title: Interpreting patterns of brain activation in human fear conditioning with an attentional-associative learning model.
abstract: J. E. Dunsmoor, P. A. Bandettini, and D. C. Knight conducted a neuroimaging study of human fear conditioning and analyzed brain activity under various pairing rates between a conditioned and an unconditioned stimulus. Computer simulations with an attentional-associative model introduced by N. A. Schmajuk, Y. W. Lam, and J. A. Gray (1996) show that activity in the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex is well described by a variable representing the prediction of the unconditioned stimulus, whereas activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and insula is well captured by a variable coding the attentional-modulated representation of conditioned stimuli. In addition, the model explains how those variables control behavior and provides a clear framework in which those variables play important roles in the description of numerous classical conditioning paradigms. Also, the model offers a number of predictions related to stimulus novelty for future neuroimaging studies of associative learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dunsmoor
authors.forename: Nestor
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schmajuk
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008959:Models, Neurological; D011336:Probability; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology