Nonthreatening Situations Research Articles

Natural clues to danger: attachment behavior in threatening situations

ABSTRACT A fundamental principle of attachment theory is that threatening situations give rise to individual differences in the extent to which people seek proximity to close others. The current research examines the way in which attachment styles predict individual differences in attachment-relevant behavior during threatening events. We tested alternative theoretical perspectives concerning the association between adult attachment (specifically, attachment avoidance) and attachment behavior in the presence of natural clues to danger by observing couples (N = 204) when they were watching horror vs. control film excerpts. Results suggest that highly avoidant people engaged in less attachment behavior across both threatening and non-threatening situations. These findings have implications for the understanding of attachment-related processes and how working models of the self and others facilitate (or inhibit) the expression of attachment behavior.

The fear-avoidance model as an embodied prediction of threat.

The fear-avoidance model is a well-established framework in the understanding of persistent pain. It proposes a dichotomous path: either the context is interpreted as safe; there is no fear reaction and, therefore, the individual engages in active (positive) coping; or the context is interpreted as threatening, leading to a self-reinforcing vicious circle of fear and (negative) avoidance. We propose an embodied interpretation of this phenomenon employing the joint framework of predictive coding and active inference. The key idea is that multisensory integration of exteroceptive, proprioceptive, and interoceptive sensory inputs can lead to dysfunctional experiences of threat in nonthreatening situations. Threat inference can promote fear responses, maladaptive strategies (i.e., avoidance) and self-provides evidence for threat in associated or future contexts, or both. Under this treatment, the prediction of nonrealized threat becomes self-evidencing and context-invariant, and hence self-perpetuating. Safety cues are unable to attenuate the interpretation of the negative context as the dominant inference of the context is threatful and gains more precision and becomes resistant over time. Our model provides an explanation for the emergence of a dysfunctional fear response in the clinical setting despite apparent safety based on modern concepts from theoretical (computational) neuroscience.

Panicolytic-like effects of environment enrichment on male mice threatened by Bothrops jararaca lancehead pit vipers.

Environment enrichment (EE) is a well-known eustress model showing beneficial effects in different psychiatric diseases, but its positive properties in panic disorders are not yet established. The confrontation between prey and predator in complex arenas has been validated as a putative panic attack model. The principal aim of this work was to investigate the role of the EE on panic-like defensive responses elicited by mice threatened by venomous snakes. After 6 weeks of exposure either to an enriched or standard environments, 36 male mice were habituated in a complex polygonal arena for snakes containing an artificial burrow and elevated platforms for escape. The animals were confronted by Bothrops jararaca for 5 min, and the following antipredatory responses were recorded: defensive attention, stretched attend posture, flat back approach, prey versus predator interaction, oriented escape behavior, time spent in a safe place, and number of crossings. Mice threatened by snakes displayed several antipredatory reactions as compared to the exploratory behavior of those animals submitted to a nonthreatening situation (toy snake) in the same environment. Notably, EE causes anxiolytic- and panicolytic-like effects significantly decreasing the defensive attention and time spent in safe places and significantly increasing both prey versus predator interaction and exploratory behavior. In conclusion, our data demonstrate that EE can alter the processing of fear modulation regarding both anxiety- and panic-like responses in a dangerous condition, significantly modifying the decision-making defensive strategy.

Auditory stimuli suppress contextual fear responses in safety learning independent of a possible safety meaning.

Safety learning allows the identification of non-threatening situations, a learning process instrumental for survival and psychic health. In contrast to fear learning, in which a sensory cue (conditioned stimulus, CS) is temporally linked to a mildly aversive stimulus (US), safety learning is studied by presenting the CS and US in an explicitly unpaired fashion. This leads to conditioned inhibition of fear responses, in which sensory cues can acquire a safety meaning (CS-). In one variant of safety learning, an auditory CS- was shown to reduce contextual fear responses during recall, as measured by freezing of mice. Here, we performed control experiments to test whether auditory stimuli might interfere with freezing by mechanisms other than safety learning, a phenomenon also called external inhibition. Surprisingly, when auditory stimulation was omitted during training (US-only controls), such stimuli still significantly suppressed contextual freezing during recall, indistinguishable from the reduction of freezing after regular safety training. The degree of this external inhibition was positively correlated with the levels of contextual freezing preceding the auditory stimulation. Correspondingly, in fear learning protocols which employ a new context during recall and therefore induce lower contextual freezing, auditory stimuli did not induce significant external inhibition. These experiments show that in safety learning protocols that employ contextual freezing, the freezing reduction caused by auditory stimuli during recall is dominated by external inhibition, rather than by learned safety. Thus, in safety learning experiments extensive controls should be performed to rule out possible intrinsic effects of sensory cues on freezing behavior.

