How fear is learned, held and unlearned.
Everything below was reached through this subject, not through the words you typed. Every row states how it was reached.
Verses named for this subject by hand come first. The rest are found by the subject’s own Arabic and English senses and are shown as lexical matches, not as anchors anyone has confirmed.
لَا يَحۡزُنُهُمُ ٱلۡفَزَعُ ٱلۡأَكۡبَرُ وَتَتَلَقَّىٰهُمُ ٱلۡمَلَٰٓئِكَةُ هَٰذَا يَوۡمُكُمُ ٱلَّذِي كُنتُمۡ تُوعَدُونَ
They will have no fear of the great Terror: the angels will receive them with the words, ‘This is the Day you were promised!’
مِن شَرِّ ٱلۡوَسۡوَاسِ ٱلۡخَنَّاسِ
against the harm of the slinking whisperer––
وَيَوۡمَ يُنفَخُ فِي ٱلصُّورِ فَفَزِعَ مَن فِي ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَن فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ إِلَّا مَن شَآءَ ٱللَّهُۚ وَكُلٌّ أَتَوۡهُ دَٰخِرِينَ
On the Day the Trumpet sounds, everyone in heaven and on earth will be terrified- except such as God wills- and all will come to Him in utter humility
مَن جَآءَ بِٱلۡحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُۥ خَيۡرࣱ مِّنۡهَا وَهُم مِّن فَزَعࣲ يَوۡمَئِذٍ ءَامِنُونَ
whoever comes with a good deed will be rewarded with something better, and be secure from the terrors of that Day
وَلَا تَنفَعُ ٱلشَّفَٰعَةُ عِندَهُۥٓ إِلَّا لِمَنۡ أَذِنَ لَهُۥۚ حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَا فُزِّعَ عَن قُلُوبِهِمۡ قَالُواْ مَاذَا قَالَ رَبُّكُمۡۖ قَالُواْ ٱلۡحَقَّۖ وَهُوَ ٱلۡعَلِيُّ ٱلۡكَبِيرُ
Intercession will not work with Him, except by those to whom He gives permission.’ They will be asked, after the terror is lifted from their hearts [on the Day of Judgement], ‘What did your Lord speak?’ and they will answer, ‘The Truth. He is the Most High, the Most Great.’
وَلَوۡ تَرَىٰٓ إِذۡ فَزِعُواْ فَلَا فَوۡتَ وَأُخِذُواْ مِن مَّكَانࣲ قَرِيبࣲ
[Prophet], if you could only see their terror! There will be no escape when they are seized from a nearby place
Commentary on the verses above, at most two editions per verse.
The greatest terror shall not make them sorrow, and the angels will receive them: “This is the day that you were promised.” On the Day of Resurrection in the greatest gathering place and most tremendous courtyard, they will not hear from the angels the call “no good news” [25:22], nor the address, “Stand apart today, O offenders!” [36:59], nor the harsh call, “Slink into it, and do not talk to Me!” [23:108]. They will not hear the call of separation's pain, nor will they despair of mercy. Rather the angels will keep on coming, company after company, and they will give the good news: “This is the day that you were promised,” that is, “This is the day in which you have the promised reward.” Among them are those who will be received by the angels, and among them are those who will be addressed and made known by the King. God will say, “My servants, have you been yearning for Me?” He will sa
The Supreme Terror — which is that a servant be ordered off to the Fire shall not grieve them and the angels shall receive them upon their exiting from their graves saying to them ‘This is your day the one which you were promised’ during the life of the world.
