title: Contingency awareness and fear inhibition in a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm.
abstract: Fear-potentiated startle is defined as an increase in the magnitude of the startle reflex in the presence of a stimulus that was previously paired with an aversive event. It has been proposed that a subject's awareness of the contingencies in the experiment may affect fear-potentiated startle. The authors adapted a conditional discrimination procedure (AX+/BX-), previously validated in animals, to a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm in 50 healthy volunteers. This paradigm allows for an assessment of fear-potentiated startle during threat conditions as well as inhibition of fear-potentiated startle during safety conditions. A response keypad was used to assess contingency awareness on a trial-by-trial basis. Both aware and unaware subjects showed fear-potentiated startle. However, awareness was related to stimulus discrimination and fear inhibition.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Service/116A, Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Decatur, GA 30033, USA. tjovano@emory.edu
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.forename: Seth D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Norrholm
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keyes
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fiallos
authors.forename: Sasa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.forename: Karyn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Erica J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001143:Arousal; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D001767:Blinking; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D003463:Cues; D004576:Electromyography; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013216:Reflex, Startle