Brief Training to Modify the Breadth of Attention Influences the Generalisation of Fear

Background: Generalisation of fear from dangerous to safe stimuli is an important process associated with anxiety disorders. However, factors that contribute towards fear (over)-generalisation remain poorly understood. The present investigation explored how attentional breadth (global/holistic and local/analytic) influences fear generalisation and, whether people trained to attend in a global vs. local manner show more or less generalisation. Methods: Participants (N = 39) were shown stimuli which comprised of large ‘global’ letters and smaller ‘local’ letters (e.g. an F comprised of As) and they either had to identify the global or local letter. Participants were then conditioned to fear a face by pairing it with an aversive scream (75% reinforcement schedule). Perceptually similar, but safe, faces, were then shown. Self-reported fear levels and skin conductance responses were measured. Results: Compared to participants in Global group, participants in Local group demonstrated greater fear for dangerous stimulus (CS +) as well as perceptually similar safe stimuli. Conclusions: Participants trained to attend to stimuli in a local/analytical manner showed higher magnitude of fear acquisition and generalisation than participants trained to attend in a global/holistic way. Breadth of attentional focus can influence overall fear levels and fear generalisation and this can be manipulated via attentional training

Maltreatment Exposure, Brain Structure and Fear Conditioning in Children and Adolescents

Alterations in learning processes and the neural circuitry that supports fear conditioning and extinction represent mechanisms through which trauma exposure might influence risk for psychopathology. Few studies examine how trauma or neural structure relates to fear conditioning in children. Children (n=94) aged 6–18 years, 40.4% (n=38) with exposure to maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, or domestic violence), completed a fear conditioning paradigm utilizing blue and yellow bells as conditioned stimuli (CS+/CS−) and an aversive alarm noise as the unconditioned stimulus. Skin conductance responses (SCR) and self-reported fear were acquired. Magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired from 60 children. Children without maltreatment exposure exhibited strong differential conditioning to the CS+ vs CS−, based on SCR and self-reported fear. In contrast, maltreated children exhibited blunted SCR to the CS+ and failed to exhibit differential SCR to the CS+ vs CS− during early conditioning. Amygdala and hippocampal volume were reduced among children with maltreatment exposure and were negatively associated with SCR to the CS+ during early conditioning in the total sample, although these associations were negative only among non-maltreated children and were positive among maltreated children. The association of maltreatment with externalizing psychopathology was mediated by this perturbed pattern of fear conditioning. Child maltreatment is associated with failure to discriminate between threat and safety cues during fear conditioning in children. Poor threat–safety discrimination might reflect either enhanced fear generalization or a deficit in associative learning, which may in turn represent a central mechanism underlying the development of maltreatment-related externalizing psychopathology in children

Computational modeling of threat learning reveals links with anxiety and neuroanatomy in humans

Influential theories implicate variations in the mechanisms supporting threat learning in the severity of anxiety symptoms. We use computational models of associative learning in conjunction with structural imaging to explicate links among the mechanisms underlying threat learning, their neuroanatomical substrates, and anxiety severity in humans. We recorded skin-conductance data during a threat-learning task from individuals with and without anxiety disorders (N=251; 8-50 years; 116 females). Reinforcement-learning model variants quantified processes hypothesized to relate to anxiety: threat conditioning, threat generalization, safety learning, and threat extinction. We identified the best-fitting models for these processes and tested associations among latent learning parameters, whole-brain anatomy, and anxiety severity. Results indicate that greater anxiety severity related specifically to slower safety learning and slower extinction of response to safe stimuli. Nucleus accumbens gray-matter volume moderated learning-anxiety associations. Using a modeling approach, we identify computational mechanisms linking threat learning and anxiety severity and their neuroanatomical substrates

Observational threat learning influences costly avoidance behaviour in healthy humans

Abstract Avoidance is an essential behaviour for ensuring safety in uncertain and dangerous environments. One way to learn what is dangerous and must be avoided is through observational threat learning. This online study explored the behavioural implications of observed threat learning, examining how participants avoided or approached a learned threat and how this affected their movement patterns. Participants (n = 89) completed an observational threat learning task, rating their fear, discomfort, and physical arousal in response to conditioned stimuli. The retrieval of learned threat was reassessed 24 h later, followed by a reminder of the observed threat associations. Participants subsequently completed a computerised avoidance task, in which they navigated from a starting point to an endpoint by selecting one of two doors, each associated with either safety or danger, relying on observed information. Opting for the safe door entailed increased effort to attain the goal. Results demonstrated that observational threat learning influenced avoidance behaviour and decision-making dependent on baseline effort level. Participants tended to exhibit thigmotaxis, staying close to walls and taking extra steps to reach their goal. This behaviour indirectly mediated the number of steps taken. This study provides valuable insights into avoidance behaviour following observational threat learning in healthy humans