from the evil of the slinking whisperer Satan — he is referred to by the name of the action waswasa on account of his repeated engaging in it — who slinks away and recoils from the heart whenever God is mentioned
Say: "I seek refuge with the Lord of An-Nas, (1)"The King of An-Nas, (2)"The God of An-Nas, (3)"From the evil of the whisperer who withdraws. (4)"Who whispers in the breasts of An-Nas. (5)"Of Jinn and An-Nas. (6) These are three attributes from the attributes of the Lord, the Mighty and Majestic. They are lordship, sovereignty and divinity. Thus, He is the Lord of everything, the King of everything and the God of everything. All things are created by Him, owned by Him, and subservient to Him. Therefore, He commands whoever is seeking protection to seek refuge with the One Who has these attributes from the evil of the whisperer who withdraws. This (the whisperer) is the devil that is assigned to man. For verily, there is not any of the Children of Adam except that he has a companion that beautifies wicked deeds for him. This devil will go to any lengths to confuse and confound him. The o
And the day when the Trumpet will be blown the Horn will be blown the First Blast by the archangel Isrāfīl and whoever is in the heavens and the earth will be terrified that is a fright that brings about death — as is stated in another verse and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth will swoon Q. 3968 the past tense fazi‘a is used to express the fact that such events will have occurred; except whom God will namely Gabriel Michael Isrāfīl and the Angel of Death. According to Ibn ‘Abbās however these excepted individuals are the martyrs who are described as living with their Lord provided for by Him’ Q. 3169. And all kullun the nunation compensates for the missing genitive annexation in other words and every one of them after being brought back to life on the Day of Resurrection will come to Him read in the form of the verb atawhu or the active participle ātūhu in utter hum
And (remember) the Day on which the Trumpet (Şūr) will be blown – and all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth, will be terrified except him whom Allah wills. And all shall come to Him, humbled (87)And you will see the mountains and think them solid, but they shall pass away as the passing away of the clouds. The work of Allah, Who perfected all things, verily, He is well-acquainted with what you do (88)Whoever brings a good deed, will have better than its worth; and they will be safe from the terror on that Day (89)And whoever brings an evil deed, they will be cast down on their faces in the Fire. (And it will be said to them) "Are you being recompensed anything except what you used to do? (90) The Terrors of the Day of Resurrection, the Rewards for Good Deeds and the Punishments for Evil Deeds Allah tells us about the terrors of the Day when the Şūr will be blown. The
Arabic originals, reached through the subject’s Arabic senses. Interpretive sources, never proof of a ruling.
وجملة أدب المريض حسن الصبر وقلة الشكوى والضجر والفزع إلى الدعاء والتوكل بعد الدواء على خالق الدواء
وجملة آداب المريض: حسن الصبر، وقلة الشكوى والتضجر، والفزع إلى #
أي لذلك الماء الذي غمر الأرض ومن عليها فصل وأما الوهل فهو بتحريك الهاء وأصله الفزع والروع يقال وهل يوهل وهو وهل ومستوهل قال القطامي يصف إبلا
وأما اللوعة فقال في الصحاح لوعة الحب حرقته وقد لاعه الحب يلوعه والتاع فؤاده أي احترق من الشوق ومنه قولهم أتان لاعة الفؤاد إلى جحشها قال الأصمعي أي لائعة الفؤاد وهي التي كأنها ولهى من الفزع فصل
| الفصل الرابع في اذكار الفزع في النوم والفكر
وقال أبو هريرة وابن عباس رضي الله عنهم خطب رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قبل وفاته فقال في خطبته ومن قدر على امرأة أو جارية حراما فتركها مخافة من الله أمنه الله يوم الفزع الأكبر وحرمه على النار وأدخله الجنة
Peer-reviewed work held with its DOI and abstract, labelled with the study design its publication types report. None of it has been read or assessed, so nothing here may be cited as showing anything. Retracted work is held for the record but never listed; a review that a later version replaced is listed under its replacement and marked.
Extending animal models of fear conditioning to humans.: A goal of fear and anxiety research is to understand how to treat the potentially devastating effects of anxiety disorders in humans. Much of this research utilizes classical fear conditioning, a simple paradigm that has been extensively investigated in animals, helping outline a brain circuitry thought to be responsible for the acquisition, expression and extinction of fear. The findings from non-human animal research have more recently been substantiated and extended in humans, using neuropsyc
Fear extinction in rats: implications for human brain imaging and anxiety disorders.: Fear extinction is the decrease in conditioned fear responses that normally occurs when a conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly presented in the absence of the aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). Extinction does not erase the initial CS-US association, but is thought to form a new memory. After extinction training, extinction memory competes with conditioning memory for control of fear expression. Deficits in fear extinction are thought to contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Presence and acquired origin of reduced recall for fear extinction in PTSD: results of a twin study.: Recall of fear extinction, which is thought to aid in recovery from a psychologically traumatic event, is hypothesized to be deficient in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but this has not yet been demonstrated in the laboratory, nor has its origin been investigated. To address these two issues, 14 pairs of monozygotic twins discordant for combat exposure, in 7 of which the combat-exposed twin had PTSD, underwent a two-day fear conditioning and extinction procedure. On Day 1, subjects viewe
The effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on conditioned fear extinction in humans.: A critical component of the treatment for anxiety disorders is the extinction of fear via repeated exposure to the feared stimulus. This process is strongly dependent on successful memory formation and consolidation. Stimulation of the vagus nerve enhances memory formation in both animals and humans. The objective of this study was to assess whether transcutaneous stimulation of the vagus nerve (tVNS) can accelerate extinction memory formation and retention in fear conditioned humans. To assess
Neural signatures of conditioning, extinction learning, and extinction recall in posttraumatic stress disorder: a meta-analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies.: Background: Establishing neurobiological markers of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is essential to aid in diagnosis and treatment development. Fear processing deficits are central to PTSD, and their neural signatures may be used as such markers. Methods: Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of seven Pavlovian fear conditioning fMRI studies comparing 156 patients with PTSD and 148 trauma-exposed healthy controls (TEHC) using seed-based d-mapping, to contrast neural correlates of experimental
Role of Human Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Learning and Recall of Enhanced Extinction.: Standard fear extinction relies on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to form a new memory given the omission of threat. Using fMRI in humans, we investigated whether replacing threat with novel neutral outcomes (instead of just omitting threat) facilitates extinction by engaging the vmPFC more effectively than standard extinction. Computational modeling of associability (indexing surprise strength and dynamically modulating learning rates) characterized skin conductance responses and vm
Long story short: the serotonin transporter in emotion regulation and social cognition.
The gene encoding the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) contains a regulatory variation that has been associated with anxiety-related traits and susceptibility for depression. Here we highlight recent discoveries related to allelic variation of 5-HTT function with respect to emotion regulation and social behavior, drawing from an interdisciplinary perspective of behavioral genetics and cognitive neuroscience. Following a reductionistic path that leads from gene-behavior association studies to neuroimaging and epigenetic studies, we compare two models of 5-HTT-dependent modulation of brain activity and discuss the role of life stress experience in modifying 5-HTT function in the brain. Integration of these findings suggests that the impact of the 5-HTT gene on behavior is much broader than is commonly appreciated and may have a role in social cognition.
matched on Amygdala (mesh)
Retrieval of emotional memories.
Long-term memories are influenced by the emotion experienced during learning as well as by the emotion experienced during memory retrieval. The present article reviews the literature addressing the effects of emotion on retrieval, focusing on the cognitive and neurological mechanisms that have been revealed. The reviewed research suggests that the amygdala, in combination with the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, plays an important role in the retrieval of memories for emotional events. The neural regions necessary for online emotional processing also influence emotional memory retrieval, perhaps through the reexperience of emotion during the retrieval process.
matched on Amygdala (mesh)
The neurobiological basis of temperament: towards a better understanding of psychopathology.
The ability to characterise psychopathologies on the basis of their underlying neurobiology is critical in improving our understanding of disorder etiology and making more effective diagnostic and treatment decisions. Given the well-documented relationship between temperament (i.e. core personality traits) and psychopathology, research investigating the neurobiological substrates that underlie temperament is potentially key to our understanding of the biological basis of mental disorder. We present evidence that specific areas of the prefrontal cortex (including the dorsolateral prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and orbitofrontal cortices) and limbic structures (including the amygdala, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens) are key regions associated with three fundamental dimensions of temperament: Negative Affect, Positive Affect, and Constraint. Proposed relationships are based on two types…
matched on Amygdala (mesh)
Social brain dysfunctions in schizophrenia: a review of neuroimaging studies.
Several studies have indicated that schizophrenic patients show impaired performance in various aspects of social cognition, including theory of mind, emotion processing, and agency judgments. Neuroimaging studies that have compared patients and healthy subjects during such mental activity indicate an abnormal hemodynamic response in the medial prefrontal cortex, the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, the inferior parietal lobe, i.e., a set of regions known to be critically involved in social cognition. This paper addresses a number of issues raised by schizophrenia research into theory of mind, emotion perception and self-agency with regards to the neural systems that mediate social cognition. In healthy subjects, typical brain patterns are associated with theory of mind, emotion perception and self-agency; some activated clusters overlap, while others are distinct. For instance, activati…
matched on Amygdala (mesh)
Escitalopram reversed the traumatic stress-induced depressed and anxiety-like symptoms but not the deficits of fear memory.
Rationale: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-induced mental disorder characterised by fear extinction dysfunction in which fear circuit monoamines are possibly associated. PTSD often coexists with depressive/anxiety symptoms, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are recommended to treat PTSD. However, therapeutic mechanisms of SSRIs underlying the PTSD fear symptoms remain unclear. Objectives: Using a rodent PTSD model, we examined the effects of early SSRI intervention in mood and fear dysfunctions with associated changes of monoamines within the fear circuit areas. Methods: A 14-day escitalopram (ESC) regimen (5 mg/kg/day) was undertaken in two separate experiments in rats which previously received a protocol of single prolonged stress (SPS). In experiment 1, sucrose preference and elevated T-maze were used to index anhedonia depression and avoidance/escap…
matched on Fear (mesh), fear conditioning (text), fear extinction (text)
Fear learning circuitry is biased toward generalization of fear associations in posttraumatic stress disorder.
Fear conditioning is an established model for investigating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, symptom triggers may vaguely resemble the initial traumatic event, differing on a variety of sensory and affective dimensions. We extended the fear-conditioning model to assess generalization of conditioned fear on fear processing neurocircuitry in PTSD. Military veterans (n=67) consisting of PTSD (n=32) and trauma-exposed comparison (n=35) groups underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during fear conditioning to a low fear-expressing face while a neutral face was explicitly unreinforced. Stimuli that varied along a neutral-to-fearful continuum were presented before conditioning to assess baseline responses, and after conditioning to assess experience-dependent changes in neural activity. Compared with trauma-exposed controls, PTSD patients exhibited greater post-study memo…
matched on Fear (mesh), fear conditioning (text), safety learning (text)
Anxiety and the Neurobiology of Temporally Uncertain Threat Anticipation.
When extreme, anxiety-a state of distress and arousal prototypically evoked by uncertain danger-can be debilitating. Uncertain anticipation is a shared feature of situations that elicit signs and symptoms of anxiety across psychiatric disorders, species, and assays. Despite the profound significance of anxiety for human health and wellbeing, the neurobiology of uncertain-threat anticipation remains unsettled. Leveraging a paradigm adapted from animal research and optimized for fMRI signal decomposition, we examined the neural circuits engaged during the anticipation of temporally uncertain and certain threat in 99 men and women. Results revealed that the neural systems recruited by uncertain and certain threat anticipation are anatomically colocalized in frontocortical regions, extended amygdala, and periaqueductal gray. Comparison of the threat conditions demonstrated that this circuitr…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
Fear in dreams and in wakefulness: Evidence for day/night affective homeostasis.
Recent neuroscientific theories have proposed that emotions experienced in dreams contribute to the resolution of emotional distress and preparation for future affective reactions. We addressed one emerging prediction, namely that experiencing fear in dreams is associated with more adapted responses to threatening signals during wakefulness. Using a stepwise approach across two studies, we identified brain regions activated when experiencing fear in dreams and showed that frightening dreams modulated the response of these same regions to threatening stimuli during wakefulness. Specifically, in Study 1, we performed serial awakenings in 18 participants recorded throughout the night with high-density electroencephalography (EEG) and asked them whether they experienced any fear in their dreams. Insula and midcingulate cortex activity increased for dreams containing fear. In Study 2, we test…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
Amygdala-Midbrain Connections Modulate Appetitive and Aversive Learning.
The central amygdala (CeA) orchestrates adaptive responses to emotional events. While CeA substrates for defensive behaviors have been studied extensively, CeA circuits for appetitive behaviors and their relationship to threat-responsive circuits remain poorly defined. Here, we demonstrate that the CeA sends robust inhibitory projections to the lateral substantia nigra (SNL) that contribute to appetitive and aversive learning in mice. CeA→SNL neural responses to appetitive and aversive stimuli were modulated by expectation and magnitude consistent with a population-level salience signal, which was required for Pavlovian conditioned reward-seeking and defensive behaviors. CeA→SNL terminal activation elicited reinforcement when linked to voluntary actions but failed to support Pavlovian associations that rely on incentive value signals. Consistent with a disinhibitory mechanism, CeA inputs…
matched on Conditioning, Classical (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Identifying the presence and timing of discrete mood states prior to therapy.
