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Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents

The aim of the study was to investigate age-related differences in fear learning and generalization in healthy children and adolescents (n = 133), aged 8–17 years, using an aversive discriminative fear conditioning and generalization paradigm adapted from Lau et al. (2008). In the current task, part...

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Autores principales: Reinhard, Julia, Slyschak, Anna, Schiele, Miriam A., Andreatta, Marta, Kneer, Katharina, Reif, Andreas, Domschke, Katharina, Gamer, Matthias, Pauli, Paul, Deckert, Jürgen, Romanos, Marcel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9532335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33983460
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01797-4
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author Reinhard, Julia
Slyschak, Anna
Schiele, Miriam A.
Andreatta, Marta
Kneer, Katharina
Reif, Andreas
Domschke, Katharina
Gamer, Matthias
Pauli, Paul
Deckert, Jürgen
Romanos, Marcel
author_facet Reinhard, Julia
Slyschak, Anna
Schiele, Miriam A.
Andreatta, Marta
Kneer, Katharina
Reif, Andreas
Domschke, Katharina
Gamer, Matthias
Pauli, Paul
Deckert, Jürgen
Romanos, Marcel
author_sort Reinhard, Julia
collection PubMed
description The aim of the study was to investigate age-related differences in fear learning and generalization in healthy children and adolescents (n = 133), aged 8–17 years, using an aversive discriminative fear conditioning and generalization paradigm adapted from Lau et al. (2008). In the current task, participants underwent 24 trials of discriminative conditioning of two female faces with neutral facial expressions, with (CS+) or without (CS−) a 95-dB loud female scream, presented simultaneously with a fearful facial expression (US). The discriminative conditioning was followed by 72 generalization trials (12 CS+, 12 GS1, 12 GS2, 12 GS3, 12 GS4, and 12 CS−): four generalization stimuli depicting gradual morphs from CS+ to CS− in 20%-steps were created for the generalization phases. We hypothesized that generalization in children and adolescents is negatively correlated with age. The subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and US expectancy (the probability of an aversive noise following each stimulus), as well as skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured. Repeated-measures ANOVAs on ratings and SCR amplitudes were calculated with the within-subject factors stimulus type (CS+, CS−, GS1-4) and phase (Pre-Acquisition, Acquisition 1, Acquisition 2, Generalization 1, Generalization 2). To analyze the modulatory role of age, we additionally calculated ANCOVAs considering age as covariate. Results indicated that (1) subjective and physiological responses were generally lower with increasing age irrespective to the stimulus quality, and (2) stimulus discrimination improved with increasing age paralleled by reduced overgeneralization in older individuals. Longitudinal follow-up studies are required to analyze fear generalization with regard to brain maturational aspects and clarify whether overgeneralization of conditioned fear promotes the development of anxiety disorders or vice versa. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00787-021-01797-4.
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spelling pubmed-95323352022-10-06 Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents Reinhard, Julia Slyschak, Anna Schiele, Miriam A. Andreatta, Marta Kneer, Katharina Reif, Andreas Domschke, Katharina Gamer, Matthias Pauli, Paul Deckert, Jürgen Romanos, Marcel Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry Original Contribution The aim of the study was to investigate age-related differences in fear learning and generalization in healthy children and adolescents (n = 133), aged 8–17 years, using an aversive discriminative fear conditioning and generalization paradigm adapted from Lau et al. (2008). In the current task, participants underwent 24 trials of discriminative conditioning of two female faces with neutral facial expressions, with (CS+) or without (CS−) a 95-dB loud female scream, presented simultaneously with a fearful facial expression (US). The discriminative conditioning was followed by 72 generalization trials (12 CS+, 12 GS1, 12 GS2, 12 GS3, 12 GS4, and 12 CS−): four generalization stimuli depicting gradual morphs from CS+ to CS− in 20%-steps were created for the generalization phases. We hypothesized that generalization in children and adolescents is negatively correlated with age. The subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and US expectancy (the probability of an aversive noise following each stimulus), as well as skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured. Repeated-measures ANOVAs on ratings and SCR amplitudes were calculated with the within-subject factors stimulus type (CS+, CS−, GS1-4) and phase (Pre-Acquisition, Acquisition 1, Acquisition 2, Generalization 1, Generalization 2). To analyze the modulatory role of age, we additionally calculated ANCOVAs considering age as covariate. Results indicated that (1) subjective and physiological responses were generally lower with increasing age irrespective to the stimulus quality, and (2) stimulus discrimination improved with increasing age paralleled by reduced overgeneralization in older individuals. Longitudinal follow-up studies are required to analyze fear generalization with regard to brain maturational aspects and clarify whether overgeneralization of conditioned fear promotes the development of anxiety disorders or vice versa. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00787-021-01797-4. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2021-05-13 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9532335/ /pubmed/33983460 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01797-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Contribution
Reinhard, Julia
Slyschak, Anna
Schiele, Miriam A.
Andreatta, Marta
Kneer, Katharina
Reif, Andreas
Domschke, Katharina
Gamer, Matthias
Pauli, Paul
Deckert, Jürgen
Romanos, Marcel
Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents
title Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents
title_full Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents
title_fullStr Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents
title_full_unstemmed Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents
title_short Fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents
title_sort fear conditioning and stimulus generalization in association with age in children and adolescents
topic Original Contribution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9532335/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33983460
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-021-01797-4
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