Conditioned fear extinction and reinstatement in a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm.
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.
Norrholm
Seth D
SD
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. Seth.Norrholm@va.gov
Jovanovic
Tanja
T
Vervliet
Bram
B
Myers
Karyn M
KM
Davis
Michael
M
Rothbaum
Barbara O
BO
Duncan
Erica J
EJ
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