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Results for “fear”

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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMed1991

Origins of childhood fears: an evaluation of Rachman's theory of fear acquisition.

This study explored Rachman's (1977) theory of fear acquisition in a large sample of Australian and American children and adolescents. Participants completed a questionnaire that addressed different pathways of fear acquisition for 10 highly prevalent fears. The majority of children attributed the onset of their fears to vicarious and instructional factors, although these indirect sources of fear were often combined with direct conditioning experiences. Also examined were effects for gender, age, and nationality. Boys and preadolescents were found to report more direct and vicarious experiences than girls or adolescents. Effects due to nationality were minimal. Methodological limitations attendant to self-reports were acknowledged.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Facial reactions to fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli.

Earlier research has shown that subjects exposed to different facial expressions react spontaneously with different facial electromyographic (EMG) response patterns. In the present study subjects were exposed to fear-relevant (snakes/spiders) and fear-irrelevant (flowers/mushrooms) stimuli, while facial EMG activity, skin conductance responses (SCRs) and heart rate (HR) were measured. The stimuli evoked different response patterns. Fear-relevant stimuli elicited increased corrugator muscle activity, whereas fear-irrelevant stimuli evoked increased zygomatic muscle activity. Fear-relevant stimuli also evoked HR deceleration and larger SCR magnitudes. The present data are consistent with the theory that the face constitutes an emotional 'readout/output-system'.

Electromyography↗

PubMed2004

Have no fear, erythropoietin is here: erythropoietin protects fear conditioning performances after functional inactivation of the amygdala.

This study investigated the capacity of erythropoietin (EPO) to protect fear conditioning performances against functional inactivation of the amygdala. We infused an excitotoxic dose of glutamate in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) of adult rats in order to block the output projections to brainstem areas controlling the expression of conditioned fear responses. Subsequently, animals with excitotoxic lesions in the LA displayed altered short and long-term fear conditioned responses, but the integrity of their general emotional reactivity was preserved, as indicated by their open-field behavior. EPO infused immediately after glutamate succeeded to protect the conditioned fear performances of rats. This effect was reliably represented on both short, and long-term memory tests of conditioned fear. This and other studies have supported the potent neuroprotective activity of EPO, discriminable both morphologically, and behaviorally.

Amygdala↗

PubMed2005

An experimental demonstration that fear, but not disgust, is associated with return of fear in phobias.

It has been suggested that disgust, rather than anxiety, may be important in some phobias. Correlational studies have been ambiguous, indicating either that disgust increases phobic anxiety or that phobic anxiety potentiates disgust. In the experimental study reported here, disgust and phobic anxiety were manipulated in the context of habituation to phobic stimuli. Spider fearful participants were randomly allocated to conditions in which neutral, disgusting, and phobic anxiety provoking stimuli were introduced into a video-based spider phobic habituation sequence. Exposure to the phobic stimulus resulted in a return of self-reported fear and disgust levels. However, exposure to disgusting stimulus increased disgust levels, but not anxiety levels. Results are most consistent with the hypothesis that fear enhances the disgust response in phobias, but that disgust alone does not enhance the fear response. Previously observed links between disgust and spider phobia may be a consequence of fear enhancing disgust.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Manipulating perceptions of spider characteristics and predicted spider fear: evidence for the cognitive vulnerability model of the etiology of fear.

The present study reports on an attempt to experimentally manipulate perceptions of uncontrollability, unpredictability and dangerousness related to an imaginal encounter with a spider in order to determine whether there is an effect on self-rated predicted spider fear. Experimental manipulations involved differing information in relation to both the spider and the imaginal task. The control, predictability and dangerousness manipulations all had significant main effects on task-related spider fear (TRSF). Measures of the perception of the spiders as uncontrollable, unpredictable and dangerous were also significantly associated with TRSF and accounted for 42% of the variance in predicted fear beyond that accounted for by the experimental manipulations. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for better understanding the etiology and maintenance of fear. The overall findings are consistent with the cognitive vulnerability model, with cognitive perceptions of an object or situation seen as causal determinants of the fear associated with the stimulus.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Extract of Ginkgo biloba EGb 761 facilitates fear conditioning measured by fear-potentiated startle.

