Abstract
Negative emotionality is a well-established and stable risk factor for affective disorders. Individual differences in negative emotionality have been linked to associative learning processes which can be captured experimentally by computing CS-discrimination values in fear conditioning paradigms. Literature suffers from underpowered samples, suboptimal methods, and an isolated focus on single questionnaires and single outcome measures. First, the specific and shared variance across three commonly employed questionnaires [STAI-T, NEO-FFI-Neuroticism, Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) Scale] in relation to CS-discrimination during fear-acquisition in multiple analysis units (ratings, skin conductance, startle) is addressed (NStudy1 = 356). A specific significant negative association between STAI-T and CS-discrimination in SCRs and between IU and CS-discrimination in startle responding was identified in multimodal and dimensional analyses, but also between latent factors negative emotionality and fear learning, which capture shared variance across questionnaires/scales and across outcome measures. Second, STAI-T was positively associated with CS-discrimination in a number of brain areas linked to conditioned fear (amygdala, putamen, thalamus), but not to SCRs or ratings (NStudy2 = 113). Importantly, we replicate potential sampling biases between fMRI and behavioral studies regarding anxiety levels. Future studies are needed to target wide sampling distributions for STAI-T and verify whether current findings are generalizable to other samples.
Highlights
Negative emotionality is a well-established and stable risk factor for affective disorders
We start by integrating dimensional measures as derived from three commonly employed scales in the field (i.e., State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T), NEO-FFI-N and IUS) with the three most commonly used measures of conditioned responding—as identified and summarized by a recent review by our group[29]. These measures are obtained in a large sample (Study 1, N = 356) and combined into one statistical model that is set up to investigate whether any of these scales is linked to specific fear conditioning performance over-and-beyond the other scales. We investigate whether it is the shared variance across the scales and across outcome measures that explains these potential associations and supports a prominent role for the general construct negative emotionality, or whether the scales remain associated with specific measures of conditioned responding
We present univariate analyses illustrating associations between the three commonly employed scales in the field (i.e., STAI-T, NEO-FFI-N and IUS) with the three most commonly used measures of conditioned responding
Summary
Negative emotionality is a well-established and stable risk factor for affective disorders. Individual differences in negative emotionality have been linked to associative learning processes which can be captured experimentally by computing CS-discrimination values in fear conditioning paradigms. A specific significant negative association between STAI-T and CS-discrimination in SCRs and between IU and CS-discrimination in startle responding was identified in multimodal and dimensional analyses, and between latent factors negative emotionality and fear learning, which capture shared variance across questionnaires/scales and across outcome measures. The CS+ elicits (anticipatory) defensive responses that can be assessed at different response levels, all capturing slightly different time-windows and sub-processes, for a review s ee[23] These include self-report (e.g., ratings of fear or US expectancy), physiological responding [e.g., skin conductance responses (SCRs), fear-potentiated startle responses (FPS) and neuro-functional activation (e.g., BOLD fMRI)]. Fear potentiated startle, which follows a valence gradient in r esponding[26,27], measures the increase in the startle reflex elicited by a sudden event (such as a burst of white noise) in the presence of threat as compared to the absence of threat
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