High-Level cognition in phobics: abstract anticipatory memory is associated with the attenuation of physiological reactivity to threat.
The extent to which anxious people benefit from exposure-based treatments seems to depend on the degree to which they activate their fear network during exposure. This study was designed to investigate whether the cognitive processing of threat in anxious individuals is dominated by abstract anticipatory memory, and whether this abstract memory mode is related to the incomplete activation of the fear network. Activation of the fear network was assessed during phobic exposure, as evidenced by the initial autonomic reaction. Spider phobics and controls were presented with a threatening imagery script. Half of them were exposed to a real-life spider. Spider phobics memorized relatively more abstract anticipatory descriptions than concrete sensory descriptions when compared with the control subjects. Only in phobic subjects. higher recognition of abstract anticipatory descriptions was inversely related to heart rate reactivity during exposure. A preferential memory mode for abstract information was related to an attenuated heart rate reactivity to threat in spider phobics. It is suggested that the preferential memory mode for abstract information may inhibit the activation of the subcortical affective memory system, which is crucial for the complete activation of the fear network. The absence of complete fear network activation may play a role in the persistence of anxiety disorders by hindering anxious individuals to learn that the stimuli they fear are not as dangerous as they assumed.
Kindt
M
M
Faculty of Medicine and Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. merel.kindt@dep.unimaas.nl. merel.kindt@dep.unimaas.nl
Brosschot
J F
JF
Boiten
F
F
D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology