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  • This study investigates the effect of awareness of stimulus contingencies on BOLD responses within the amygdala, the orbitofrontal, and the occipital cortex, and on differential skin conductance responses (SCRs) during fear conditioning. Of two geometric figures, the paired conditioned stimulus (CS+) predicted an electrical stimulus (unconditioned stimulus = UCS), whereas the unpaired conditioned stimulus (CS-) was not followed by the UCS. Awareness of stimulus contingencies was manipulated experimentally, creating an aware and an unaware group: a distracter figure and a working memory task were introduced to conceal the stimulus contingencies of the conditioning paradigm, hence preventing contingency detection in the unaware group. The aware group was informed beforehand about the relation between CS+, CS-, and UCS. Differential SCRs were only obtained in the aware but not in the unaware group. Conversely, we observed enhanced responses of the amygdala, the orbitofrontal, and the occipital cortex to the CS+ in the unaware group only. Thus, we found a dissociation of SCR differentiation and the activation of a neural fear network depending on the presence or absence of awareness. These results support a model of fear conditioning that distinguishes between a more cognitive level of learning, reflected in contingency awareness and differential SCRs, and the awareness independent activation of a fear network.

  • Two correlates of outcome processing in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) have been proposed in the literature: One hypothesis suggests that the lateral/medial division relates to representation of outcome valence (negative vs. positive), and the other suggests that the medial OFC maintains steady stimulus-outcome associations, whereas the lateral OFC represents changing (unsteady) outcomes to prepare for response shifts. These two hypotheses were contrasted by comparing the original with the inverted version of the Iowa Gambling Task in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment. Results showed (1) that (caudo) lateral OFC was indeed sensitive to the steadiness of the outcomes and not merely to outcome valence and (2) that the original and the inverted tasks, although both designed to measure sensitivity for future outcomes, were not equivalent as they enacted different behaviors and brain activation patterns. Results are interpreted in terms of Kahneman and Tversky's prospect theory suggesting that cognitions and decisions are biased differentially when probabilistic future rewards are weighed against consistent punishments relative to the opposite scenario [Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. Choices, values, and frames. American Psychologist, 39, 341-350, 1984]. Specialized processing of unsteady rewards (involving caudolateral OFC) may have developed during evolution in support of goal-related thinking, prospective planning, and problem solving.

Last update from database: 11.08.25, 05:41 (UTC)