Reinstatement of Extinguished Conditioned Responses and Negative Stimulus Valence as a Pathway to Return of Fear in Humans
Abstract
The present study investigated reinstatement of conditioned responses in humans by using a differential Pavlovian conditioning procedure. Evidence for reinstatement was established in a direct (fear rating) and in an indirect measure (secondary reaction time task) of conditioning. Moreover, the amount of reinstatement in the secondary reaction time task was significantly correlated with the difference in valence between the conditioned stimulus (CS)+ and the CS-after extinction. These data provide clear evidence for reinstatement and for the role of negative stimulus valence in the return of conditioned responding after extinction.
Footnotes
-
↵2 For four participants, the CSs chosen during the stimulus-selection phase were not among the most neutral due to a procedural error. Two participants started acquisition with a difference in valence between the CS+ and CS-a in the direction that we would expect after acquisition. When these two participants are discarded from the analyses, the Moment × CS interaction remained highly significant, F(1,28) = 16.32, MSE = 7.11.
-
↵3 The amount of reinstatement in the secondary reaction time task was calculated as follows: Both for the last extinction block and the first test block, the reaction times for probes presented during the CS-a were subtracted from the reaction times during the CS+. Next, the extinction difference-score was subtracted from the test difference score to obtain an index for reinstatement. Positive differences are thus indicative for a greater difference in reaction times between the CS+ and the CS-a during the first test block than during the last extinction block, with slower reaction times during the CS+ than during the CS-a.
-
Article and publication are at http://www.learnmem.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/lm.78004.
-
- Accepted August 3, 2004.
- Received April 2, 2004.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
