title: Learning to fear obstructed breathing: comparing interoceptive and exteroceptive cues.
abstract: The present study investigated interoceptive fear conditioning (IFC) to an interoceptive and exteroceptive conditional stimulus (CS) with a severe respiratory load applied for 30s as the unconditional stimulus (US). CSs were another, weak respiratory load in the intero-IFC study (N=74), and a neutral picture in the extero-IFC study (N=42). CSs preceded the US in the paired groups, whereas the unpaired groups received the same number of unpaired CSs and USs. We measured startle blink EMG, self-reported fear and respiration. In the intero-IFC study, the CS-load was associated with larger startle blinks and a smaller decrease in respiratory rate and tidal volume in the paired compared to the unpaired group. In the extero-IFC study, the CS-picture evoked an increase in tidal volume and self-reported fear only in the paired group. In addition, startle potentiation during the CS-picture was greater for the paired than for the unpaired group.
authors.affiliation: Research Group on Health Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102 box 3726, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Meike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pappens
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Van den Bergh
authors.forename: Debora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vansteenwegen
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ceunen
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Peuter
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Van Diest
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000523:psychology*; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004576:Electromyography; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012120:Respiration Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D056152:Respiratory Rate / Q000502:physiology; D057566:Self Report; D013990:Tidal Volume / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult