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PubMed2005

Memory-emotional interactions as revealed by fear generalization in animal-fearful individuals.

Discriminative fear learning and fear generalization were examined in animal-fearful individuals and in control participants. Electrical shocks were administered contingent upon discriminative pictures of spiders or snakes, respectively, in a generalization-after-discrimination paradigm. Neither discriminative fear learning nor extinction was affected by the individual fear status of the animal categories. Novel feared stimuli, which resembled discriminative stimuli, were treated as more shock predictive than novel non-feared stimuli during generalization testing. Neither preparedness theory nor selective sensitization theory was capable to account for these observations. The findings are commensurable with the hypothesis that phobic fear interferes with the retrieval of memory traces.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Pain-related fear is more disabling than pain itself: evidence on the role of pain-related fear in chronic back pain disability.

There is growing evidence for the idea that in back pain patients, pain-related fear (fear of pain/physical activity/(re)injury) may be more disabling than pain itself. A number of questionnaires have been developed to quantify pain-related fears, including the Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ), the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK), and the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS). A total of 104 patients, presenting to a rehabilitation center or a comprehensive pain clinic with chronic low back pain were studied in three independent studies aimed at (1) replicating that pain-related fear is more disabling than pain itself (2) investigating the association between pain-related fear and poor behavioral performance and (3) investigating whether pain-related fear measures are better predictors of disability and behavioral performance than measures of general negative affect or general negative pain beliefs (e.g. pain catastrophizing). All three studies showed similar results. Highest correlations were found among the pain-related fear measures and measures of self-reported disability and behavioral performance. Even when controlling for sociodemographics, multiple regression analyses revealed that the subscales of the FABQ and the TSK were superior in predicting self-reported disability and poor behavioral performance. The PASS appeared more strongly associated with pain catastrophizing and negative affect, and was less predictive of pain disability and behavioral performance. Implications for chronic back pain assessment, prevention and treatment are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Normative development of fears in Greece: self-reports on the Hellenic Fear Survey Schedule for Children.

This study assessed the psychometric properties of self-reports on the Hellenic Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-GR), a Greek-language version of Ollendick's FSSC-R [Behav. Res. Ther. 21 (1983) 685-692], and explored the factor structure, intensity, prevalence, and content of fears of Hellenic children aged 7-12 years. Internal consistency and temporal stability assessments of responding on the FSSC-GR were comparable to those obtained on the FSSC-R. A seven-factor solution provided the best conceptual fit for the structure of children's fears in Greece, including five components similar to factors previously obtained for the FSSC-R, plus two unique components, "Travel and Agoraphobic Fears" and "School Performance Fears." Fear intensity and prevalence scores of Hellenic children were higher than scores observed in most countries. Self-reported fear scores were higher for Hellenic girls than for boys. The relation between age and self-reported fears in Greece was complex and interpreted in relation to age-related changes in environmental demands.

Child↗

PubMed1986

Pharmacological and anatomical analysis of fear conditioning using the fear-potentiated startle paradigm.

Pharmacological and anatomical analysis of fear conditioning using the fear-potentiated startle paradigm are reviewed. This test measures conditioned fear by an increase in the amplitude of a simple reflex (the acoustic startle reflex) in the presence of a cue previously paired with a shock. This paradigm offers a number of advantages as an alternative to most animal tests of fear or anxiety because it involves no operant and is reflected by an enhancement rather than a suppression of ongoing behavior. Fear-potentiated startle is selectively decreased by drugs such as diazepam, morphine, and buspirone that reduce fear or anxiety clinically. Electrical stimulation techniques suggest that a visual conditioned stimulus ultimately alters acoustic startle at a specific point along the acoustic startle pathway. Relevant visual structures implicated in potentiated startle include the lateral geniculate nucleus, visual cortex, and deep and intermediate layers of the superior colliculus. The central nucleus of the amygdala and the caudal branch of the ventral amygdalofugal pathway projecting to or through the substantia nigra are also necessary for potentiated startle to occur. Electrical stimulation of the central nucleus of the amygdala markedly increases acoustic startle. By combining these behavioral, anatomical, physiological, and pharmacological approaches, it should soon be possible to determine each neural pathway that is required for a stimulus signaling fear to alter startle behavior. Once the exact structures are delineated, it should be possible to determine the neurotransmitters that are released during a state of fear and how this chemical information is relayed along these pathways so as to affect behavior.

