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Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables

Fear and anxiety are generally assessed as responses of prey to high or low levels of threatening environments, fear-conditioned or unconditioned stimuli, or the intensity and distance between predator and prey. Depending on whether a threat is close to or distant from the individual, the individual...

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Autores principales: Brandão, Marcus L., Nobre, Manoel Jorge, Estevão, Ruth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9010675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35432026
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.860447
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author Brandão, Marcus L.
Nobre, Manoel Jorge
Estevão, Ruth
author_facet Brandão, Marcus L.
Nobre, Manoel Jorge
Estevão, Ruth
author_sort Brandão, Marcus L.
collection PubMed
description Fear and anxiety are generally assessed as responses of prey to high or low levels of threatening environments, fear-conditioned or unconditioned stimuli, or the intensity and distance between predator and prey. Depending on whether a threat is close to or distant from the individual, the individual exhibits specific behaviors, such as being quiet (freezing in animals) if the threat is distant or fleeing if the threat is close. In a seminal paper in 2007, Dean Mobbs developed an active prevention virtual reality paradigm (VRP) to study a threat’s spatial imminence using finger shocks. In the present study, we used a modified VRP with a distinctive feature, namely a dynamic threat-of-loud noise paradigm. The results showed a significant reduction in the number of times the subjects were captured in the high predator phase (85 dB) vs. control phases, suggesting that the participants were motivated to avoid the high predator. Concomitant with avoidance behavior, a decrease in respiratory rate and an increase in heart rate characterized the defense reaction. These results demonstrate behavioral and autonomic effects of threat intensity in volunteers during a VRP, revealing a profile of defense reaction that reflects the individual emotional susceptibility to the development of anxiety.
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spelling pubmed-90106752022-04-16 Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables Brandão, Marcus L. Nobre, Manoel Jorge Estevão, Ruth Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Fear and anxiety are generally assessed as responses of prey to high or low levels of threatening environments, fear-conditioned or unconditioned stimuli, or the intensity and distance between predator and prey. Depending on whether a threat is close to or distant from the individual, the individual exhibits specific behaviors, such as being quiet (freezing in animals) if the threat is distant or fleeing if the threat is close. In a seminal paper in 2007, Dean Mobbs developed an active prevention virtual reality paradigm (VRP) to study a threat’s spatial imminence using finger shocks. In the present study, we used a modified VRP with a distinctive feature, namely a dynamic threat-of-loud noise paradigm. The results showed a significant reduction in the number of times the subjects were captured in the high predator phase (85 dB) vs. control phases, suggesting that the participants were motivated to avoid the high predator. Concomitant with avoidance behavior, a decrease in respiratory rate and an increase in heart rate characterized the defense reaction. These results demonstrate behavioral and autonomic effects of threat intensity in volunteers during a VRP, revealing a profile of defense reaction that reflects the individual emotional susceptibility to the development of anxiety. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9010675/ /pubmed/35432026 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.860447 Text en Copyright © 2022 Brandão, Nobre and Estevão. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Brandão, Marcus L.
Nobre, Manoel Jorge
Estevão, Ruth
Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables
title Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables
title_full Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables
title_fullStr Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables
title_full_unstemmed Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables
title_short Testing Emotional Vulnerability to Threat in Adults Using a Virtual Reality Paradigm of Fear Associated With Autonomic Variables
title_sort testing emotional vulnerability to threat in adults using a virtual reality paradigm of fear associated with autonomic variables
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9010675/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35432026
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.860447
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