtual reality paradigm. On Day 1 (acquisition), participants received unpredictable mildly painful electric stimuli (unconditioned stimulus, US) in one virtual office (anxiety context, CTX+), but never in a second office (safety context, CTX-). Successful acquisition of conditioned anxiety was indicated by aversive ratings and defensive physiological responses (i.e., SCR) to CTX+ vs CTX-. On Day 2 (generalization), participants re-visited both the anxiety and the safety contexts plus three generalization contexts (G-CTX), which were gradually dissimilar to CTX+ (from 75 to 25%). Generalization of conditioned anxiety was evident for ratings, but less clear for physiological responses. The observed dissociation between generalization of verbal and physiological responses suggests that these responses depend on two distinct context representations, likely elemental and contextual representations. Importantly, anxiety sensitivity was positively correlated with the generalization of reported contextual anxiety. Thus, this study demonstrates generalization gradients for conditioned contextual anxiety and that anxiety sensitivity facilitates such generalization processes suggesting the importance of generalization of contextual anxiety for the development of anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marta Andreatta
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
- Department of Psychology, Educational Sciences, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burg. Oudlaan 50, 3062 DR, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
| | - Dorothea Neueder
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Katharina Herzog
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Hannah Genheimer
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Miriam A Schiele
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
| | - Jürgen Deckert
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Center of Mental Health, Würzburg, Germany
- Center of Mental Health, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Katharina Domschke
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Center of Mental Health, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Andreas Reif
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Matthias J Wieser
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Educational Sciences, and Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burg. Oudlaan 50, 3062 DR, Rotterdam, Netherlands
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Center of Mental Health, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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9
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Sep MSC, van Ast VA, Gorter R, Joëls M, Geuze E. Time-dependent effects of psychosocial stress on the contextualization of neutral memories. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2019; 108:140-149. [PMID: 31280058 DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2019.06.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2019] [Accepted: 06/30/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Memories about stressful experiences need to be both specific and generalizable to adequately guide future behavior. Memory strength is influenced by emotional significance, and contextualization (i.e., encoding experiences with their contextual details) enables selective context-dependent retrieval and protects against overgeneralization. The current randomized-controlled study investigated how the early and late phase of the endogenous stress response affects the contextualization of neutral and negative information. One hundred healthy male participants were randomly divided into three experimental groups that performed encoding either 1) without stress (control), 2) immediately after acute stress (early) or 3) two hours after acute stress (late). Stress was induced via the Trier Social Stress Test and salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol levels were measured throughout the experiment. In the Memory Contextualization Task, neutral and angry faces (items) were depicted against unique context pictures during encoding. During testing 24 h later, context-dependent recognition memory of the items was assessed by presenting these in either congruent or incongruent contexts (relative to encoding). Multilevel analyses revealed that neutral information was more contextualized when encoding took place two hours after psychosocial stress, than immediately after the stressor. Results suggest that the late effects in the unique, time-dependent sequence of a healthy endogenous stress response, could complement reduced contextualization immediately after stress. The contextualization of negative information was not influenced by psychosocial stress, as opposed to earlier reported effects of exogenous hydrocortisone administration. An imbalance between the early and late effects of the endogenous stress response could increase vulnerability for stress-related psychopathology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milou S C Sep
- Brain Research and Innovation Centre, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Translational Neuroscience, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
| | - Vanessa A van Ast
- Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Rosalie Gorter
- Brain Research and Innovation Centre, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Marian Joëls
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Elbert Geuze
- Brain Research and Innovation Centre, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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10
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Sep MSC, Gorter R, van Ast VA, Joëls M, Geuze E. No Time-Dependent Effects of Psychosocial Stress on Fear Contextualization and Generalization: A Randomized-Controlled Study With Healthy Participants. CHRONIC STRESS (THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF.) 2019; 3:2470547019896547. [PMID: 32440603 PMCID: PMC7219903 DOI: 10.1177/2470547019896547] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2019] [Accepted: 12/03/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
The formation of context-dependent fear memories (fear contextualization) can aid the recognition of danger in new, similar, situations. Overgeneralization of fear is often seen as hallmark of anxiety and trauma-related disorders. In this randomized-controlled study, we investigated whether exposure to a psychosocial stressor influences retention of fear contextualization and generalization in a time-dependent manner. The Trier Social Stress Test was used to induce psychosocial stress. Healthy male participants (n = 117) were randomly divided into three experimental groups that were subjected to the acquisition phase of the Fear Generalization Task: (1) without stress, (2) immediately after acute stress, or (3) 2 h after acute stress. In this task, a male with neutral facial expression (conditioned stimuli) was depicted in two different contexts that modulated the conditioned stimuli-unconditioned stimuli (=shock) association (threat, safe). Salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol levels were measured throughout the experiment. After a 24-h delay, context-dependency of fear memory was investigated with an unannounced memory test consisting of the threat and safe contexts alternated with a novel context (the generalization context). Multilevel analyses revealed that participants showed increased fear-potentiated startle responses to the conditioned stimuli in the threat compared to the safe context, at the end of the acquisition phase, indicating adequate fear contextualization. Directly after acquisition, there were no time-dependent effects of psychosocial stress on fear contextualization. Context-dependency of fear memories was retained 24 h later, as fear-potentiated startle responding was modulated by context (threat > safe or novel). At that time, the context-dependency of fear memories was also not influenced by the early or late effects of the endogenous stress response during acquisition. These results with experimental stress deviate in some aspects from those earlier obtained with exogenous hydrocortisone administration, suggesting a distinct role for stress mediators other than cortisol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milou S. C. Sep
- Brain Research and Innovation
Centre, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Department of Translational
Neuroscience, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the
Netherlands
| | - Rosalie Gorter
- Brain Research and Innovation
Centre, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Vanessa A. van Ast
- Department of Clinical Psychology,
University
of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the
Netherlands
| | - Marian Joëls
- Department of Translational
Neuroscience, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the
Netherlands
- University of Groningen, University
Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Elbert Geuze
- Brain Research and Innovation
Centre, Ministry of Defence, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Department of Psychiatry, UMC
Utrecht Brain Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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11
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Meir Drexler S, Merz CJ, Jentsch VL, Wolf OT. How stress and glucocorticoids timing-dependently affect extinction and relapse. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2018; 98:145-153. [PMID: 30594494 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.12.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2018] [Revised: 11/15/2018] [Accepted: 12/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
In recent years, various research groups aimed to augment extinction learning (the most important underlying mechanism of exposure therapy) using glucocorticoids (GCs), in particular the stress hormone cortisol. In this review, we introduce the STaR (Stress Timing affects Relapse) model, a theoretical model of the timing-dependent effects of stress/GCs treatment on extinction and relapse. In particular, we show that (1) pre-extinction stress/GCs promote memory consolidation in a context-independent manner, making extinction memory more resistant to relapse following context change. (2) Post-extinction stress also enhances extinction consolidation, but in a context-bound manner. These differences may result from the timing-dependent effects of cortisol on emotional memory contextualization. At the neural level, extinction facilitation is reflected in alterations in the amygdala-hippocampal-prefrontal cortex network. (3) Stress/GCs before a retrieval test impair extinction retrieval and promote relapse. This may result from strengthening amygdala signaling or disruption of the inhibitory functioning of the prefrontal cortex. The STaR model can contribute to the understanding and prevention of relapse processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shira Meir Drexler
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Christian J Merz
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Valerie L Jentsch
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany
| | - Oliver T Wolf
- Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany.
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