Extract of Ginkgo biloba EGb 761 has been used in the treatment of various common geriatric complaints including vertigo, short-term memory loss, hearing loss, lack of attention, vigilance and cerebral vascular disorder. Recent results suggest that it can serve as a cognitive enhancer and anti-stress buffer. It raises a possibility that EGb 761 may be involved in the fear conditioning. In this study, we used fear-potentiated startle (FPS) to evaluate the possible effects of EGb 761 on the acquisition stage of fear conditioning. Our results showed that administration of EGb 761 30 min prior to the conditioning facilitated acquisition of conditioned fear in a dose dependent manner. No significant differences had been observed in either basal startle response or shock activity. These results indicated that the facilitation effect of EGb 761 was not the result of impaired basal startle response or enhanced pain perception. Subsequent control experiment results indicated that the facilitation effect of EGb 761 on the acquisition was not due to anxiogenic effect or non-specific effect. Our data present the first evidence that EGb 761 can enhance fear memory formation rather than serve as an anti-stress buffer.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1997

Are emotions frightening? An extension of the fear of fear construct.

Proposed in this paper is an expansion of the concept of fear of fear to include fear of other emotions (anger, depression, and positive emotions). In Study 1, initial evidence of the reliability and validity of a questionnaire designed to measure this construct, the Affective Control Scale, is provided. In Study 2, an analogue experiment of susceptibility to panic disorder was conducted. The ability of fear of anger, depression, and positive emotions to predict fear of laboratory-induced bodily sensations in a population with no history of panic attacks was demonstrated.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Conditional reasoning and phobic fear: evidence for a fear-confirming reasoning pattern.

In two experiments we explored the role of subjects' reasoning performance in the persistence of phobic fear. More specifically, we investigated whether (phobic) subjects are prone to selectively search for danger-confirming information when asked to judge the validity of conditional rules in the context of general and phobic threats. In both experiments, participants were presented with Wason Selection Tasks (WST) pertaining to general and phobic threats. The WSTs contained safety rules (if P then no danger) and danger rules (if P then danger). In Experiment 1 participants were high (n = 20) and low (n = 20) spider fearful students, whereas in Experiment 2 participants were untreated (n = 38) and treated (n = 27) spider phobic women and a group of non-fearful controls (n = 27). Both experiments showed that in the context of general threat, subjects predominantly rely on confirming information regarding danger rules and on falsifying information regarding safety rules. This reasoning strategy was not particularly pronounced in high fear or phobic subjects. However, only clinically diagnosed spider phobics displayed a similar reasoning strategy in the context of phobia-relevant threats. Thus, the present data seem to suggest that the mere perception of threat is already sufficient to activate a danger-confirming reasoning strategy and in case of phobic threats such a reasoning pattern logically serves to maintain or even enhance phobic fears.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of an expanding-spaced vs massed exposure schedule on fear reduction and return of fear.

The current investigation assessed the relative benefits of a massed vs an expanding-spaced exposure schedule. The study was a 2 (distribution of sessions) x 3 (assessment occasion) design, in which two spider-fearful groups (N = 31) were compared across three different occasions: pre-training, post-training, and follow-up. Four exposure trials were conducted within the same day for participants in the massed exposure (ME) group, whereas sessions were distributed over the course of 1 week (inter-trial intervals doubled between sessions) for the expanding-spaced exposure (ESE) group. As predicted, although the ME group demonstrated significantly more habituation than the ESE group across exposure trials, they also showed a clear return of fear (ROF) in response to the training spider at a 1-month follow-up assessment, whereas the ESE group showed no increase in fear. Additionally, the ME group showed ROF in response to novel spiders post-training and at the 1-month follow-up, whereas ESE participants did not. These findings offer support for the beneficial effects of an expanding-spaced schedule and challenge the reliance on indices of fear activation and habituation as accurate signals of the permanence of fear reduction.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of varied-stimulus exposure training on fear reduction and return of fear.

