@article{ZilligPauliWieseretal.2023,
  author    = {Zillig, Anna-Lena and Pauli, Paul and Wieser, Matthias and Reicherts, Philipp},
  title     = {Better safe than sorry? - On the influence of learned safety on pain perception},
  series = {PloS One},
  volume    = {18},
  journal   = {PloS One},
  number    = {11},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0289047},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-349905},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {The experience of threat was found to result—mostly—in increased pain, however it is still unclear whether the exact opposite, namely the feeling of safety may lead to a reduction of pain. To test this hypothesis, we conducted two between-subject experiments (N = 94; N = 87), investigating whether learned safety relative to a neutral control condition can reduce pain, while threat should lead to increased pain compared to a neutral condition. Therefore, participants first underwent either threat or safety conditioning, before entering an identical test phase, where the previously conditioned threat or safety cue and a newly introduced visual cue were presented simultaneously with heat pain stimuli. Methodological changes were performed in experiment 2 to prevent safety extinction and to facilitate conditioning in the first place: We included additional verbal instructions, increased the maximum length of the ISI and raised CS-US contingency in the threat group from 50\% to 75\%. In addition to pain ratings and ratings of the visual cues (threat, safety, arousal, valence, and contingency), in both experiments, we collected heart rate and skin conductance. Analysis of the cue ratings during acquisition indicate successful threat and safety induction, however results of the test phase, when also heat pain was administered, demonstrate rapid safety extinction in both experiments. Results suggest rather small modulation of subjective and physiological pain responses following threat or safety cues relative to the neutral condition. However, exploratory analysis revealed reduced pain ratings in later trials of the experiment in the safety group compared to the threat group in both studies, suggesting different temporal dynamics for threat and safety learning and extinction, respectively. Perspective: The present results demonstrate the challenge to maintain safety in the presence of acute pain and suggest more research on the interaction of affective learning mechanism and pain processing.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WiemerRaunerStegmannetal.2021,
  author    = {Wiemer, Julian and Rauner, Milena M. and Stegmann, Yannik and Pauli, Paul},
  title     = {Reappraising fear: is up-regulation more efficient than down-regulation?},
  series = {Motivation and Emotion},
  volume    = {45},
  journal   = {Motivation and Emotion},
  number    = {2},
  issn      = {1573-6644},
  doi       = {10.1007/s11031-021-09871-9},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-269187},
  pages     = {221-234},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Catastrophizing thoughts may contribute to the development of anxiety, but functional emotion regulation may help to improve treatment. No study so far directly compared up- and down-regulation of fear by cognitive reappraisal. Here, healthy individuals took part in a cued fear experiment, in which multiple pictures of faces were paired twice with an unpleasant scream or presented as safety stimuli. Participants (N = 47) were asked (within-subjects) to down-regulate, to up-regulate and to maintain their natural emotional response. Valence and arousal ratings indicated successful up- and down-regulation of the emotional experience, while heart rate and pupil dilation increased during up-regulation, but showed no reduction in down-regulation. State and trait anxiety correlated with evaluations of safety but not threat stimuli, which supports the role of deficient safety learning in anxiety. Reappraisal did not modulate this effect. In conclusion, this study reveals evidence for up-regulation effects in fear, which might be even more efficient than down-regulation on a physiological level and highlights the importance of catastrophizing thoughts for the maintenance of fear and anxiety.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{StegmannAndreattaWieser2023,
  author    = {Stegmann, Yannik and Andreatta, Marta and Wieser, Matthias J.},
  title     = {The effect of inherently threatening contexts on visuocortical engagement to conditioned threat},
  series = {Psychophysiology},
  volume    = {60},
  journal   = {Psychophysiology},
  number    = {4},
  doi       = {10.1111/psyp.14208},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-312465},
  year      = {2023},
  abstract  = {Fear and anxiety are crucial for adaptive responding in life-threatening situations. Whereas fear is a phasic response to an acute threat accompanied by selective attention, anxiety is characterized by a sustained feeling of apprehension and hypervigilance during situations of potential threat. In the current literature, fear and anxiety are usually considered mutually exclusive, with partially separated neural underpinnings. However, there is accumulating evidence that challenges this distinction between fear and anxiety, and simultaneous activation of fear and anxiety networks has been reported. Therefore, the current study experimentally tested potential interactions between fear and anxiety. Fifty-two healthy participants completed a differential fear conditioning paradigm followed by a test phase in which the conditioned stimuli were presented in front of threatening or neutral contextual images. To capture defense system activation, we recorded subjective (threat, US-expectancy), physiological (skin conductance, heart rate) and visuocortical (steady-state visual evoked potentials) responses to the conditioned stimuli as a function of contextual threat. Results demonstrated successful fear conditioning in all measures. In addition, threat and US-expectancy ratings, cardiac deceleration, and visuocortical activity were enhanced for fear cues presented in threatening compared with neutral contexts. These results are in line with an additive or interactive rather than an exclusive model of fear and anxiety, indicating facilitated defensive behavior to imminent danger in situations of potential threat.},
  language  = {en}
}