title: Conditioned fear extinction and reinstatement in a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to analyze fear extinction and reinstatement in humans using fear-potentiated startle. Participants were fear conditioned using a simple discrimination procedure with colored lights as the conditioned stimuli (CSs) and an airblast to the throat as the unconditioned stimulus (US). Participants were extinguished 24 h after fear conditioning. Upon presentation of unsignaled USs after extinction, participants displayed significant fear reinstatement. In summary, these procedures produced robust fear-potentiated startle, significant CS+/CS- discrimination, within-session extinction, and significant reinstatement. This is the first demonstration of fear extinction and reinstatement in humans using startle measures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. Seth.Norrholm@va.gov
authors.forename: Seth D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Norrholm
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vervliet
authors.forename: Karyn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Barbara O
authors.initials: BO
authors.lastname: Rothbaum
authors.forename: Erica J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Duncan
mesh_terms: D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D011600:Psychopharmacology / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods*; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000502:physiology*; D012718:Set, Psychology