title: Brain activity associated with illusory correlations in animal phobia.
abstract: Anxiety disorder patients were repeatedly found to overestimate the association between disorder-relevant stimuli and aversive outcomes despite random contingencies. Such an illusory correlation (IC) might play an important role in the return of fear after extinction learning; yet, little is known about how this cognitive bias emerges in the brain. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, 18 female patients with spider phobia and 18 healthy controls were exposed to pictures of spiders, mushrooms and puppies followed randomly by either a painful electrical shock or nothing. In advance, both patients and healthy controls expected more shocks after spider pictures. Importantly, only patients with spider phobia continued to overestimate this association after the experiment. The strength of this IC was predicted by increased outcome aversiveness ratings and primary sensory motor cortex activity in response to the shock after spider pictures. Moreover, increased activation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) to spider pictures predicted the IC. These results support the theory that phobia-relevant stimuli amplify unpleasantness and sensory motor representations of aversive stimuli, which in turn may promote their overestimation. Hyper-activity in dlPFC possibly reflects a pre-occupation of executive resources with phobia-relevant stimuli, thus complicating the accurate monitoring of objective contingencies and the unlearning of fear.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiemer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Reicherts
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Glotzbach-Schoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andreatta
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy) and Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany pauli@psychologie.uni-wuerzburg.de.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pauli
mesh_terms: D000363:Agaricales; D000818:Animals; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004285:Dogs; D004597:Electroshock; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D007858:Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D013112:Spiders; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: covariation bias; fMRI; illusory correlation; pain; spider phobia