Animals↗

PubMed1995

Fear and fearfulness in animals.

Persistence of individual differences in animal behavior in reactions to various environmental challenges could reflect basic divergences in temperament, which might be used to predict details of adaptive response. Although studies have been carried out on fear and anxiety in various species, including laboratory, domestic and wild animals, no consistent definition of fearfulness as a basic trait of temperament has emerged. After a classification of the events that may produce a state of fear, this article describes the great variability in behavior and in physiological patterns generally associated with emotional reactivity. The difficulties of proposing fearfulness--the general capacity to react to a variety of potentially threatening situations--as a valid basic internal variable are then discussed. Although there are many studies showing covariation among the psychobiological responses to different environmental challenges, other studies find no such correlations and raise doubts about the interpretation of fearfulness as a basic personality trait. After a critical assessment of methodologies used in fear and anxiety studies, it is suggested that discrepancies among results are mainly due to the modulation of emotional responses in animals, which depend on numerous genetic and epigenetic factors. It is difficult to compare results obtained by different methods from animals reared under various conditions and with different genetic origins. The concept of fearfulness as an inner trait is best supported by two kinds of investigations. First, an experimental approach combining ethology and experimental psychology produces undeniable indicators of emotional reactivity. Second, genetic lines selected for psychobiological traits prove useful in establishing relationships between behavioral and neuroendocrine aspects of emotional reactivity. It is suggested that fearfulness could be considered a basic feature of the temperament of each individual, one that predisposes it to respond similarly to a variety of potentially alarming challenges, but is nevertheless continually modulated during development by the interaction of genetic traits of reactivity with environmental factors, particularly in the juvenile period. Such interaction may explain much of the interindividual variability observed in adaptive responses.

Animals↗

PubMed1998

Fear of falling and activity restriction: the survey of activities and fear of falling in the elderly (SAFE).

A new instrument was developed to assess the role of fear of falling in activity restriction. The instrument assesses fear of falling during performance of 11 activities, and gathers information about participation in these activities as well as the extent to which fear is a source of activity restriction. The instrument demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and showed convergent validity with other fear of falling measures. Concurrent (empirical) validity was demonstrated in that the scale was effective in differentiating among those who were expected to be afraid vs. not afraid of falling. Criterion validity was examined in relation to quality of life variables. Fear of falling was shown to be related to lower quality of life, even when controlling for related background factors. One advantage of this measure over existing measures is the possibility for differentiating fear of falling that leads to activity restriction from fear of falling that accompanies activity. This may provide useful information for those interested in treating fear of falling of promoting activity among the elderly.

Accidental Falls↗

PubMed1992

Fears and fearfulness in children and adolescents: a genetic analysis of twin data.

A sample of 175 same sex dizygotic pairs and 144 monozygotic twin pairs aged between 8:00 and 18:00 completed the Fear Survey Schedule for Children--Revised. The heritabilities were significant for Fear of the Unknown (h2 = 0.46, p less than 0.001), Fear of Injury and Small Animals (h2 = 0.46, p less than 0.001), Fear of Danger (h2 = 0.34, p less than 0.001) and for Total Fear Score (h2 = 0.29, p less than 0.001). Multiple regression was used to estimate the heritability of extreme fearfulness (h2g). For each of the fear factors the values of h2g were of similar magnitude to those of h2 suggesting that there is no evidence of greater genetic influences at more extreme levels of fearfulness.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Rethinking the fear circuit: the central nucleus of the amygdala is required for the acquisition, consolidation, and expression of Pavlovian fear conditioning.