Evaluating the effect of action-like video game play and of casual video game play on anxiety in adolescents with elevated anxiety ::protocol for a multi-center, parallel group, assessor-blind, randomized controlled trial

Background : Adolescence is a critical period for the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders, which raises the importance of intervening early; one possibility of doing so is via digital interventions. Within that research field, at least two important research paths have been explored in the past years. On the one hand, the anxiolytic effect of casual video games has been tested as such gaming activity may distract away from anxious thoughts through the induction of flow and redirection of attention toward the game and thus away of anxious thoughts. On the other hand, the bidirectional link between weak attentional control and higher anxiety has led to the design of interventions aiming at improving attentional control such as working memory training studies. Taking stock that another genre of gaming, action video games, improves attentional control, game-based interventions that combines cognitive training and action-like game features would seem relevant. This three-arm randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the feasibility and the efficacy of two video game interventions to document how each may potentially alleviate adolescent anxiety-related symptoms when deployed fully on-line. Methods : The study aims to recruit 150 individuals, 12 to 14 years of age, with high levels of anxiety as reported by the parents’ online form of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders questionnaire. This trial contrasts a child-friendly, “action-like” video game designed to improve attentional control abilities in a progressive and stepwise manner (Eco-Rescue), a casual puzzle video game selected to act as a positive distraction tool (Bejeweled) and finally a control group with no assigned training intervention to control for possible test-retest effects (No-training). Participants will be assigned randomly to one of the three study arms. They will be assessed for main (anxiety) and secondary outcomes (attentional control, affective working memory) at three time points, before training (T1), one week after the 6-week training (T2) and four months after completing the training (T3). Discussion : The results will provide evidence for the feasibility and the efficacy of two online video game interventions at improving mental health and emotional well-being in adolescents with high levels of anxiety. This project will contribute unique knowledge to the field, as few studies have examined the effects of video game play in the context of digital mental health interventions for adolescents

Social relevance modulates multivariate neural representations of threat generalization in children and adults.

Few studies have examined threat generalization across development and no developmental studies have compared the generalization of social versus nonsocial threat, making it difficult to identify contextual factors that contribute to threat learning across development. The present study assessed youth and adults multivoxel neural representations of social versus nonsocial threat stimuli. Twenty adults (Mage  = 25.7 ± 4.9) and 16 youth (Mage  = 14.1 ± 1.7) completed two conditioning and extinction recall paradigms: one social and one nonsocial paradigm. Three weeks after conditioning, participants underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging extinction recall task that presented the extinguished threat cue (CS+), a safety cue (CS-), and generalization stimuli (GS) consisting of CS-/CS+ blends. Across age groups, neural activity patterns and self-reported fear and memory ratings followed a linear generalization gradient for social threat stimuli and a quadratic generalization gradient for nonsocial threat stimuli, indicating enhanced threat/safety discrimination for social relative to nonsocial threat stimuli. The amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex displayed the greatest neural pattern differentiation between the CS+ and GS/CS-, reinforcing their role in threat learning and extinction recall. Contrary to predictions, age did not influence threat representations. These findings highlight the importance of the social relevance of threat on generalization across development

Empirical Examination of the Potential Adverse Psychological Effects Associated with Pediatric fMRI Scanning

BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, the number of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies has increased dramatically. As MRI scans may be anxiety provoking, performing them in a research setting, particularly with children already prone to anxiety, raises questions about ethics as well as methodological feasibility. It is essential to address these questions before expanding the use of this technique to clinical settings, or more widely in the context of pediatric psychopharmacology and biological psychiatry research. The current study investigates the psychological reactions of anxious and non-anxious children and non-anxious adults to an fMRI scan. METHODS: Eighty-seven anxious children, 140 non-anxious children, and 98 non-anxious adults rated their emotional reactions to an fMRI scan. RESULTS: Results indicated that anxious and non-anxious children reported no greater anxiety after fMRI scanning than did adults. In addition, no age-related differences in distress were observed. These data demonstrate that anxious children, healthy children, and healthy adults have similar emotional reactions to fMRI scanning. CONCLUSIONS: The observed findings suggest that the potential for fMRI to produce anxiety should not impede its widespread use in clinical research, psychopharmacology, and biological psychiatry