Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-03T03:40:42.939Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Conditioned inhibition of fear-potentiated startle and skin conductance in humans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2001

CHRISTIAN GRILLON
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, USA Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, USA
REZVAN AMELI
Affiliation:
Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, USA Rezvan Ameli's current address: National Institute of Mental Health, Mood & Anxiety Disorder Program, Bethesda, MD 20892-0135, USA.
Get access

Abstract

Conditioned inhibition of classical conditioning was investigated with the startle reflex and the skin conductance response (SCR) in humans using a serial presentation of the conditioned inhibitor (X) and of the conditioned stimulus (CS). The unconditioned stimulus (US) was a shock. During conditioning, participants were presented with two different reinforced CS (A, B) and with X preceding A (noted X → A). During X → A, A was not reinforced with the US. During the summation test, B, X → B, and Y → B were presented (Y was a new stimulus that tested the specificity of the inhibitory properties of X). B was not reinforced during the summation test. A, B, X, and Y were lights of different colors. Participants were divided into a low and a high anxious group based on the TPQ (C.R. Cloninger, 1987). In the low anxious group, conditioned startle potentiation and SCR responses to A were inhibited when X preceded A (noted AXA). This differential responding to A and AXA emerged earlier with the SCR than with startle. During the summation test, the inhibitory properties of X did not transfer to B. In the high anxious group, there was only a differential SCR to A and AXA. X did not inhibit startle potentiation to A.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2001 Society for Psychophysiological Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)