In the standard model of pavlovian fear learning, sensory input from neutral and aversive stimuli converge in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA), in which alterations in synaptic transmission encode the association. During fear expression, the LA is thought to engage the central nucleus of the amygdala (CE), which serves as the principal output nucleus for the expression of conditioned fear responses. In the present study, we reexamined the roles of LA and CE. Specifically, we asked whether CE, like LA, might also be involved in fear learning and memory consolidation. Using functional inactivation methods, we first show that CE is involved not only in the expression but also the acquisition of fear conditioning. Next, we show that inhibition of protein synthesis in CE after training impairs fear memory consolidation. These findings indicate that CE is not only involved in fear expression but, like LA, is also involved in the learning and consolidation of pavlovian fear conditioning.

Amygdala↗

PubMed1997

Evidence of contextual fear after lesions of the hippocampus: a disruption of freezing but not fear-potentiated startle.

The roles of the dorsal hippocampus and the central nucleus of the amygdala in the expression of contextual fear were assessed using two measures of conditioned fear: freezing and fear-potentiated startle. A discriminable context conditioning paradigm was developed that demonstrated both conditioned freezing and fear-potentiated startle in a context paired previously with foot shock, relative to a context in which foot shock had never been presented. Post-training lesions of the central nucleus of the amygdala completely blocked both contextual freezing and fear-potentiated startle. Post-training lesions of the dorsal hippocampus attenuated contextual freezing, consistent with previous reports in the literature; however, these same lesions had no effect on fear-potentiated startle, suggesting preserved contextual fear. These results suggest that lesions of the hippocampus disrupt the freezing response but not contextual fear itself.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2005

Dental fear of Finnish children in the light of different measures of dental fear.

OBJECTIVES: The aims were: (1) to examine the construct and reliability of the modified Dental Subscale of the Children's Fear Survey Schedule (CFSS-DS) among children of different ages and (2) to compare the correlations between fear measured with the modified CFSS-DS, the "peak value for dental fear" (PV), and "fear of dental treatment in general" (GF). METHODS: The study sample consisted of 302, 299, 314, and 297 children aged 6, 9, 12, and 15 years, respectively. Each child received a questionnaire to be filled out at home. An explorative factor analysis with varimax rotation was performed for eight items taken from the CFSS-DS and questions on fear of pain and suction used in the mouth. For further age-specific analyses, mean values were calculated for the sum of items that loaded >0.5 on each factor. The correlations between these values and PV and GF were studied. RESULTS: The questionnaire was reliable. Two factors were revealed for each age: "treatment of dental decay" (TDD), which included fears related to invasive treatment, and "attending the dentist" (AD), which included fears related to dental visits in general. TDD explained over 50% of the variance, except among 9-year-olds. TDD mean values were higher among older children than among younger ones and correlated more strongly with PV than with GF. AD mean values were higher among younger children than among older ones and correlated more strongly with GF than with PV. CONCLUSION: The factor structures were fairly similar but the correlations between fear measures differed among children of different ages.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Hippocampectomy disrupts auditory trace fear conditioning and contextual fear conditioning in the rat.

The hippocampus is believed to be an important structure for learning tasks that require temporal processing of information. The trace classical conditioning paradigm requires temporal processing because the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US) are temporally separated by an empty trace interval. The present study sought to determine whether the hippocampus was necessary for rats to perform a classical trace fear conditioning task in which each of 10 trials consisted of an auditory tone CS (1 5-s duration) followed by an empty 30-s trace interval and then a fear-producing floor-shock US (0.5-s duration). Several weeks prior to training, animals were anesthetized and given aspiration lesions of the neocortex (NEO; n = 6), hippocampus and overlying neocortex (HIPP; n = 7), or no lesions at all (control; n = 6). Approximately 24 h after trace conditioning, NEO and control animals showed a significant decrease in movement to a CS-alone presentation that was indicative of a conditioned fear response. Animals in the HIPP group did not show conditioned fear responses to the CS alone, nor did a pseudoconditioning group (n = 7) that was trained with unpaired CSs and USs. Furthermore, all groups except the HIPP group showed conditioned fear responses to the original context in which they received shock USs. One week later, HIPP, NEO, and control animals received delay fear-conditioning trials with no trace interval separating the CS and US. Six of seven HIPP animals could perform the delay version, but none could perform the trace version. This result suggests that the trace fear task is a reliable and useful model for examining the neural mechanisms of hippocampally dependent learning.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Fears of youth with mental retardation: psychometric evaluation of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II (FSSC-II).

