Journal
BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 120, Issue 5, Pages 995-1004Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.120.5.995
Keywords
human startle response; contingency awareness; discrimination learning; fear inhibition
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Funding
- NIMH NIH HHS [R37 MH047840, F32 MH070129, R37 MH47840, 1F32 MH070129-01A2, R24 MH067314, 1R24MH067314-01A1] Funding Source: Medline
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Fear-potentiated startle is defined as an increase in the magnitude of the startle reflex in the presence of a stimulus that was previously paired with an aversive event. It has been proposed that a subject's awareness of the contingencies in the experiment may affect fear-potentiated startle. The authors adapted a conditional discrimination procedure (AX+/BX-), previously validated in animals, to a human fear-potentiated startle paradigm in 50 healthy volunteers. This paradigm allows for an assessment of fear-potentiated startle during threat conditions as well as inhibition of fear-potentiated startle during safety conditions. A response keypad was used to assess contingency awareness on a trial-by-trial basis. Both aware and unaware subjects showed fear-potentiated startle. However, awareness was related to stimulus discrimination and fear inhibition.
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