TY  - JOUR
A1  - Neueder, Dorothea
A1  - Andreatta, Marta
A1  - Pauli, Paul
T1  - Contextual fear conditioning and fear generalization in individuals with panic attacks
JF  - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
N2  - Context conditioning is characterized by unpredictable threat and its generalization may constitute risk factors for panic disorder (PD). Therefore, we examined differences between individuals with panic attacks (PA; N = 21) and healthy controls (HC, N = 22) in contextual learning and context generalization using a virtual reality (VR) paradigm. Successful context conditioning was indicated in both groups by higher arousal, anxiety and contingency ratings, and increased startle responses and skin conductance levels (SCLs) in an anxiety context (CTX+) where an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) occurred unpredictably vs. a safety context (CTX−). PA compared to HC exhibited increased differential responding to CTX+ vs. CTX− and overgeneralization of contextual anxiety on an evaluative verbal level, but not on a physiological level. We conclude that increased contextual conditioning and contextual generalization may constitute risk factors for PD or agoraphobia contributing to the characteristic avoidance of anxiety contexts and withdrawal to safety contexts and that evaluative cognitive process may play a major role.
KW  - contextual fear conditioning
KW  - anxiety generalization
KW  - startle response
KW  - panic disorder
KW  - virtual reality
Y1  - 2019
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-201318
VL  - 13
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Manish, Asthana
A1  - Nueckel, Katharina
A1  - Mühlberger, Andreas
A1  - Neueder, Dorothea
A1  - Polak, Thomas
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
A1  - Deckert, Jürgen
A1  - Herrmann, Martin J.
T1  - Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on consolidation of fear memory
JF  - Frontiers in Neuropsychiatric Imaging and Stimulation
N2  - It has been shown that applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) influences declarative memory processes. This study investigates the efficacy of tDCS on emotional memory consolidation, especially experimental fear conditioning. We applied an auditory fear-conditioning paradigm, in which two differently colored squares (blue and yellow) were presented as conditioned stimuli (CS) and an auditory stimulus as unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Sixty-nine participants were randomly assigned into three groups: anodal, cathodal, and sham stimulation. The participants of the two active groups (i.e., anodal and cathodal) received tDCS over the left DLPFC for 12 min after fear conditioning. The effect of fear conditioning and consolidation (24 h later) was measured by assessing the skin conductance response (SCR) to the CS. The results provide evidence that cathodal stimulation of the left DLPFC leads to an inhibitory effect on fear memory consolidation compared to anodal and sham stimulation, as indicated by decreased SCRs to CS+ presentation during extinction training at day 2. In conclusion, current work suggests that cathodal stimulation interferes with processes of fear memory consolidation.
KW  - transcranial direct current stimulation
KW  - dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
KW  - fear conditioning
KW  - fear memory consolidation
Y1  - 2013
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97294
ER  -