Attentional Control and Fear Extinction in Subclinical Fear : An Exploratory Study
Forcadell, Eduard (Parc Taulí Hospital Universitari. Institut d'Investigació i Innovació Parc Taulí (I3PT))
Torrents-Rodas, David (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psiquiatria i de Medicina Legal)
Treen, Devi (Parc de Salut MAR de Barcelona)
Fullana, Miguel (Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques)
Tortella-Feliu, Miquel 1965- (Universitat de les Illes Balears)

Fecha:	2017
Resumen:	Attentional control (AC) and fear extinction learning are known to be involved in pathological anxiety. In this study we explored whether individual differences in non-emotional AC were associated with individual differences in the magnitude and gradient of fear extinction (learning and recall). In 50 individuals with fear of spiders, we collected measures of non-emotional AC by means of self-report and by assessing the functioning of the major attention networks (executive control, orienting, and alerting). The participants then underwent a paradigm assessing fear extinction learning and extinction recall. The two components of the orienting network functioning (costs and benefits) were significantly associated with fear extinction gradient over and above the effects of trait anxiety. Specifically, participants with enhanced orienting costs (i. e. , difficulties in disengaging attention from cues not relevant for the task) showed faster extinction learning, while those with enhanced orienting benefits (i. e. , attention facilitated by valid cues) exhibited faster extinction recall as measured by fear-potentiated startle and Unconditioned Stimulus expectancies, respectively. Our findings suggest that, in non-emotional conditions, the orienting component of attention may be predictive of fear extinction. They also show that the use of fear extinction gradients and the exploration of individual differences in non-emotional AC (using performance-based measures of attentional network functioning) can provide a better understanding of individual differences in fear learning. Our findings also may help to understand differences in exposure therapy outcomes.
Ayudas:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PI16/00144
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Attentional control ; Attentional network functioning ; Fear extinction ; Extinction learning ; Extinction recall ; Anxiety disorders
Publicado en:	Frontiers in psychology, Vol. 8 (september 2017) , ISSN 1664-1078

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01654
PMID: 29018384

15 p, 1.1 MB

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Documentos de investigación > Documentos de los grupos de investigación de la UAB > Centros y grupos de investigación (producción científica) > Ciencias de la salud y biociencias > Instituto de Investigación e Innovación Parc Taulí (I3PT)
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