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Ergebnisse 2 Einträge
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Aversive social learning experiences might play a significant role in the aetiology of social anxiety disorder. Therefore, we investigated emotional learning and unlearning processes in healthy humans using a social conditioning paradigm. Forty-nine healthy subjects participated in a 2-day fMRI differential conditioning protocol. Acquisition and extinction were conducted on Day 1 and extinction recall on Day 2. BOLD responses, ratings and skin conductance responses were collected. Our data indicate successful conditioning and extinction on the neural and subjective level. As a main result, we observed a positive correlation of social anxiety and conditioning responses on the subjective level (valence and fear) as well as on the neural level with significant CS(+)/CS(-) differentiation in the left amygdala and the left hippocampus. Further, significant CS(+)/CS(-) differentiation in the left amygdala was found during extinction and was associated with lower scores in social anxiety. During extinction recall, we found a tendentially negative correlation of social anxiety and CS(+)/CS(-) differentiation in the vmPFC. In sum, we were able to show that social anxiety is related to conditionability with socially threatening stimuli. This could point to an important aspect in the aetiology of social anxiety disorder.
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Neurofunctional mechanisms underlying cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) are still not clearly understood. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study focused on changes in brain activation as a result of one-session CBT in patients suffering from spider phobia. Twenty-six female spider phobics and 25 non-phobic subjects were presented with spider pictures, generally disgust-inducing, generally fear-inducing and affectively neutral scenes in an initial fMRI session. Afterwards, the patients were randomly assigned to either a therapy group (TG) or a waiting list group (WG). The scans were repeated one week after the treatment or after a one-week waiting period. Relative to the non-phobic participants, the patients displayed increased activation in the amygdala and the fusiform gyrus as well as decreased activation in the medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during the first exposure. The therapy effect consisted of increased medial OFC activity in the TG relative to the WG. Further, therapy-related reductions in experienced somatic anxiety symptoms were positively correlated with activation decreases in the amygdala and the insula. We conclude that successful treatment of spider phobia is primarily accompanied by functional changes of the medial OFC. This brain region is crucial for the self-regulation of emotions and the relearning of stimulus-reinforcement associations.
Erkunden
Team
Eintragsart
Sprache
- Englisch (2)
Thema
- Fear/psychology
- Adult (1)
- Amygdala/blood supply/*physiopathology (1)
- Amygdala/pathology (1)
- Animals (1)
- Avoidance Learning/physiology (1)
- Brain Mapping (1)
- Child, Preschool (1)
- *Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (1)
- Conditioning, Classical/*physiology (1)
- *Desensitization, Psychologic (1)
- Emotions/physiology (1)
- Extinction, Psychological (1)
- Female (2)
- Galvanic Skin Response (1)
- Humans (2)
- Image Processing, Computer-Assisted (2)
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (2)
- Male (1)
- Mental Recall (1)
- Oxygen/blood (1)
- Phobic Disorders/*pathology/psychology (1)
- Phobic Disorders/pathology/*psychology/*therapy (1)
- Photic Stimulation (1)
- Prefrontal Cortex/pathology (1)
- Psychiatric Status Rating Scales (1)
- *Social Behavior (1)
- Spiders (1)
- Statistics as Topic (1)
- Surveys and Questionnaires (1)