Maladaptive behavioral consequences of conditioned fear-generalization: A pronounced, yet sparsely studied, feature of anxiety pathology

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Volumn 57, Issue 1, 2014, Pages 29-37

  van Meurs, Brian ^a   Wiggert, Nicole ^a   Wicker, Isaac ^a   Lissek, Shmuel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

Author keywords

Anxiety disorders; Behavioral avoidance; Fear potentiated startle; Generalization; Instrumental conditioning; Pavlovian fear conditioning

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ANXIETY DISORDER; ARTICLE; AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR; BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY; CONDITIONING; CONTROLLED STUDY; CORRELATION ANALYSIS; DEPRESSION; ELECTROMYOGRAPHY; FEAR; FEMALE; HELPLESSNESS; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; MALADJUSTMENT; MALE; NORMAL HUMAN; SELF REPORT; STATE TRAIT ANXIETY INVENTORY; TASK PERFORMANCE; ANXIETY; CONDITIONED REFLEX; INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING; LEARNING; PHYSIOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGY; REACTION TIME; REPRODUCIBILITY; STARTLE REFLEX; YOUNG ADULT;

ANXIETY; AVOIDANCE LEARNING; CONDITIONING, CLASSICAL; CONDITIONING, OPERANT; ELECTROMYOGRAPHY; FEAR; FEMALE; GENERALIZATION (PSYCHOLOGY); HUMANS; MALE; REACTION TIME; REFLEX, STARTLE; REPRODUCIBILITY OF RESULTS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84899073367     PISSN: 00057967     EISSN: 1873622X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2014.03.009     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental health disorders: DSM-5 2013, American Psychiatric Publishing, Washington, DC. 5th ed.
2. Beck A.T., Steer R.A., Brown G.K. Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II 1996, Psychological Corporation, San Antonio, TX.
3. Bouton M.E., Mineka S., Barlow D.H. Amodern learning theory perspective on the etiology of panic disorder. Psychological Review 2001, 108:4-32.
4. Dickinson A., Dearing M. Appetitive-aversive interactions and inhibitory processes. Mechanisms of learning and motivation 1979, 203-231. LEA, Hillsdale, NJ. A. Dickinson, R. Boakes (Eds.).
5. Dunsmoor J., LaBar K. Effects of discrimination training on fear generalization gradients and perceptual classification in humans. Behavioral Neuroscience 2013, 127(3):350-356. http://dx.doi:10.1037/a0031933.
6. Dunsmoor J., White A., LaBar K. Conceptual similarity promotes generalization of higher order fear learning. Learning Memory 2011, 18(3):156-160. http://dx.doi:10.1101/lm.2016411.
7. Dymond S., Schlund M.W., Roche B., De Houwer J., Freegard G.P. Safe from harm: learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance. PLOS ONE 2012, 7:1-8.
8. Foa E.B., Kozak M.J. Emotional processing of fear: exposure to corrective information. Psychological Bulletin 1986, 99:20-35.
9. Foa E.B., Steketee G., Rothbaum B.O. Behavioral/cognitive conceptualizations of post-traumatic stress disorder. Behavior Therapy 1989, 20(2):155-176.
10. Frijda N.H., Kuipers P., Schure E.T. Relations among emotion, appraisal, and emotional action readiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1989, 57(2):212-228.
11. Gámez W., Chmielewski M., Kotov R., Ruggero C., Watson D. Development of a measure of experiential avoidance: the multidimensional experiential avoidance questionnaire. Psychological Assessment 2011, 23(3):692-713. http://dx.http//dx.doi:10.1037/a0023242.
12. Greenberg T., Carlson J., Cha J., Hajcak G., Mujica-Parodi L. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex reactivity is altered in generalized anxiety disorder during fear generalization. Depression and Anxiety 2013, 30(3):242-250. http://dx.doi:10.1002/da.22016.
13. Konorski J. Integrative activity of the brain: An interdisciplinary approach 1967, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
14. Lissek S. Toward an account of clinical anxiety predicated on basic, neurally mapped mechanisms of pavlovian fear-learning: the case for conditioned overgeneralization. Depression and Anxiety 2012, 29(4):257-263. http://dx.doi:10.1002/da.21922.
15. Lissek S., Biggs A., Rabin S., Cornwell B., Alvarez R., Pine D., et al. Generalization of conditioned fear-potentiated startle in humans: experimental validation and clinical relevance. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2008, 46(5):678-687. http://dx.doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.02.005.
16. Lissek S., Bradford D.E., Alvarez R.P., Burton P., Espensen-Sturges T., Reynolds R.C., et al. Neural substrates of classically conditioned fear-generalization in humans: a parametric fMRI study. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2013.
17. Lissek S., Grillon C. Learning models of PTSD. The Oxford handbook of traumatic stress disorders 2012, Oxford University Press, New York. J.G. Beck, D.M. Sloan (Eds.).
18. Lissek S., Kaczkurkin A.N., Rabin S., Geraci M., Pine D.S., Grillon C. Generalized anxiety disorder is associated with overgeneralization of classically conditioned-fear. Biological Psychiatry 2014, (in press).
19. Lissek S., Powers A.S., McClure E.B., Phelps E.A., Woldehawariat G., Grillon C., et al. Classical fear-conditioning in the anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2005, 43:1391-1424.
20. Lissek S., Rabin S., Heller R., Lukenbaugh D., Geraci M., Pine D., et al. Overgeneralization of conditioned fear as a pathogenic marker of panic disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry 2010, 167(1):47-55. http://dx.doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09030410.
21. Lommen M.J.J., Engelhard I.M., van den Hout M.A. Neuroticism and avoidance of ambiguous stimuli: better safe than sorry?. Personality and Individual Differences 2010, 49(8):1001-1006.
22. Lovibond P., Saunders J.C., Weidemann G., Mitchell C. Evidence for expectancy as a mediator of avoidance and anxiety in a laboratory model of human avoidance learning. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 2008, 61(8):1199-1216. 10.1080/17470210701503229.
23. Mineka S., Zinbarg R. Conditioning and ethological models of anxiety disorders: stress-in-dynamic-context anxiety models. Perspectives on anxiety, panic, and fear 1996, Vol. 43. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. D.A. Hope (Ed.).
24. Mineka S., Zinbarg R. Acontemporary learning theory perspective on the etiology of anxiety disorders: It's not what you thought it was. The American Psychologist 2006, 61(1):10-26.
25. Mowrer O.H. On the dual nature of learning: a reinterpretation of "conditioning" and "problem solving". Harvard Educational Review 1947, 17:102-148.
26. van Os J., Jones P.B. Early risk factors an adult person-environment relationships in affective disorder. Psychological Medicine 1999, 29:1055-1067.
27. Pavlov I.P. Conditioned reflexes 1927, Oxford University Press, New York.
28. Ratcliff R. Methods for dealing with reaction time outliers. Psychological Bulletin 1993, 114(3):510-532.
29. Spielberger C.D., Gorsuch R.L., Lushene R., Vagg P., Jacobs G.A. Manual for the state-trait anxiety inventory 1983, Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto, CA.
30. Watson J.B., Rayner R. Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology 1920, 3(1):1-14.
31. Wolpe J. The practice of behavior therapy 1982, Pergamon Press, Elmsford, NY.