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Contingency awareness as a prerequisite for differential contextual fear conditioning
Christian Baeuchl1,2, Michael Hoppstädter3,4, Patric Meyer3,4
1Department of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany. christian.baeuchl@zi-mannheim.de.
Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience
|December 8, 2018
Summary
Contingency awareness is crucial for contextual fear conditioning. Aware individuals show distinct brain activity and autonomic responses, highlighting the hippocampus
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Contingency awareness, the conscious recognition of stimulus-outcome associations, is vital for associative learning.
- Its role in contextual fear conditioning, using environmental context as a stimulus, remains uncharacterized.
- Understanding this is key to discerning mechanisms of fear learning and memory.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if contingency awareness is a prerequisite for contextual fear conditioning.
- To compare aware and unaware subjects on hemodynamic, autonomic, and behavioral measures.
- To elucidate the neural underpinnings of contingency learning in fear conditioning.
Main Methods:
- Participants underwent contextual fear conditioning using a computer-generated context (CTX) and mild electric stimulation (US).
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recorded brain activity.
- Skin conductance responses (SCR) and subjective ratings of emotion were collected.
Main Results:
- Only aware subjects exhibited conditioned responses to the context (CTX+), evidenced by SCR.
- Aware individuals showed heightened brain activity in fear-related regions (e.g., insula) in response to CTX+.
- Functional connectivity analysis revealed distinct patterns between the hippocampus and fear/decision-making areas in aware subjects.
Conclusions:
- Contingency awareness is essential for acquiring contextual fear conditioning.
- Awareness modulates hemodynamic, autonomic, and behavioral responses during fear learning.
- Hippocampal connectivity with specific cortical regions is crucial for contingency knowledge acquisition in this paradigm.
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