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Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli
It has long been proposed that emotionally “prepared” (i.e., fear-related) stimuli are privileged in the unconscious acquisition of conditioned fear. However, as fear processing is suggested to highly depend on the coarse, low-spatial-frequency (LSF) components of the fear-related stimuli, it is pla...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
AAAS
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10298222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37383220 http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/research.0181 |
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author | Chen, Yujie Chen, Si Sun, Zhongju Zhang, Xilei Yuan, Xiangyong Wang, Liang Jiang, Yi |
author_facet | Chen, Yujie Chen, Si Sun, Zhongju Zhang, Xilei Yuan, Xiangyong Wang, Liang Jiang, Yi |
author_sort | Chen, Yujie |
collection | PubMed |
description | It has long been proposed that emotionally “prepared” (i.e., fear-related) stimuli are privileged in the unconscious acquisition of conditioned fear. However, as fear processing is suggested to highly depend on the coarse, low-spatial-frequency (LSF) components of the fear-related stimuli, it is plausible that LSF may play a unique role in the unconscious fear conditioning even with emotionally neutral stimuli. Here, we provided empirical evidence that, following classical fear conditioning, an invisible, emotionally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS+) with LSF, but not with high spatial frequency (HSF), can rapidly elicit stronger skin conductance responses (SCRs) and larger pupil diameters than its CS− counterpart. In comparison, consciously perceived emotionally neutral CS+ with LSF and HSF elicited comparable SCRs. Taken together, these results support that the unconscious fear conditioning does not necessarily entail emotionally prepared stimuli but prioritizes LSF information processing and highlight the crucial distinctions between the unconscious and the conscious fear learning. These findings not only coincide with the postulation that a rapid, spatial-frequency-dependent subcortical route is engaged in unconscious fear processing but also suggest the existence of multiple routes for conscious fear processing. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10298222 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | AAAS |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-102982222023-06-28 Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli Chen, Yujie Chen, Si Sun, Zhongju Zhang, Xilei Yuan, Xiangyong Wang, Liang Jiang, Yi Research (Wash D C) Research Article It has long been proposed that emotionally “prepared” (i.e., fear-related) stimuli are privileged in the unconscious acquisition of conditioned fear. However, as fear processing is suggested to highly depend on the coarse, low-spatial-frequency (LSF) components of the fear-related stimuli, it is plausible that LSF may play a unique role in the unconscious fear conditioning even with emotionally neutral stimuli. Here, we provided empirical evidence that, following classical fear conditioning, an invisible, emotionally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS+) with LSF, but not with high spatial frequency (HSF), can rapidly elicit stronger skin conductance responses (SCRs) and larger pupil diameters than its CS− counterpart. In comparison, consciously perceived emotionally neutral CS+ with LSF and HSF elicited comparable SCRs. Taken together, these results support that the unconscious fear conditioning does not necessarily entail emotionally prepared stimuli but prioritizes LSF information processing and highlight the crucial distinctions between the unconscious and the conscious fear learning. These findings not only coincide with the postulation that a rapid, spatial-frequency-dependent subcortical route is engaged in unconscious fear processing but also suggest the existence of multiple routes for conscious fear processing. AAAS 2023-06-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10298222/ /pubmed/37383220 http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/research.0181 Text en Copyright © 2023 Yujie Chen et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Exclusive licensee Science and Technology Review Publishing House. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Research Article Chen, Yujie Chen, Si Sun, Zhongju Zhang, Xilei Yuan, Xiangyong Wang, Liang Jiang, Yi Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli |
title | Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli |
title_full | Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli |
title_fullStr | Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli |
title_full_unstemmed | Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli |
title_short | Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli |
title_sort | rapid unconscious acquisition of conditioned fear with low-spatial-frequency but emotionally neutral stimuli |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10298222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37383220 http://dx.doi.org/10.34133/research.0181 |
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