Attentional Control and Fear Extinction in Subclinical Fear: An Exploratory Study.

Eduard Forcadell,Miquel Tortella-Feliu,Miquel A Fullana,David Torrents-Rodas,Devi Treen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01654

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Several attentional and learning processes have been found to play a major role in pathological anxiety
We found that individual differences in selfreported non-emotional Attentional control (AC) are not significantly associated with fear extinction learning and recall
We did find that the two components of orienting network functioning are significantly negatively associated with fear extinction learning and recall beyond that accounted for by trait anxiety

Summary

Introduction

Several attentional and learning processes have been found to play a major role in pathological anxiety (i.e., anxiety disorders). Deficient AC has been found to characterize both clinical (Olatunji et al, 2011) and subclinical anxiety (e.g., Fajkowska and Derryberry, 2010; Sportel et al, 2013) Such deficits may account for the attention bias to threat commonly observed in anxious individuals (Hadwin et al, 2016). Such deficits are associated with reduced ability to regulate emotion (Fajkowska and Derryberry, 2010; Armstrong et al, 2011; Tortella-Feliu et al, 2014; Hsu et al, 2015; Morillas-Romero et al, 2015; O’Bryan et al, 2017). AC can be assessed under emotional conditions (emotional AC, e.g., Barry et al, 2013) or neutral conditions (non-emotional AC, e.g., Derryberry and Reed, 2002; Pacheco-Unguetti et al, 2011; Richey et al, 2016)

Methods

Results

Conclusion