Distinct inter-brain synchronization patterns during group creativity under threats in cooperative and competitive contexts

Previous research has revealed that threats lead to conflicting conclusions about the performance of group creativity. In this study, it was proposed that the interactive mode (cooperation and competition) would underly the divergent effects of threats on group creativity. The underlying neural mechanisms of the divergent effects were further explored. A total of 56 participants were paired into dyads, performing creative tasks cooperatively and competitively in threatening and non-threatening situations, without verbal communication. Brain signals were collected using functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyper-scanning techniques. The results showed that when participants cooperated with each other, threats (vs. without threats) enhanced group creativity, while no such enhancement was observed in competitive interactions. In the threatening situation, participants’ group creativity in competitive interactions was as good as those in cooperative interactions. During the threatening cooperation situation, there were increased inter-brain synchronization in the right temporo-parietal junction and decreased brain activity at the prefrontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction. Regardless of the presence of threats, there were decreased inter-brain synchronization and decreased brain activity during competition in the prefrontal cortex. These results reveal a positive effect of threatening cooperation and competition on group creativity and provide further insight into the inter-brain mechanisms that enhance group creativity.

Gene expression profiling reveals a role of immune system and inflammation in innate and stress-induced anxiety-like behavior.

Anxiety is an evolutionarily conserved response that is essential for survival. Pathological anxiety, however, is a maladaptive response to nonthreatening situations and greatly affects quality of life. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has increased the prevalence of anxiety symptoms and highlighted the urge to identify the molecular events that initiate pathological anxiety. To this aim, we investigated the extent of similarity of brain region-specific gene expression patterns associated with innate and stress-induced anxiety-like behavior. We compared the cortico-frontal (FCx) and hippocampal (Hpc) gene expression patterns of five inbred mouse strains with high or low levels of innate anxiety-like behavior with gene expression patterns of mice subjected to chronic social defeat stress. We found significantly large overlap of the Hpc but small overlap of the FCx gene expression patterns in innate and stress-induced anxiety, that however, converged onto common inflammation and immune system canonical pathways. Comparing the gene expression data with drug-gene interaction datasets revealed drug candidates, including medrysone, simvastatin, captopril, and sulpiride, that produced gene expression changes opposite to those observed in innate or stress-induced anxiety-like behavior. Together, our data provide a comprehensive overview of FCx and Hpc gene expression differences between innate and stress-induced anxiety and support the role of inflammation and immune system in anxiety-like behavior.

Face-To-Face Or Online Speaking Practice: A Comparison of Students’ Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Level

Speaking using foreign language in front of other people can be one of the most anxiety-provoking situations. Learners who does not enjoy interacting with other people or being the center of attention may exhibit extreme anxiety when they are asked to take parts in oral presentation, discussion, or any other kind of language activities. A study found that online discussion may decrease the effect. It provides a non-threatening situation for learners who are shy and withdrawn. This survey study aims to see whether it is also applied in Indonesian tertiary education by investigating and comparing the learners' level of anxiety in face to face speaking class before Covid-19 pandemic and online speaking class during the pandemic. 120 students who experienced both speaking courses before and during the pandemic participated in the survey. Consistent with the result of other studies, this study found that in average, learners feel less anxious during during online speaking class (48,41%) compare to face-to-face class (60,96%).

Face-To-Face Or Online Speaking Practice: A Comparison of Students’ Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Level

Speaking using foreign language in front of other people can be one of the most anxiety-provoking situations. Learners who does not enjoy interacting with other people or being the center of attention may exhibit extreme anxiety when they are asked to take parts in oral presentation, discussion, or any other kind of language activities. A study found that online discussion may decrease the effect. It provides a non-threatening situation for learners who are shy and withdrawn. This survey study aims to see whether it is also applied in Indonesian tertiary education by investigating and comparing the learners' level of anxiety in face to face speaking class before Covid-19 pandemic and online speaking class during the pandemic. 120 students who experienced both speaking courses before and during the pandemic participated in the survey. Consistent with the result of other studies, this study found that in average, learners feel less anxious during during online speaking class (48,41%) compare to face-to-face class (60,96%).

High trait anxiety blocks olfactory plasticity induced by aversive learning

Aversive learning normally induces alterations in sensory function as the brain’s sensory systems are tuned to optimize detection and discrimination of threat-predictive stimuli. Anxiety disorders can disrupt behavioral discrimination between threat-predictive and neutral stimuli, resulting in overgeneralization of negative affective responses to non-threatening situations. We thus hypothesized that anxiety could disrupt learning-induced improvement in sensory discrimination. We tested perceptual discrimination between similar odorants before and after discriminative aversive conditioning. Participants exhibiting normal levels of trait anxiety developed a larger skin conductance response (SCR) to the shock-predictive odorant and substantial improvement in their perceptual discrimination between the two odors. Repeated exposure to the odors without shock partially extinguished the SCRs but the perceptual effect persisted. By contrast, participants with high levels of trait anxiety developed comparably sized SCRs to both odors and displayed no perceptual improvement. Learning-induced perceptual plasticity can thus be impaired in people with high levels of trait anxiety.

