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Previously, we observed cortisol induced enhancement of neural fear acquisition in women. Yet, less is known about cortisol effects on neural fear extinction. Via differential fear conditioning, we explored cortisol effects on acquisition and extinction. Twenty contingency aware women taking monophasic oral contraceptives were included; 10 received placebo, 10 cortisol before conditioning. Group differences emerged in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), hippocampus, and--as trend--in insula and thalamus during acquisition and in hippocampus, thalamus, and--as trend--in amygdala, insula, and ACC during extinction. During acquisition group differences were due to higher responses to the CS+ than to the CS- in the cortisol group. Notably, during extinction, group differences were due to higher responses to the CS- than to the CS+ in this group. Thus, cortisol induced a fear acquisition and extinction specific enhanced neural differentiation.
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INTRODUCTION: Learning processes like classical conditioning are involved in mediating sexual behavior. Yet, the neural bases underlying these processes have not been investigated so far. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore neural activations of classical conditioning of sexual arousal with respect to sex differences and contingency awareness. METHODS: In the acquisition phase, a geometric figure (CS+) was presented for 8 seconds and was followed by highly sexual arousing pictures (UCS), whereas another figure (CS-) predicted neutral pictures. Ratings and contingency awareness were assessed after the entire conditioning procedure. Forty subjects (20 females) were classified into one of four groups according to their sex and the development of contingency awareness (aware females, aware males, unaware females, and unaware males). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), skin conductance responses (SCRs), and subjective ratings. RESULTS: fMRI analysis showed two effects (awareness and sex) when comparing CS+ with CS-: (i) aware compared to unaware subjects showed enhanced differentiation (e.g., ventral striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, occipital cortex); and (ii) men showed increased activity compared to women in the amygdala, thalamus, and brainstem. CS+ and CS- ratings differed in aware subjects only. However, no conditioned SCRs occurred in any group. CONCLUSION: The increased activity in men is in line with theories postulating that men are generally more prone to conditioning of sexual arousal. Further, contingency awareness seems to be an important factor in appetitive learning processes, which facilitates conditioning processes.
Erkunden
Team
- Vaitl (2)
Eintragsart
Sprache
- Englisch (2)
Thema
- Awareness/physiology
- Adult (1)
- Amygdala/physiology (1)
- Analysis of Variance (1)
- Arousal/*physiology (1)
- Association Learning/*physiology (1)
- Basal Ganglia/physiology (1)
- Brain Mapping (1)
- Brain/*physiology (1)
- Brain Stem/physiology (1)
- Conditioning, Classical/*physiology (1)
- Conditioning, Classical/physiology (1)
- Double-Blind Method (1)
- Electric Stimulation (1)
- Extinction, Psychological/*physiology (1)
- Fear/*physiology (1)
- Female (2)
- Frontal Lobe/physiology (1)
- Galvanic Skin Response (1)
- Gyrus Cinguli/physiology (1)
- Humans (2)
- Hydrocortisone/analysis/*metabolism (1)
- Image Processing, Computer-Assisted (1)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (2)
- Male (1)
- Occipital Lobe/physiology (1)
- Photic Stimulation (1)
- Saliva/chemistry (1)
- Sex Characteristics (1)
- Sexual Behavior/*physiology (1)
- Surveys and Questionnaires (1)
- Thalamus/physiology (1)
- Young Adult (1)