title: Facilitated acquisition of eyeblink conditioning in those vulnerable to anxiety disorders.
abstract: Behavioral inhibition (BI) increases vulnerability to develop anxiety disorders and is typified by avoidance and withdrawal from novel objects, people, and situations. The present study considered the relationship between BI and temperamental risk factors, such as trait anxiety and acquisition rate of a classically conditioned eyeblink response. One-hundred seventy-four healthy undergraduate students (mean age 20.3 years, 71.8% female) were given the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and a battery of self-report measures of BI consisting of the Adult and Retrospective Measures of Behavioral Inhibition (AMBI/RMBI) and the Concurrent and Retrospective Self Report of Inhibition (CSRI/RSRI). Participants then underwent standard delay classical eyeblink conditioning consisting of 45 trials with a 500-ms CS overlapping and co-terminating with a 10-ms airpuff US. Individuals with higher scores on the AMBI and Trait Anxiety Inventory, but not the other measures, showed faster acquisition of a conditioned eyeblink response than individuals with lower scores. Results support a relationship between facilitated acquisition of inter-stimulus relationships and risk for anxiety, and suggest that some measures assessing anxiety vulnerability better capture this relationship than others.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Newark, NJ, USA ; New Jersey Medical School, Stress and Motivated Behavior Institute, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Meghan D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Caulfield
authors.forename: J Devin
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: McAuley
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Servatius
keywords: anxiety; anxiety vulnerability; behavioral inhibition; classical eyeblink conditioning; temperament; trait anxiety