Stress-induced generalization of negative memories is mediated by an extended hippocampal circuit.

Memories of negative experiences exert important control of behavior in the face of actual or anticipated threat. Sometimes, however, this control extends to non-threatening situations, a phenomenon known as overgeneralization of negative memories. Overgeneralization is a reliable cognitive phenotype of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. We therefore sought to develop an animal model to study stress-induced generalization of negative memories (SIG) and determine its dependence on the episodic-like memory circuit. We found that male and female mice, which were trained to differentiate a threatening from neutral context, exhibited robust SIG in response to subsequent social stress. Using chemogenetic circuit manipulations during memory retrieval, we demonstrated that both excitatory afferents to the dorsal hippocampus (DH) from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and excitatory efferents from the DH to the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) contribute to SIG. Based on the known roles of these projections, we suggest that (1) by targeting subcortical VTA circuits that provide valence signals to the DH, stress prioritizes the retrieval of negative over neutral memories, and (2) by forwarding such information to the RSC, stress engages cortical mechanisms that support the retrieval of general relative to specific memory features. Altogether, these results suggest that various components of the extended hippocampal circuit can serve as treatment targets for memory overgeneralization.

Fear generalisation in individuals with high neuroticism: increasing predictability is not necessarily better

ABSTRACTFear generalisation, a process by which conditioned fear spreads to similar but innocuous stimuli, is key in understanding why some individuals feel unsafe in objectively non-threatening situations. Both trait neuroticism and lack of predictability about the likelihood of feared consequences are associated with negative affect in the face of ambiguity and may increase the degree to which fear generalises. Undergraduates (N = 129) with varying degrees of neuroticism were randomised to either high- or low-instructional predictability conditions prior to fear acquisition. A fear generalisation test measured risk ratings and attentional bias on a modified dot-probe paradigm. Among individuals with higher neuroticism, providing instructional predictability did not reduce fear; these individuals reported higher risk and increased attentional bias toward ambiguous stimuli. Overall, for individuals with higher neuroticism, predictability information hurt rather than helped interpretation of ambiguous stimuli, challenging a common conceptualisation of predictability as a factor that reduces fear.

CARDIOPSYCHIATRY. PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATION

Cardiopsychiatry is relatively new field in medicine that studies psychic disorders (PD) having common pathological pathways with cardiovascular pathology (CVP). Most of them are related to stress and present with disordered neuronal activity. A working classification is proposed for PD in cardiopsychiatry. PD might be caused by: threat from actual CVP (type 1), other threatening situation (type 2a — in persons without CVP, type 2b — if CVP), “causal” non-threatening situation or even not known factors (type 3a — if without CVP, type 3b — with CVP). Literature data suggest that 2a PD does increase (though temporarily) the risk of CVP. Also the 2b PD enforces progression of CVP (possible only in specific pathogenetic variant of disease). Studies of other PD types are demanded. The review includes tables that make visible the relations of multiple terms used for PD. Information on rational selection of psychotropic drugs is provided.

Current Literature Summary

Current Literature Summary

Brain, body, and cognition: Neural, physiological and self-report correlates of phobic and normative fear

The phobic fear response appears to resemble an intense form of normal threat responding that can be induced in a nonthreatening situation. However, normative and phobic fear are rarely contrasted directly, thus the degree to which these two types of fear elicit similar neural and bodily responses is not well understood. To examine biological correlates of normal and phobic fear, 21 snake phobic and 21 nonphobic controls saw videos of slithering snakes, attacking snakes and fish in an event-related fMRI design. Simultaneous eletrodermal, pupillary, and self-reported affective responses were collected. Nonphobic fear activated a network of threat-responsive brain regions and involved pupillary dilation, electrodermal response and self-reported affect selective to the attacking snakes. Phobic fear recruited a large array of brain regions including those active in normal fear plus additional structures and also engendered increased pupil dilation, electrodermal and self-reported responses that were greater to any snake versus fish. Importantly, phobics showed greater between- and within-subject concordance among neural, electrodermal, pupillary, and subjective report measures. These results suggest phobic responses recruit overlapping but more strongly activated and more extensive networks of brain activity as compared to normative fear, and are characterized by greater concordance among neural activation, peripheral physiology and self-report. It is yet unclear whether concordance is unique to psychopathology, or rather simply an indicator of the intense fear seen in the phobic response, but these results underscore the importance of synchrony between brain, body, and cognition during the phobic reaction.

The Rise and Fall of Humor

Humor is a ubiquitous experience that facilitates coping, social coordination, and well-being. We examine how humorous responses to a tragedy change over time by measuring reactions to jokes about Hurricane Sandy. Inconsistent with the belief that the passage of time monotonically increases humor, but consistent with the benign violation theory of humor, a longitudinal study reveals that humorous responses to Sandy’s destruction rose, peaked, and eventually fell over the course of 100 days. Time creates a comedic sweet spot that occurs when the psychological distance from a tragedy is large enough to buffer people from threat (creating a benign violation) but not so large that the event becomes a purely benign, nonthreatening situation. The finding can help psychologists understand how people cope and provide clues to what makes things funny and when they will be funny.

The Rise and Fall of Humor: Psychological Distance Modulates Humorous Responses to Tragedy

Humor is a ubiquitous experience that facilitates coping, social coordination, and well-being. We examine how humorous responses to a tragedy change over time by measuring reactions to jokes about Hurricane Sandy. Inconsistent with the belief that the passage of time monotonically increases humor, but consistent with the benign violation theory of humor, a longitudinal study reveals that humorous responses to Sandy’s destruction rose, peaked, and eventually fell over the course of one hundred days. Time creates a comedic sweet spot that occurs when the psychological distance from a tragedy is large enough to buffer people from threat (creating a benign violation), but not so large that the event becomes a purely benign, non-threatening situation. The finding can help psychologists understand how people cope and provide clues to what makes things funny and when they will be funny.

When avoiding failure improves performance: Stereotype threat and the impact of performance goals

We examined the impact of inducing performance-avoidance and approach goals (versus no goal) on women’s math performance in stereotype threatening versus nonthreatening situations. Two experiments showed that inducing either stereotype threat (versus no-threat) or a performance-avoidance goal (versus no goal) alone led to decreased math performance. However, inducing both stereotype threat and a performance-avoidance goal increased women’s performance and challenge appraisals. These findings are consistent with the theory of regulatory fit. Performance and challenge appraisals increased when there was a fit between the motivation associated with stereotype threat (avoid failure) and the induced goal (avoid performing worse than others). Implications for stereotype threat, achievement goals and regulatory focus theories are discussed.

Descriptions of Media-Induced Fright Reactions in a Sample of US Elementary School Children

Grade-school children (N = 219, M age = 8.5 years) reported their experiences of media-induced fear in their own words and using forced-choice items. Seventy-six per cent reported a specific instance of media-induced fright; most were responding to movies (seen in theaters or homes) and media content they had not chosen to view. The most commonly mentioned content involved supernatural themes. More than one-third of children scared by movies named a movie rated G or PG. Frequent symptoms included sleep disturbances and anxieties in normally nonthreatening situations. Having a television in one's bedroom was the best predictor of fright severity. Findings demonstrate the value of using open-ended questions and underscore the need for further research on prevention and coping strategies.

Threat Perception in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Early Dementia

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia affect many aspects of emotion processing. Even though the ability to detect threat is a particularly important aspect of emotion processing, no study to date has assessed threat perception in either of these groups. The purpose of the present study was to test whether individuals with MCI (n = 38) and mild dementia (n = 34) have difficulty differentiating between faces and situations normatively judged to be either high or low in threat relative to age-matched controls (n = 34). To achieve this aim, all participants completed 2 danger rating tasks that involved viewing and rating high- and low-danger images. It was also assessed whether threat perception was related to cognitive functioning and emotion recognition. The results indicated that all 3 groups were accurately, and comparably, able to differentiate high from low-danger faces. However, the dementia group had difficulties differentiating high from low-danger situations, which reflected a bias to overattribute the level of threat posed by normatively judged nonthreatening situations. This difficulty was related to more general cognitive decline.

Distinguishing stereotype threat from priming effects: On the role of the social self and threat-based concerns.

It has been argued that priming negative stereotypic traits is sufficient to cause stereotype threat. The present research challenges this assumption by highlighting the role of the social self and targets' concerns about confirming a negative group-based stereotype. Specifically, in 3 experiments the authors demonstrate that stereotype threat adversely affects the test performance and threat-based concerns of targets (but not nontargets) because only targets' social self is linked to the negative group stereotype. Trait priming, however, harms the test performance of both targets and nontargets but has no effect on their threat-based concerns because trait priming does not require such a link between the social self and the group stereotype. Moreover, the authors show that merely increasing the accessibility of the social self in nonthreatening situations leads to the underperformance of targets but has no meaningful effect on nontargets' test performance.