The present study tested a novel, person-specific method for identifying discrete mood profiles from time-series data, and examined the degree to which these profiles could be predicted by lagged mood and anxiety variables and time-based variables, including trends (linear, quadratic, cubic), cycles (12-hr, 24-hr, and 7-day), day of the week, and time of day. We analyzed ambulatory data from 45 individuals with mood and anxiety disorders prior to therapy. Data were collected four-times-daily for at least 30 days. Latent profile analysis was applied person-by-person to discretize each individual's continuous multivariate time series of rumination, worry, fear, anger, irritability, anhedonia, hopelessness, depressed mood, and avoidance. That is, each time point was classified according to its unique blend of emotional states, and latent classes representing discrete mood profiles were iden…
matched on Fear (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Psychometric Evaluation of the Optimal Screening for Prediction of Referral and Outcome Yellow Flag (OSPRO-YF) Tool: Factor Structure, Reliability, and Validity.
Psychological characteristics consistently predict clinical outcomes for musculoskeletal pain conditions. The Optimal Screening for Prediction of Referral and Outcome Yellow Flag (OSPRO-YF) tool assesses negative mood, fear-avoidance, and positive affect/coping. Psychometric testing of the tool is needed to guide clinical use. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to determine the OSPRO-YF factor structure (17- and 10-item versions) and test factor reliability and concurrent validity. Data from 2 musculoskeletal pain cohorts (n1 = 428; n2 = 440) were used. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified the factor structure in the first cohort; a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated the factor structure in the second cohort. EFA yielded 4 factors for the 17-item version (catastrophizing, positive coping, negative mood, fear-avoidance) and 3 factors for the 10-item version (n…
matched on Fear (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Divergent medial amygdala projections regulate approach-avoidance conflict behavior.
Avoidance of innate threats is often in conflict with motivations to engage in exploratory approach behavior. The neural pathways that mediate this approach-avoidance conflict are not well resolved. Here we isolated a population of dopamine D1 receptor (D1R)-expressing neurons within the posteroventral region of the medial amygdala (MeApv) in mice that are activated either during approach or during avoidance of an innate threat stimulus. Distinct subpopulations of MeApv-D1R neurons differentially innervate the ventromedial hypothalamus and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and these projections have opposing effects on investigation or avoidance of threatening stimuli. These projections are potently modulated through opposite actions of D1R signaling that bias approach behavior. These data demonstrate divergent pathways in the MeApv that can be differentially weighted toward explorati…
matched on Fear (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Explicit and Ambiguous Threat Processing: Functionally Dissociable Roles of the Amygdala and Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis.
Highly influential models have proposed that responses to different types of threat are mediated by partially segregated neural systems, with the amygdala underlying phasic responses to explicit threat (fear) and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) mediating sustained responses to ambiguous threat (anxiety). However, newer models have suggested similar recruitment of both regions across a wide spectrum of threat. Therefore, to empirically test these models and further elucidate the activation profiles and connectivity patterns of the amygdala and the BNST during threat processing, 20 participants were scanned using high-resolution fMRI (1.5 mm3). Using fearful faces and human screams as aversive stimuli, two threat conditions were created: Explicit Threat in which threats were certain and predictable (fear) and Ambiguous Threat in which threats were uncertain and unpredictable…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
Attenuating Neural Threat Expression with Imagination.
Imagination is an internal simulation of real-life events and a common treatment tool for anxiety disorders; however, the neural processes by which imagination exerts behavioral control are unclear. This investigation tests whether and how imagined exposures to a threatening stimulus, conditioned in the real world, influence neural and physiological manifestations of threat. We found that imagined and real extinction are equally effective in the reduction of threat-related neural patterns and physiological responses elicited upon re-exposure to real-world threatening cues. Network connectivity during the extinction phase showed that imagined, like real, extinction engaged the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) as a central hub. vmPFC, primary auditory cortex, and amygdala activation during imagined and real extinction were predictive of individual differences in extinction success. T…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
Association of Brain Reward Learning Response With Harm Avoidance, Weight Gain, and Hypothalamic Effective Connectivity in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa.
Importance: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with adolescent onset, severe low body weight, and high mortality as well as high harm avoidance. The brain reward system could have an important role in the perplexing drive for thinness and food avoidance in AN. Objective: To test whether brain reward learning response to taste in adolescent AN is altered and associated with treatment response, striatal-hypothalamic connectivity, and elevated harm avoidance. Design, setting, and participants: In this cross-sectional multimodal brain imaging study, adolescents and young adults with AN were matched with healthy controls at a university brain imaging facility and eating disorder treatment program. During a sucrose taste classical conditioning paradigm, violations of learned associations between conditioned visual and unconditioned taste stimuli evoked the dopamine-related prediction error (P…
matched on Conditioning, Classical (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Prospective Investigation of the Contrast Avoidance Model of Generalized Anxiety and Worry.
The factors that maintain generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms and worry over time are not entirely clear. The Contrast Avoidance Model (CAM) postulates that individuals at risk for pathological worry and GAD symptoms uniquely fear emotional shifts from neutral or positive emotions into negative emotional states, and consequently use worry to maintain negative emotion in order to avoid shifts or blunt the effect of negative contrasts. This model has received support in laboratory experiments, but has not been investigated prospectively in the naturalistic context of daily life. The present study tested the CAM in a longitudinal experience sampling study with a subclinical sample. Participants selected to represent a broad range of symptoms (N = 92) completed baseline measures of GAD and depression symptoms, and eight weekly assessments of worry, experiences of negative emotional c…
matched on Fear (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Within-subject neural reactivity to reward and threat is inverted in young adolescents.
Background: As children mature, they become increasingly independent and less reliant on caregiver support. Changes in brain systems are likely to stimulate and guide this process. One mechanistic hypothesis suggests that changes in neural systems that process reward and threat support the increase in exploratory behavior observed in the transition to adolescence. This study examines the basic tenets of this hypothesis by performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during well-established reward and threat processing tasks in 40 children and adolescents, aged 9-15 years. Method: fMRI responses in the striatum and amygdala are fit to a model predicting that striatal reward and amygdala threat-responses will be unrelated in younger participants (aged 9-12 years), while older participants (aged 13-15 years) will differentially engage these structures. Results: Our data are consi…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
Active avoidance and attentive freezing in the face of approaching threat.
Defensive behaviors in animals and humans vary dynamically with increasing proximity of a threat and depending upon the behavioral repertoire at hand. The current study investigated physiological and behavioral adjustments and associated brain activation when participants were exposed to dynamically approaching threat that was either inevitable or could be avoided by motor action. When the approaching threat was inevitable, attentive freezing was observed as indicated by fear bradycardia, startle potentiation, and a dynamic increase in activation of the anterior insula and the periaqueductal grey. In preparation for active avoidance a switch in defensive behavior was observed characterized by startle inhibition and heart rate acceleration along with potentiated activation of the amygdala and the periaqueductal grey. Importantly, the modulation of defensive behavior according to threat im…
matched on Fear (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Intentions matter: Avoidance intentions regulate anxiety via outcome expectancy.
Intentions prospectively correlate with behaviour (e.g., Ajzen, 1991) but there is little research on whether they play a role in regulating emotion. Two experiments investigated whether avoidance intentions, mediated by expectancy, play a role in reducing anxiety. In Experiment 1, participants performed either an instrumental avoidance response that cancelled the shock signalled by a Pavlovian stimulus; a control response that had no effect on shock; or no response. Prior to this, they indicated their intention to respond or not respond on a form. Both shock expectancy and skin conductance level (SCL) were significantly lower on trials in which an avoidance response was intended compared to not intended, relative to control trials. Experiment 2 replicated these results when intention was retrospectively reported at the end of each trial, arguing against the possibility that the behaviou…
matched on Conditioning, Classical (mesh), Avoidance Learning (mesh)
Frontolimbic functioning during threat-related attention: Relations to early behavioral inhibition and anxiety in children.
Children with behavioral inhibition (BI), a temperament characterized by biologically-based hyper-vigilance to novelty, display threat-related attention biases (AB) that shape developmental trajectories of risk for anxiety. Here we explore the relations between BI, neural function, and anxiety. Fifty-six 9-12-year-olds (23 behaviorally inhibited) performed the dot-probe task while undergoing fMRI. AB scores were not associated with BI group or parent-rated anxiety symptoms. Trials requiring attention orienting away from threat engaged an executive and threat-attention network (dlPFC, vlPFC, mPFC, and amygdala). Within that network, behaviorally inhibited children showed greater activation in the right dlPFC. Heightened dlPFC activation related to increased anxiety, and BI levels accounted for the direct relation between dlPFC activation and anxiety. Behaviorally inhibited children may en…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
How Human Amygdala and Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis May Drive Distinct Defensive Responses.
