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In emotional learning tasks, sex differences, stress effects and an interaction of these two moderators have often been observed. The sex hormones estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4) vary over the menstrual cycle. We tested groups with different sex hormone status: 39 men, 30 women in the luteal phase (LU, high E2+P4) and 29 women taking oral contraceptives (OC, low E2+P4). They received either 30 mg cortisol or placebo prior to instructed differential fear conditioning consisting of neutral conditioned stimuli (CS) and an electrical stimulation (unconditioned stimulus; UCS). One figure (CS+) was paired with the UCS, the other figure (CS-) never. During extinction, no electrical stimulation was administered. Regarding fear acquisition, results showed higher skin conductance and higher brain responses to the CS+ compared to the CS- in several structures that were not modulated by cortisol or sex hormones. However, OC women exhibited higher CS+/CS- differentiations than men and LU women in the amygdala, thalamus, anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during extinction. The suppression of endogenous sex hormones by OC seems to alter neuronal correlates of extinction. The observation that extinction is influenced by the current sex hormone availability is relevant for future studies and might also be clinically important.
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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.
Erkunden
Team
- Vaitl (2)
Eintragsart
Sprache
- Englisch (2)
Thema
- Fear/*physiology
- Adolescent (1)
- Adult (2)
- Amygdala/physiology (1)
- Analysis of Variance (1)
- Association Learning/*physiology (1)
- Awareness/physiology (1)
- Brain Mapping (1)
- Brain/*physiology (1)
- Conditioning, Classical/*physiology (1)
- Conditioning, Psychological/*physiology (1)
- Contraceptives, Oral (1)
- Double-Blind Method (1)
- Electric Stimulation (1)
- Extinction, Psychological/*drug effects/physiology (1)
- Extinction, Psychological/*physiology (1)
- Female (2)
- Gonadal Steroid Hormones/*pharmacology (1)
- Humans (2)
- Hydrocortisone/analysis/*metabolism (1)
- Hydrocortisone/pharmacology (1)
- Image Processing, Computer-Assisted (1)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (1)
- Male (1)
- Photic Stimulation (1)
- Saliva/chemistry (1)
- Surveys and Questionnaires (1)
- Young Adult (1)