Using panicogenic inhalations of carbon dioxide enriched air to induce attentional bias for threat: Implications for the development of anxiety disorders.
The tendency for anxious individuals to selectively attend to threatening information is believed to cause and exacerbate anxious emotional responding in a self-perpetuating cycle. The present study sought to examine the relation between differential interoceptive conditioning (IC) using carbon dioxide inhalation as a panicogenic unconditioned stimulus (US) and the development of Stroop colour-naming interference to various non-word conditioned stimuli (CSs). Healthy university students (N = 27) underwent the assessment of colour-naming interference to reinforced CS+ and non-reinforced CS- non-words prior to and following differential fear conditioning. Participants showed greater magnitude electrodermal and verbal-evaluative responses to the CS+ over the CS- non-word following IC, and demonstrated the expected slower colour-naming latencies to the CS+ compared to the CS- non-word from baseline to post-conditioning. We discuss the relation between fear learning and the emergence of attentional bias for threat to further understand the maintenance of anxiety disorders.
a Department of Psychology , University at Albany, State University of New York , Albany , NY , USA.
Sonsoles
S
Valdivia-Salas
John P
JP
Forsyth
Christopher R
CR
Berghoff
Timothy R
TR
Ritzert
D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010200:Panic / Q000187:drug effects*; D055815:Young Adult
D002245:Carbon Dioxide
Anxiety disorders; CO2 inhalation; Fear conditioning; Humans; Stroop colour-naming interference