The current investigation assessed the relative treatment benefits of persistence with one specific stimulus vs exposure to multiple versions of a stimulus. The study was a 2 (type of stimulus) x 3 (assessment occasion) design, in which two spider-fearful groups (N = 28) were compared across three different occasions: pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up. Exposure trials were conducted with the same tarantula for participants in the control group, whereas experimental participants were exposed to four novel tarantulas. As predicted, the control group demonstrated significantly more habituation than the experimental group across exposure trials, yet showed a clear return of fear in response to a control spider at a 3-week follow-up assessment whereas the experimental group showed no increase in fear. These findings offer support for the beneficial effects of varying the stimulus during exposure, and challenge the reliance on indices of fear activation and habituation as accurate signals of the permanence of fear reduction.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Fear of blushing: fearful preoccupation irrespective of facial coloration.

Women, with high (n = 29) and low (n = 28) fear of blushing, were exposed to a mild social stressor (watching a television test card in the presence of two male confederates) and to an intense social stressor (watching their own prerecorded 'sing' video, in the presence of two male confederates). Facial coloration and facial temperature were measured and participants rated their own blush intensity. No differences in actual blushing emerged between both groups. Meanwhile, high fearful individuals' self-reported blush intensity was significantly higher than that of low fearful individuals. Thus, fear of blushing seems to reflect a fearful preoccupation, irrespective of differential facial coloration. The present findings concord with cognitive models of social phobia.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Effects of dorsal striatum lesions in tone fear conditioning and contextual fear conditioning.

It has been suggested that the striatum mediates hippocampus-independent memory tasks. Classical fear conditioning to a discrete stimulus such as a tone is not affected by hippocampal lesion, whereas contextual fear conditioning is an hippocampus dependent task. The purpose of the present study was to verify the effect of dorsal striatal lesions on tone and contextual fear conditioning. The lesioned rats were not impaired in contextual fear conditioning but in tone fear conditioning both electrolytically and neurotoxically lesioned animals showed less freezing compared with controls. The lesion effect was observed after a postoperative recovery period of 14 days but not after 2 months. The results support the hypothesis that the dorsal striatum is involved in hippocampus-independent memory tasks, but, in spite of this involvement, it does not seem to be a critical structure.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2002

The assessment of contemporary fears in adolescents using a modified version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised.

The FSSC-Hawaii (FSSC-HI; Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 12, 437-461) is a modified version of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised (FSSC-R; Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21, 685-692) that includes a number of contemporary fear stimuli and situations (e.g., "drugs", "being raped", "AIDS"). The psychometric properties of the FSSC-HI were examined in a large sample of Belgium adolescents (n = 551) aged 12-19 years. Results showed that a five- and seven-factor model both provided satisfactory fits for the structure of the FSSC-HI. Furthermore, the internal consistency of the scale was good and this appeared to be true for the five-factor as well as the seven-factor solution. Support was found for the convergent validity of the FSSC-HI. That is, FSSC-HI scores correlated in a meaningful way with scores on alternative measures of childhood anxiety. Finally, a considerable number of the "new" fear items were found to rank high in the top 10 of most common fears. The implications for the assessment of fears in children and adolescents are briefly discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Implicit associations for fear-relevant stimuli among individuals with snake and spider fears.

This study investigated an implicit measure of cognitive processing, the Implicit Association Test (IAT; A. G. Greenwald, D. E. McGhee, & J. L. K. Schwartz, 1998), as a measure of fear-related automatic associations. Sixty-seven students with snake or spider fears completed 4 IAT tasks in which they classified pictures of snakes and spiders along with descriptive words indicating valence, fear, danger, or disgust. Results indicated that all 4 tasks discriminated between fear groups in terms of their implicit associations, and fear-specific effects were significant even after controlling for the impact of valence evaluation. Findings are discussed in terms of applications of the IAT methodology to examine cognitive processing and schemata in anxiety and potential uses for assessing anxiety disorders.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Efferent pathway of the amygdala involved in conditioned fear as measured with the fear-potentiated startle paradigm.