The nature and development of normal fear, although widely researched within the general population, has been seriously neglected for individuals with mental retardation. The present study involves the psychometric evaluation of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-II with two samples: 187 children and adolescents with mental retardation and 372 intellectually average students. The schedule was demonstrated to have sound psychometric properties for both samples including good internal consistency and high retest reliability. Sound validity indices were determined by examining the relationships of fear scores with state, trait, and manifest anxiety scores. Comparison of the two samples yielded significant differences. In particular, students with mental retardation were found to score significantly higher than the comparison sample. In contrast to the age-related decrease in fear found for students of average intelligence, those with mental retardation did not demonstrate a decrease in self-reported fear with age. Gender differences were consistent across both samples with females reporting higher levels of fearfulness and a greater number of fears than males.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Differential effects of ovarian steroids on anxiety versus fear as measured by open field test and fear-potentiated startle.

The ovarian steroids, estrogen (E) and progesterone (P), have been shown to affect anxiety and fear in humans and animals, although with inconsistent results. These ambiguous findings may be due to differential actions of ovarian steroids on anxiety versus fear. To investigate such a role, we used the open field test (OFT) and fear-potentiated startle (FPS). We examined these behaviors between cycling female rats in proestrus (high E and rising P) or diestrus (low E and P), as well as between ovariectomized rats treated for 2 weeks with placebo, E, or E plus P (OVX, OVX/E, OVX/EP, respectively). We found no differences in anxiety-like or fear behaviors in OFT or FPS between proestrus and diestrus rats, perhaps due to the opposing effects of E and P. In contrast, we found that the OVX/E rats spent more time in the center of the OFT compared to the OVX and OVX/EP rats with no difference in overall activity level, suggesting that E reduced anxiety and this was opposed by P. With FPS, the OVX/E rats showed increased startle in the first third of the testing session, followed by a rapid decline in startle magnitude in subsequent trials. The addition of P to E treatment counteracted this effect. In conclusion, E may have differential effects on specific components of anxiety and fear; E may decrease anxiety in a naturalistic environment, but intensify both fear learning and extinction processes. P antagonizes these E effects on anxiety and fear.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2004

The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor citalopram increases fear after acute treatment but reduces fear with chronic treatment: a comparison with tianeptine.

BACKGROUND: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are efficacious in the treatment of a variety of fear or anxiety disorders. Although they inhibit the reuptake of serotonin within hours of administration, therapeutic improvement only occurs after several weeks. In this study, we used fear conditioning to begin to understand how acute and chronic SSRI treatment might differentially affect well-characterized fear circuits. METHODS: We evaluated the effects of acute and chronic treatment with the SSRI citalopram on the acquisition of auditory fear conditioning. To further understand the role of serotonin in modulating fear circuits, we compared these effects with those of acute and chronic administration of the antidepressant tianeptine, a purported serotonin reuptake enhancer. RESULTS: We found that acute administration of the SSRI citalopram enhanced acquisition, whereas chronic treatment reduced the acquisition of auditory fear conditioning. In comparison, treatment with tianeptine had no effect acutely but also reduced the acquisition of tone conditioning when administered chronically. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings with citalopram are consistent with the clinical effects of SSRI treatment seen in patients with anxiety disorders, in which anxiety is often increased during early stages of treatment and decreased after several weeks of treatment. The findings also indicate that auditory fear conditioning can be a useful tool in understanding differences in the effects of short-term and long-term antidepressant treatment with serotonergic medications.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2005

Testosterone reduces unconscious fear but not consciously experienced anxiety: implications for the disorders of fear and anxiety.

