title: Auditory symptom provocation in dental phobia: a near-infrared spectroscopy study.
abstract: The act of drilling a tooth belongs to the most feared situations of patients suffering from dental phobia. We presented 25 female patients and 24 nonphobic women with the sound of a dental drill, pleasant and neutral sounds. Brain activation was recorded via near infrared spectroscopy in fronto-parietal and premotor areas. The groups differed in supplementary motor area (SMA) recruitment. Relative to controls, the phobics displayed increased oxy hemoglobin while presented with the phobia-relevant sound, but showed comparable activation in the other conditions. As the SMA is engaged in the preparation of motor actions, the increased response in patients might mirror the priming of flight behavior during exposure. We found no indication of an emotional modulation of parietal and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Angelika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Köchel
authors.forename: Michael M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Plichta
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schöngassner
authors.forename: Andreas J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Fallgatter
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schienle
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D010108:Oxyhemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010108:Oxyhemoglobins