Review
Neurosciences
Kyoung-Doo Hwang, Sang Jeong Kim, Yong-Seok Lee
Summary: The cerebellum plays a critical role in modulating fear memory network and prediction, with involvement at the cellular and synaptic levels. Understanding the contributions of distinct cerebellar structures to fear learning and memory may lead to more effective treatment strategies for fear-related affective disorders.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Mitjan Morr, Jeanine Noell, Daphne Sassin, Jule Daniels, Alexandra Philipsen, Benjamin Becker, Birgit Stoffel-Wagner, Rene Hurlemann, Dirk Scheele
Summary: Loneliness may contribute to vulnerability to intrusive memories after trauma in healthy men, with altered limbic processing of fear signals being a potential underlying mechanism. Lonely men showed more intrusions and altered amygdala activity, while loneliness did not have the same impact on women.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Goran Simic, Mladenka Tkalcic, Vana Vukic, Damir Mulc, Ena Spanic, Marina Sagud, Francisco E. Olucha-Bordonau, Mario Vuksic, Patrick R. Hof
Summary: Emotions are generated by activations of specific neuronal populations in the cerebral cortex, while feelings are conscious emotional experiences of these activations that contribute to enhancing neuronal networks mediating thoughts, language, and behavior. Contemporary theories of emotion highlight the central role of the amygdala as a subcortical emotional brain structure.
Article
Biology
Elise M. Cardinale, Justin Reber, Katherine O'Connell, Peter E. Turkeltaub, Daniel Tranel, Tony W. Buchanan, Abigail A. Marsh
Summary: The amygdala is crucial for social fear recognition, and damage to it may impair the ability to predict others' fear. This suggests that social fear recognition relies on shared internal representations, similar to social recognition of pain.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Kyuhyun Choi, Kyungjoon Park, Soonje Lee, Jee Hyun Yi, Changsu Woo, Shin Jung Kang, Ki Soon Shin
Summary: The lateral amygdala (LA) is a main sensory input site from the cortical and thalamic regions, which strongly projects to the basal amygdala (BA). Our study found that high-frequency stimulation ex vivo resulted in long-term potentiation (LTP) and enhanced neurotransmitter release at LA-BA synapses. Auditory fear conditioning also led to presynaptic facilitation at LA-BA synapses, with no changes in the AMPA/NMDA current ratio, suggesting the involvement of presynaptic mechanisms in fear conditioning.
BIOCHEMICAL AND BIOPHYSICAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Zhe Yu, Alexandre Kisner, Amy Bhatt, Abigail M. Polter, Paul J. Marvar
Summary: This study examined the role of angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT1R) neurons in the central amygdala (CeA) in fear and anxiety-related behavior using AT1R transgenic mice. It was found that AT1R+ neurons were localized to GABA expressing neurons in the CeL, and their deletion enhanced extinction learning. Furthermore, the application of angiotensin II increased inhibitory synaptic currents and decreased the excitability of CeL-AT1R+ neurons. These findings provide new insights into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying fear extinction.
Article
Cell Biology
Kyoung-Doo Hwang, Jinhee Baek, Hyun-Hee Ryu, Jaegeon Lee, Hyun Geun Shim, Sun Yong Kim, Sang Jeong, Yong-Seok Lee
Summary: This study identifies a population of neurons in the deep cerebellar nucleus (DCN) with monosynaptic glutamatergic projections to the lateral parabrachial nucleus (lPBN). Suppression of these DCN-lPBN neurons impairs auditory fear memory, while their activation leads to freezing behavior after auditory fear conditioning. Conditioning strengthens the synapses between DCN and lPBN, and following fear conditioning, the auditory cue activates lPBN neurons. Furthermore, activation of DCN-lPBN neuron can replace the auditory cue but not footshock in fear conditioning. These findings suggest that the DCN-lPBN circuit plays a role in modulating auditory fear conditioning.
Review
Neurosciences
Christine Stubbendorff, Carl W. Stevenson
Summary: Research has shown that dopamine plays a crucial role in regulating various contextual fear processes, although the related neurochemical mechanisms are still not fully understood. Understanding how dopamine regulates contextual fear can provide novel insights into the neurochemical modulation of neural circuit function underlying memory processing.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Nura W. Lingawi, Vincent Laurent, R. Frederick Westbrook, Nathan M. Holmes
Summary: Studies investigating second-order fear conditioning using complex stimuli such as contexts found that neuronal activity in the basolateral amygdala is essential for the acquisition and extinction of fear. The second-order fear can be reduced through extinction of its first-order conditioned stimulus associate, but it can be restored when fear of the first-order stimulus spontaneously recovers or is reconditioned.
NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY
(2021)
Article
Psychiatry
Alexander Hauck, Tanja Michael, Diana S. Ferreira de Sa
Summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people's lives and led to increased anxiety and fear. This study shows that individuals with higher COVID-19 anxiety exhibit impairments in fear learning and generalization, which may contribute to a higher risk of anxiety disorders.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Marcin Piechota, Urszula Skupio, Malgorzata Borczyk, Barbara Ziolkowska, Slawomir Golda, Lukasz Szumiec, Klaudia Szklarczyk-Smolana, Wiktor Bilecki, Jan Manuel Rodriguez Parkitna, Michal Korostynski
Summary: The expression of Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase I gamma (Camk1g) is regulated by stress and glucocorticoid receptors (GR) in neuronal cells of the limbic system. It is involved in anxiety-related behaviors and responses conditioned by aversive stimuli.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Einat Elharrar, Yahav Dikshtein, Sapir Meninger-Mordechay, Yehuda Lichtenstein, Gal Yadid
Summary: Recent research shows that inhibiting PARP-1 activity can interfere with fear conditioning and reduce freezing behavior. By controlling the pharmacokinetic timing, it is possible to specifically disrupt cue-associated fear memories without interfering with other natural memories.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Lauryn Burleigh, Xinrui Jiang, Steven G. Greening
Summary: This study found that both visual perception and imagined perception play a role in the acquisition of differential fear conditioning, and this differential conditioning can generalize across modalities of perception. These findings provide new evidence that mental imagery shares neural resources with visual perception and offer insights into the mechanisms of anxiety and related disorders.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
I Nahmoud, J. Ganay Vasquez, H. Cho, T. Dennis-Tiwary, E. Likhtik
Summary: Research indicates that high anxiety animals benefit from salient safety training to improve exploration and discrimination of new non-threatening stimuli.
BEHAVIOURAL BRAIN RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Anabel M. M. Miguelez Fernandez, Hanna M. Molla, Daniel R. Thomases, Kuei Y. Tseng
Summary: The study shows that disruption of prefrontal cortex (PFC) alpha 7nAChR signaling impacts hippocampal and amygdalar transmission, with significant effects observed in adult rats. Prefrontal infusion of MLA affects trace fear-conditioning and extinction in an age-dependent manner, potentially due to the late-adolescent maturation of ventral hippocampal-PFC functional connectivity and its modulation by alpha 7nAChR signaling.
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Kati Roesmann, Thomas Kroker, Sarah Hein, Maimu Rehbein, Constantin Winker, Elisabeth Johanna Leehr, Tim Klucken, Markus Junghoefer
Summary: This study investigated the effects of inhibitory transcranial direct current stimulation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) on fear generalization patterns. The results showed that inhibitory stimulation led to reduced perceptual discrimination and less negative inhibitory gradients in frontal structures, while fear ratings and pupil dilation were unaffected. These findings suggest the potential of targeted brain stimulation in modulating fear generalization processes.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY-COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Kati Roesmann, Elisabeth Johanna Leehr, Joscha Boehnlein, Christian Steinberg, Fabian Seeger, Hanna Schwarzmeier, Bettina Gathmann, Niklas Siminski, Martin J. Herrmann, Udo Dannlowski, Ulrike Lueken, Tim Klucken, Kevin Hilbert, Thomas Straube, Markus Junghoefer
Summary: The study found that pretreatment differences in behavioral and neural markers of fear generalization in spider-phobic patients may impact their response to exposure therapy. These findings suggest that fear generalization could be a potential predictive marker to identify patients who may not benefit from exposure therapy, helping personalize and optimize treatment strategies for vulnerable patient groups.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY-COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Alla Machulska, Mike Rinck, Tim Klucken, Kristian Kleinke, Jana-Carina Wunder, Olga Remeniuk, Juergen Margraf
Summary: The study found that avoidance training was more effective in reducing daily smoking compared to inhibitory training at posttest, but this difference was no longer evident in follow-up assessments. All training conditions improved other smoking- and health-related outcomes, but did not change smoking-related approach biases or associations. Approach biases for smoking-unrelated pictures increased and Stroop interference decreased in all conditions, and smoking devaluation was comparable in all groups.
PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Johannes B. Finke, Andreas Behrje, Elena Hesslenberg, Tim Klucken, Hartmut Schaechinger
Summary: This study investigates how the interplay of environment, state, and trait factors affects stress responses during repeated short bouts of physical activity. The results suggest that the effects of social evaluation during physical stress depend on post-event processing and positive appraisal, while negative feedback decreases social self-esteem. Furthermore, post-hoc framing (success vs failure) may better predict subsequent stress-related hormonal effects.
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Anne Sophie Hildebrand, Kati Roesmann, Jari Planert, Alla Machulska, Esra Otto, Tim Klucken
Summary: This study aims to investigate whether ultra-short-time therapy involving self-guided digital therapeutic applications with VR components can reduce the severity of social anxiety disorder (SAD). A randomized controlled trial will include 40 SAD patients, with half receiving the self-guided digital therapy with VR and the other half receiving a control treatment. The study results may provide important insight for psychotherapists regarding the potential of self-guided digital therapy including exposure-based behavioral experiments in VR for SAD.
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Miriam Kampa, Johannes Finke, Tobias Stalder, Leandra Bucher, Holger Klapperich, Fabian Mertl, Christian Zimmer, Christian Geiger, Marc Hassenzahl, Tim Klucken
Summary: In this study, a newly developed virtual reality (VR) environment for relaxation is compared to an active control group using a freely chosen relaxation method. By inducing stress and measuring physiological and psychological indicators, the study aims to determine if the VR environment supports relaxation in a stressful situation. Repeated measures ANOVAs will be used to evaluate the effects between different groups and time points.
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Jari Planert, Alla Machulska, Anne-Sophie Hildebrand, Kati Roesmann, Esra Otto, Tim Klucken
Summary: This study aims to investigate the efficacy of short-term treatment applications including psychoeducation and self-guided virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for patients with panic disorder (PD) and agoraphobia (AG). The study will randomly assign participants to an experimental group receiving self-guided psychoeducation and VRET, or a control group receiving relaxation and stress-reduction training. Multiple assessments will be conducted to compare symptom severity and remission status.
Article
Business
Katharina Jahn, Frederike Marie Oschinsky, Bastian Kordyaka, Alla Machulska, Tanja Joan Eiler, Armin Gruenewald, Tim Klucken, Rainer Brueck, Carl Friedrich Gethmann, Bjoern Niehaves
Summary: This study explores the impact of object presence in IVR systems on learning outcomes. The findings suggest that higher object presence leads to better reactions to cues and improved behavior, highlighting the importance of immersive technologies in influencing attitudes and behaviors.
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Kati Roesmann, Ida Wessing, Sophia Krass, Elisabeth J. Leehr, Tim Klucken, Thomas Straube, Markus Junghoefer
Summary: This study aims to investigate the neuro-developmental aspects of fear generalization in adolescence. The results showed that healthy adolescents exhibited similar fear generalization gradients to healthy adults in fear ratings, pupil dilation, and estimated neural source activity. However, adolescents displayed shallower generalization gradients in fear expectancy ratings and stronger visual cortical activity after conditioning.
DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Johannes B. Finke, Sebastian Hahn, Hartmut Schaechinger, Tim Klucken
Summary: This study found that acute physical stress enhances the arousability of men to visual sexual stimuli in the short term, as indicated by higher pupil dilation responses, possibly mediated by sympathetic nervous system processes. The specificity of this effect in terms of emotional valence has not been previously investigated. The results showed that heart rate deceleration and pupil responses were specifically enhanced with sexually arousing stimuli in stressed participants, and this effect was mediated by blood pressure reactivity as an index of preceding sympathetic nervous system activation. These findings provide strong evidence for the enhancement of sexual processing by acute stress exposure in men and suggest differential involvement of parasympathetic versus sympathetic mechanisms.
Article
Endocrinology & Metabolism
Jari Planert, Tim Klucken, Johannes B. Finke, Philipp C. Paulus, Joachim E. Fischer, Wei Gao, Tobias Stalder
Summary: This study investigated the associations between hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) and stress-related measures in a large occupational sample. The results showed no consistent associations between HCC and self-report measures of perceived stress, work-related stress, and other stress-related constructs, except for slightly higher HCC in the high job strain group.
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Biological
Johannes B. Finke, Tobias Stalder, Tim Klucken
Summary: Evidence on differential fear conditioning in humans and its relationship with contingency awareness is inconclusive. This study used phasic pupil dilation responses (PDR) to investigate aversive and appetitive conditioning with varying levels of contingency awareness. Successful differential conditioning was observed in participants who were fully informed, as well as in participants who remained unaware of the contingencies. Early PDR responses in unaware participants were found to reflect implicit learning of expected outcome value, while early PDR responses in aware participants likely indexed attentional processes related to uncertainty/prediction error processing. These findings support a dual-process account of associative learning.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Anna Exner, Miriam Kampa, Johannes B. Finke, Tobias Stalder, Holger Klapperich, Marc Hassenzahl, Kristian Kleinke, Tim Klucken
Summary: Contrary to previous research, no differential stress reactivity pattern was observed between coping groups in this study, possibly due to the non-social nature of the stressor used. The novel finding of physiological baseline differences between fluctuating and non-defensive individuals is of interest and should be further explored in different types of stressors in future research.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Mathematical
Alla Machulska, Kristian Kleinke, Tim Klucken
Summary: This study examined the psychometric properties of three widely used cognitive bias tasks and found differences in reliability among tasks, assessment devices, and measurement time points. Additionally, little associations were found across different tasks.
BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS
(2023)
Article
Substance Abuse
Sanja Klein, Kseniya Krikova, Stephanie Antons, Matthias Brand, Tim Klucken, Rudolf Stark
Summary: This review aims to explore the impact of positive valence systems within the transdiagnostic Research Domain Criteria framework on problematic pornography use through reviewing existing evidence.
CURRENT ADDICTION REPORTS
(2022)
