Startle Response During Threat Extinction Reveals Attenuated Extinction in Anxiety and Links With Neuroanatomy and Treatment Outcome

Abstract

Major theories implicate slower extinction of threat associations in pathological anxiety and limited treatment response. However, we previously found that anxious and healthy individuals exhibit comparable extinction as indexed by skin conductance response (SCR) to threat and safety cues. We now examine whether extinction of fear-potentiated startle (FPS) differentiates anxious and healthy individuals, correlates with neuroanatomy, and predicts treatment outcomes.