Electromagnetic indication of hypervigilant responses to emotional stimuli in blood-injection-injury fear.
Blood phobia differs from other phobias and anxiety disorders in that no attentional bias for blood-related stimuli has been consistently observed. The present study aimed at clarifying this characteristic by investigating electromagnetic brain activity to blood-related and -unrelated pictures in high blood-fearful and non-fearful individuals. Relative to non-fearful controls, high blood-fearful subjects displayed more intense occipito-parietal activation 190-250ms after picture onset, which was interpreted as non-specifically enhanced sensory encoding of visual stimuli. Blood-related stimuli did not elicit different activity patterns in high blood-fearful subjects and controls, supporting the hypothesis that non-specific hypervigilance does not provide a basis for subsequent, specifically enhanced processing of fear-related contents.
Buodo
Giulia
G
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Italy. giulia.buodo@unipd.it
Peyk
Peter
P
Junghöfer
Markus
M
Palomba
Daniela
D
Rockstroh
Brigitte
B
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001769:Blood; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015225:Magnetoencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology