title: Fear conditioning, preparedness, and the contingent negative variation.
abstract: Psychophysiological research on preparedness has previously focused on autonomic nervous system parameters. The present study used electrocortical indices of fear conditioning. Subjects (n = 10) were tested under fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant conditions (1 week apart, order of conditions counterbalanced). Each condition comprised acquisition and extinction sessions. The contingent negative variation (CNV) was elicited in anticipation of forewarned slides (fear relevant: small animals; fear irrelevant: landscapes). In acquisition, reinforced conditioned stimulus (CS+) (but not nonreinforced conditioned stimulus [CS-]) slides were followed by white noise as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In extinction, the UCS was omitted. In the fear-relevant condition, CNV amplitude was significantly larger for CS+ than CS- in both acquisition and extinction. In the fear-relevant condition, CNV amplitude was significantly larger for CS+ than CS- in both acquisition and extinction. In the fear-irrelevant condition, CNV differentiation between CS+ and CS- was weak in both sessions. CNV was significantly larger in the fear-relevant than in the fear-irrelevant condition, for CS+ but not CS-. The findings are consistent with a preparedness interpretation and suggest that CNV under such circumstances may represent an automatic affective response to fear-relevant stimuli. Electrocortical measures could be particularly useful in examining information processing mechanisms in phobia and cognition-affect relationships generally.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland, U.K.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Regan
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Howard
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans