23 research outputs found
Can't take the trauma out of my mind and body : a result of classical conditioning processes?
No full textIntrusive memories as conditioned responses to trauma cues: an empirically supported concept? Laila K. Franke, Julina A. Rattel, Stephan F. Miedl, Sarah K. Danböck, Paul-Christian Bürkner, Frank H. WilhelmNeuroscientific evidence for pain being a classically conditioned response to trauma- and pain-related cues in humans Laila K. Franke, Stephan F. Miedl, Sarah K. Danböck, Michael Liedlgruber, Markus Grill, Martin Kronbichler, Herta Flor, Frank H. WilhelmEstradiol during (analogue-)trauma: risk- or protective factor for intrusive re-experiencing? Laila K. Franke, Stephan F. Miedl, Sarah K. Danböck, Johanna Lohse, Michael Liedlgruber, Paul-Christian Bürkner, Belinda Pletzer, Frank H. Wilhelmsubmitted by: Laila K. Franke, MSc.Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 162-175Kumulative Dissertation aus drei ArtikelnDissertation Paris-Lodron-University Salzburg 202
Can't take the trauma out of my mind and body : a result of classical conditioning processes?
No full textIntrusive memories as conditioned responses to trauma cues: an empirically supported concept? Laila K. Franke, Julina A. Rattel, Stephan F. Miedl, Sarah K. Danböck, Paul-Christian Bürkner, Frank H. WilhelmNeuroscientific evidence for pain being a classically conditioned response to trauma- and pain-related cues in humans Laila K. Franke, Stephan F. Miedl, Sarah K. Danböck, Michael Liedlgruber, Markus Grill, Martin Kronbichler, Herta Flor, Frank H. WilhelmEstradiol during (analogue-)trauma: risk- or protective factor for intrusive re-experiencing? Laila K. Franke, Stephan F. Miedl, Sarah K. Danböck, Johanna Lohse, Michael Liedlgruber, Paul-Christian Bürkner, Belinda Pletzer, Frank H. Wilhelmsubmitted by: Laila K. Franke, MSc.Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 162-175Kumulative Dissertation aus drei ArtikelnDissertation Paris-Lodron-University Salzburg 202
BMC Psychiatry / Risk assessment and reward processing in problem gambling investigated by event-related potentials and fMRI-constrained source analysis
No full textBackground: The temporo-spatial dynamics of risk assessment and reward processing in problem gamblers with a focus on an ecologically valid design has not been examined previously. Methods: We investigated risk assessment and reward processing in 12 healthy male occasional gamblers (OG) and in 12 male problem gamblers (PG) with a combined EEG and fMRI approach to identify group-differences in successively activated brain regions during two stages within a quasi-realistic blackjack game. Results: Both groups did not differ in reaction times but event-related potentials in PG and OG produced significantly different amplitudes in middle and late time-windows during high-risk vs. low-risk decisions. Applying an fMRI-constrained regional source model during risk assessment resulted in larger source moments in PG in the high-risk vs. low-risk comparison in thalamic, orbitofrontal and superior frontal activations within the 600-800 ms time window. During reward processing, PG showed a trend to enhanced negativity in an early time window (100-150 ms) potentially related to higher rostral anterior cingulate activity and a trend to centro-parietal group-differences in a later time window (390-440 ms) accompanied by increased superior-frontal (i.e., premotor-related) source moments in PG vs. OG. Conclusions: We suggest that problem gambling is characterized by stronger cue-related craving during risk assessment. Reward processing is associated with early affective modulation followed by increased action preparation for ongoing gambling in PG.Stephan F. Miedl, Thorsten Fehr, Manfred Herrmann and Gerhard Meye
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry / Lifetime adversity interacts with peritraumatic data-driven processing to predict intrusive memories
No full textBackground and objectives
Although most trauma survivors experience some intrusive recollections of the traumatic event, only few subsequently develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A well-established proximal risk-factor predictive of post-trauma psychopathology is peritraumatic cognitive processing. Another, more distal risk-factor is pre-trauma lifetime adversity. The present experimental analogue study tested the hypothesis that pre-trauma lifetime adversity interacts with peritraumatic perceptual (i.e., data-driven) processing to predict intrusive memory development.
Methods
Fifty-three young adult women (non-clinical sample) indicated how much data-driven and conceptual processing they had engaged in while watching aversive film-clips (i.e., analogue trauma). On the subsequent three days, they reported intrusions of those clips. Moderation analyses tested for an interaction effect between lifetime adversity and data-driven processing in predicting intrusion load (number of intrusions weighted for their overall distress).
Results
Increased data-driven processing predicted intrusion load primarily in individuals reporting more than three lifetime adversities, explaining 55% of variance. No such relationship was found for conceptual processing.
Limitations
Present analogue findings have yet to be replicated in a clinical population. Moreover, the conceptual processing scale was restricted by low internal consistency.
Conclusion
Present findings support the idea that intrusions are the result of poorly elaborated and primarily perceptually-formed memory traces; however, this was primarily the case in vulnerable individuals reporting several lifetime adversities. Results replicate the importance of peritraumatic processing in intrusion development but additionally point to a moderating effect of lifetime adversity.Julina A. Rattel, Stephan F. Miedl, Laila K. Franke, Thomas Ehring, Frank H. Wilhel
The neural basis of impulsive discounting in pathological gamblers
No full textPathological gambling is thought to result from a shift of balance between two competing neurobiological mechanisms: on the one hand the reward system involved in the regulation of the urge to get rewards and on the other hand the top-down control system. Fifteen pathological gamblers (PG) and fifteen healthy controls (HC) were studied in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment where participants had to choose either a smaller, but immediately available monetary reward (SIR) or a larger delayed reward (LDR). We examined contrasts between LDR and SIR decisions. Additionally, we contrasted choices near the individual indifference point (indifferent decisions) and clear SIR or LDR choices (sure decisions). Behavioral data confirmed former results of steeper discount rates in PG. Contrasting choices of LDR vs. SIR showed widespread bilateral activations in PG, including postcentral gyrus, thalamus, superior/medial frontal gyrus and cingulate gyrus, whereas HC demonstrated only focal left-sided pre/postcentral activity. Forgoing an immediate reward thus recruits a widespread brain network including typical control areas. Indifferent vs. sure decisions were associated with widespread activation in PG, including the bilateral fronto-parietal cortex, insula, anterior cingulate gyrus, and striatum, whereas in HC, only bilateral frontal cortex and insula were activated. The reverse contrast demonstrated more activity for sure decisions in the cingulate gyrus, insula, and medial frontal gyrus in HC, whereas PG showed inferior parietal and superior temporal activity. The present study demonstrates that pathological gambling is associated with a shift in the interplay between a prefrontal-parietal control network and a brain network involved in immediate reward consumption
Love at first taste: Activation in reward-related brain regions during single-trial naturalistic appetitive conditioning in humans
No full textPalatable food can trigger appetitive responses, such as salivation and approach tendencies. Though evolutionarily functional, these conditioned responses can encourage overeating and obesity when food is abundant. The current study examines the neural correlates of ‘denovo’ Pavlovian appetitive conditioning, pairing one class of unknown objects (conditioned stimuli, CS) with their sweet taste (unconditioned stimulus, US) during a single trial. To do so, 23 participants consumed unknown (marzipan) objects of one particular color (CS+) while only interacting with control stimuli of different color and shape (CS-). After this single-trial conditioning procedure, participants viewed and rated images of the marzipan figures and the control objects during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Relative to the CS-, the CS+ elicited stronger activation in the dorsal striatum, a brain region associated with cue-reward coupling. Furthermore, conditioning effects in subjective ‘craving’, defined as increased palatability and desire to eat, were observed, and these were positively related to conditioning effects in the amygdala, a brain region associated with the need-dependent value of a reward. Thus, the study identified reward-related brain regions involved in single-trial appetitive learning, thereby providing a potential mechanism that contributes to the etiology of food craving. These findings might help to understand clinically relevant food cravings in individuals with eating or weight related concerns and might support the development of extinction based treatments
Intrusive memories as conditioned responses to trauma cues: An empirically supported concept?
No full textFunding Information: The second and fourth authors were supported by the Doctoral College “Imaging the Mind” (FWF; W1233-G17 , W1233–B ; principal investigator Frank H. Wilhelm). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)Intrusions in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are clinically understood as conditioned responses (CRs) to trauma-cues; however, experimental evidence for this is limited. We subjected 84 healthy participants to a differential conditioned-intrusion paradigm, where neutral faces served as conditioned stimuli (CSs) and aversive film clips as unconditioned stimuli (USs). While one group only completed acquisition, another group additionally received extinction. Subsequently, participants provided detailed e-diary intrusion reports. Several key findings emerged: First, participants in both groups re-experienced not only USs but also CSs as content of their intrusions. Second, intrusions were elicited by cues resembling CSs, USs, and experimental context. Third, extinction reduced probability and severity of US intrusions, and accelerated their decay, and this was particularly the case in participants showing greater cognitive (US-expectancy) and physiological (SCR) differential responding to CS+ vs. CS- at end of acquisition (i.e., conditionability). Similarly, extinction reduced CS-intrusion probability and severity, but only in participants with greater cognitive conditionability. These results support conditioning's role in re-experiencing in two critical ways: (1) Conditioning during trauma provides cues that not only function as reminder cues, but also as content of intrusions; (2) After strong conditioning, weakening the original CS-US relationship via extinction reduces intrusion formation after analogue-trauma.Peer reviewe
Hitting the rewind button: Imagining analogue trauma memories in reverse reduces distressing intrusions
No full textBackground
Intrusive re-experiencing of trauma is a core symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder. Intrusive re-experiencing could potentially be reduced by ‘rewinding’, a new treatment approach assumed to take advantage of reconsolidation-updating by mentally replaying trauma fast-backward.
Methods
The present analogue study was the first to investigate ‘rewinding’ in a controlled laboratory setting. First, 115 healthy women watched a highly aversive film and were instructed to report film-related intrusions during the following week. Twenty-four hours after film-viewing, participants reporting at least one intrusion (N = 81) were randomly allocated to an intervention (fast-backward, or fast-forward as active control condition) or a passive control condition. Intervention groups reactivated their trauma memory, followed by mentally replaying the aversive film either fast-backward or fast-forward repeatedly.
Results
Results indicate that replaying trauma fast-backward reduced intrusion load (intrusion frequency weighted for intrusion distress) compared to the passive group, whereas replaying fast-forward did not. No above-threshold differences between fast-backward and fast-forward emerged.
Conclusion
Present findings strengthen the view that ‘rewinding’ could be a promising intervention to reduce intrusions
Peritraumatic dissociation revisited: associations with autonomic activation, facial movements, staring, and intrusion formation
No full textBackground: Peritraumatic dissociation is purported to emerge together with attenuated autonomic arousal, immobility, and staring. However, empirical evidence is scarce and heterogeneous. Moreover, it is still a matter of debate whether these responses predict intrusion formation. Objective: The present trauma-analogue study examined associations between peritraumatic dissociation, autonomic activation, facial movements, staring, and intrusion formation. Method: Seventy-one healthy women watched a highly aversive film, while autonomic activation (heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, skin conductance level), facial movements (temporal variations in corrugator electromyography), and staring (fixation duration, tracklength) were assessed. Afterwards, participants rated the intensity of dissociation during film viewing and reported intrusions and associated distress in a smartphone application for 24 hours. Results: Peritraumatic dissociation was linked to higher autonomic arousal (higher heart rate and, on a trend-level, lower respiratory sinus arrhythmia), increased facial movements, and staring (lower tracklength). Peritraumatic dissociation, higher autonomic arousal (higher heart rate and lower respiratory sinus arrhythmia), staring (higher fixation duration), and, on a trend-level, more facial movements were linked to higher intrusion load (number x distress of intrusions) and together explained 59% of variance. Skin conductance level was neither linked to peritraumatic dissociation nor intrusion load. Conclusions: Our results suggest that, at low-dissociation-levels observed in trauma-analogue studies, peritraumatic dissociation may occur together with heightened autonomic arousal and facial movements, indexing increased negative affect. Staring might, irrespectively of dissociation-levels, serve as objective marker for dissociation. Together, peritraumatic dissociation and its psychophysiological correlates might set the stage for later intrusion formation
How a co-actor's task affects monitoring of own errors: evidence from a social event-related potential study
No full textContains fulltext :
99392.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Efficient flexible behavior requires continuous monitoring of performance for possible deviations from the intended goal of an action. This also holds for joint action. When jointly performing a task, one needs to not only know the other's goals and intentions but also generate behavioral adjustments that are dependent on the other person's task. Previous studies have shown that in joint action people not only represent their own task but also the task of their co-actor. The current study investigated whether these so-called shared representations affect error monitoring as reflected in the response-locked error-related negativity (Ne/ERN) following own errors. Sixteen pairs of participants performed a social go/no-go task, while EEG and behavioral data were obtained. Responses were compatible or incompatible relative to the go/no-go action of the co-actor. Erroneous responses on no-go stimuli were examined. The results demonstrated increased Ne/ERN amplitudes and longer reaction times following errors on compatible compared to incompatible no-go stimuli. Thus, Ne/ERNs were larger after errors on trials that did not require a response from the co-actor either compared to errors on trials that did require a response from the co-actor. As the task of the other person is the only difference between these two types of errors, these findings show that people also represent their co-actor's task during error monitoring in joint action. An extension of existing models on performance monitoring in individual action is put forward to explain the current findings in joint action. Importantly, we propose that inclusion of a co-actor's task in performance monitoring may facilitate adaptive behavior in social interactions enabling fast anticipatory and corrective actions.18 p