The ability to adaptively regulate responses to the proximity of potential danger is critical to survival and imbalance in this system may contribute to psychopathology. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is implicated in defensive responding during uncertain threat anticipation whereas the amygdala may drive responding upon more acute danger. This functional dissociation between the BNST and amygdala is however controversial, and human evidence scarce. Here we used data from two independent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies [n = 108 males and n = 70 (45 females)] to probe how coordination between the BNST and amygdala may regulate responses during shock anticipation and actual shock confrontation. In a subset of participants from Sample 2 (n = 48) we demonstrate that anticipation and confrontation evoke bradycardic and tachycardic responses, respectively. Further…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
A Central Amygdala CRF Circuit Facilitates Learning about Weak Threats.
Fear is a graded central motive state ranging from mild to intense. As threat intensity increases, fear transitions from discriminative to generalized. The circuit mechanisms that process threats of different intensity are not well resolved. Here, we isolate a unique population of locally projecting neurons in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) that produce the neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). CRF-producing neurons and CRF in the CeA are required for discriminative fear, but both are dispensable for generalized fear at high US intensities. Consistent with a role in discriminative fear, CRF neurons undergo plasticity following threat conditioning and selectively respond to threat-predictive cues. We further show that excitability of genetically isolated CRF-receptive (CRFR1) neurons in the CeA is potently enhanced by CRF and that CRFR1 signaling in the CeA is crit…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
Phosphoproteomic Analysis Reveals a Novel Mechanism of CaMKIIα Regulation Inversely Induced by Cocaine Memory Extinction versus Reconsolidation.
Unlabelled: Successful addiction treatment depends on maintaining long-term abstinence, making relapse prevention an essential therapeutic goal. However, exposure to environmental cues associated with drug use often thwarts abstinence efforts by triggering drug using memories that drive craving and relapse. We sought to develop a dual approach for weakening cocaine memories through phosphoproteomic identification of targets regulated in opposite directions by memory extinction compared with reconsolidation in male Sprague-Dawley rats that had been trained to self-administer cocaine paired with an audiovisual cue. We discovered a novel, inversely regulated, memory-dependent phosphorylation event on calcium-calmodulin-dependent kinase II α (CaMKIIα) at serine (S)331. Correspondingly, extinction-associated S331 phosphorylation inhibited CaMKIIα activity. Intra-basolateral amygdala inhibitio…
matched on Extinction, Psychological (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
A fast pathway for fear in human amygdala.
A fast, subcortical pathway to the amygdala is thought to have evolved to enable rapid detection of threat. This pathway's existence is fundamental for understanding nonconscious emotional responses, but has been challenged as a result of a lack of evidence for short-latency fear-related responses in primate amygdala, including humans. We recorded human intracranial electrophysiological data and found fast amygdala responses, beginning 74-ms post-stimulus onset, to fearful, but not neutral or happy, facial expressions. These responses had considerably shorter latency than fear responses that we observed in visual cortex. Notably, fast amygdala responses were limited to low spatial frequency components of fearful faces, as predicted by magnocellular inputs to amygdala. Furthermore, fast amygdala responses were not evoked by photographs of arousing scenes, which is indicative of selective …
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)
The mixed serotonin receptor agonist psilocybin reduces threat-induced modulation of amygdala connectivity.
Stimulation of serotonergic neurotransmission by psilocybin has been shown to shift emotional biases away from negative towards positive stimuli. We have recently shown that reduced amygdala activity during threat processing might underlie psilocybin's effect on emotional processing. However, it is still not known whether psilocybin modulates bottom-up or top-down connectivity within the visual-limbic-prefrontal network underlying threat processing. We therefore analyzed our previous fMRI data using dynamic causal modeling and used Bayesian model selection to infer how psilocybin modulated effective connectivity within the visual-limbic-prefrontal network during threat processing. First, both placebo and psilocybin data were best explained by a model in which threat affect modulated bidirectional connections between the primary visual cortex, amygdala, and lateral prefrontal cortex. Seco…
matched on Fear (mesh), Amygdala (mesh)