BACKGROUND: The fear-reducing properties of testosterone have been firmly established in animals but not in humans. However, human data on the relation between testosterone, fear, and anxiety have predominantly involved questionnaires that index cortically executed conscious appraisal of anxious mood. Animal studies, on the other hand, indicate that the effects of testosterone on motivation and emotion are of subcortical origin and of unconscious nature. Presently, it was hypothesized that a single testosterone administration to humans would reduce unconscious fear but not consciously experienced anxiety. METHODS: In a placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover design, a single dose of testosterone (.5 mg) or placebo was administered to 16 healthy female volunteers. Afterward, a masked emotional Stroop task measured unconscious emotional responses to fearful faces, while multiple self-reports of mood indexed consciously experienced anxiety. RESULTS: As hypothesized, the habitual vigilant emotional response to the masked fearful face observed in the placebo condition was significantly reduced after testosterone was administered, while the self-reported measures of anxiety remained unaffected. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide the first direct evidence for fear-reducing properties of testosterone in humans. Furthermore, by dissociating specific aspects of fear and anxiety in humans, this outcome highlights that testosterone's effects on motivation and emotion concern the subcortical affective pathways of the brain.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Looking at the heart of low and high heart rate variability fearful flyers: self-reported anxiety when confronting feared stimuli.

Previous research has shown that phobic subjects with low heart rate variability (HRV) are less able to inhibit an inappropriate response when confronted with threatening words compared to phobic subjects with high HRV [Johnsen, B.H., Thayer, J.F., Laberg, J.C., Wormnes, B., Raadal, M., Skaret, E., et al., 2003. Attentional and physiological characteristics of patients with dental anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 17, 75-87]. The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in self-reported anxiety when low HRV and high HRV fearful flyers (N=15) and a matched control group (N=15) were exposed to flight-related pictures, flight-related sounds or both pictures and sounds. We hypothesized that sounds would be crucial to evoke fear. Also, low HRV fearful flyers were expected to report higher anxiety than high HRV fearful flyers assuming anxiety as their inappropriate response. Decreases on HRV measures were also predicted for a subgroup of phobic participants (N=10) when confronted with the feared stimuli. Our data supported the hypothesis that sounds are crucial in this kind of phobia. Low HRV fearful flyers reported higher anxiety than high HRV fearful flyers in two out of three aversive conditions. The predicted HRV decreases were not found in this study. Results are discussed in the context of avoidance of exposure-based treatments.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Fear of the beast: a prospective study on the effects of negative information on childhood fear.

The current study examined the effects of negative information on the enhancement of childhood fear. A large group of normal primary school children aged between 4 and 12 years (N=285) received either negative or positive information about an unknown, doglike animal, called 'the beast'. Children's fears were assessed at three points in time: before, directly after, and one week after the information about the beast was provided (i.e., pre-, post- and follow-up assessment). Results showed that type of information changed children's fear of the beast in the predicted direction with negative information increasing fear levels and positive information decreasing fear levels. This was not only the case directly after the experimental manipulation but also at one week follow-up. Furthermore, fear of the beast appeared to generalize, that is, children who became more fearful of the beast after receiving negative information, also became more apprehensive of other dogs and predators.

Age Factors↗

PubMed1998

Generalization of fear responses in C57BL/6N mice subjected to one-trial foreground contextual fear conditioning.

C57BL/6N mice were trained in a foreground contextual fear conditioning paradigm by a single exposure to a context (context 1) paired with an electric shock. Conditioned mice exhibited a strong fear response, indicated by increased freezing and low locomotor activity after subsequent re-exposure to context 1, which had been used for conditioning as well as in a novel context (context 2). The fear responses to contexts 1 or 2 required the temporal sequence of the conditioned (CS) and unconditioned (US) stimuli and did not differ significantly. The intensity of the fear response was maximal 24 h after conditioning, when long-term memory was fully established. The response to context 2 was interpreted as conditioned generalization, which was also observed in the elevated plus-maze representing an environment which differed in its spatial design significantly from contexts 1 and 2. Contextual discrimination of C57BL/6N mice was enhanced after extinction of the generalized fear. Strain studies employing C57BL/6J and Balb/c mice in addition to the C57BL/6N strain revealed that Balb/c and C57BL/6J mice acquired significantly weaker conditioned fear and generalized significantly less than C57BL/6N mice. It was concluded that the intensities of the context-specific and generalized fear responses were interlinked in a strain-specific manner.

Animals↗