Fear-potentiated startle in the rat is a measure of conditioned fear that is blocked by lesions of the central nucleus of the amygdala. In a companion study, Rosen, Hitchcock, Sananes, Miserendino, and Davis (1991) demonstrated a direct anatomical projection from the central nucleus to the brainstem startle reflex circuit. In the present study, fear-potentiated startle was blocked by lesions that interrupted this pathway at 3 different levels or by a crossed lesion that interrupted the pathway at its source on one side and at a more caudal level on the other side. Although synaptic relays have not been ruled out entirely, the data suggest that the direct projection from the central nucleus of the amygdala to the startle circuit mediates the expression of fear-potentiated startle. These findings are consistent with the literature indicating that efferent projections from the central nucleus to various brainstem structures are involved in the expression of several conditioned fear responses.

Amygdala↗

PubMed2004

Fear and the amygdala: manipulation of awareness generates differential cerebral responses to phobic and fear-relevant (but nonfeared) stimuli.

Rapid response to danger holds an evolutionary advantage. In this positron emission tomography study, phobics were exposed to masked visual stimuli with timings that either allowed awareness or not of either phobic, fear-relevant (e.g., spiders to snake phobics), or neutral images. When the timing did not permit awareness, the amygdala responded to both phobic and fear-relevant stimuli. With time for more elaborate processing, phobic stimuli resulted in an addition of an affective processing network to the amygdala activity, whereas no activity was found in response to fear-relevant stimuli. Also, right prefrontal areas appeared deactivated, comparing aware phobic and fear-relevant conditions. Thus, a shift from top-down control to an affectively driven system optimized for speed was observed in phobic relative to fear-relevant aware processing.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

[Fear of progression in breast cancer patients--validation of the short form of the Fear of Progression Questionnaire (FoP-Q-SF)].

OBJECTIVES: Fear of progression is one of the most prevalent symptoms in cancer patients. The aim of this study was to validate the 12-item short version of the Fear of Progression Questionnaire (FoP-Q-SF). METHODS: A total of 1083 breast cancer patients were recruited by the Hamburg Cancer Register to fill out various questionnaires (response rate 67 %). RESULTS: Estimates of reliability were high (Cronbach's alpha = .87). The original one-factor structure was replicated. We used the HADS, the PCL-C, and the SF-8, among others, to validate the FoP-Q-SF. Significant positive correlations were found for fear of progression, anxiety and intrusion (r > .60) as well as for avoidance, hyperarousal and depression (r > or = .49). Moderate to high (negative) correlations were observed with health-related quality of life, in particular with the mental health dimensions (r > or = .48). Patients with cancer recurrence reported significant higher levels of fear of progression (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: The short form of the Fear of Progression Questionnaire appears to be a reliable and valid instrument which can be recommended for further use in research and clinical care.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Putting fear in its place: remapping of hippocampal place cells during fear conditioning.

We recorded hippocampal place cells in two spatial environments: a training environment in which rats underwent fear conditioning and a neutral control environment. Fear conditioning caused many place cells to alter (or remap) their preferred firing locations in the training environment, whereas most cells remained stable in the control environment. This finding indicates that aversive reinforcement can induce place cell remapping even when the environment itself remains unchanged. Furthermore, contextual fear conditioning caused significantly more remapping of place cells than auditory fear conditioning, suggesting that place cell remapping was related to the rat's learned fear of the environment. These results suggest that one possible function of place cell remapping may be to generate new spatial representations of a single environment, which could help the animal to discriminate among different motivational contexts within that environment.

Animals↗