Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli.

ABSTRACT: It has long been proposed that emotionally "prepared" (i.e., fear-related) stimuli are privileged in the unconscious acquisition of conditioned fear. However, as fear processing is suggested to highly depend on the coarse, low-spatial-frequency (LSF) components of the fear-related stimuli, it is plausible that LSF may play a unique role in the unconscious fear conditioning even with emotionally neutral stimuli. Here, we provided empirical evidence that, following classical fear conditioning, an invisible, emotionally neutral conditioned stimulus (CS+) with LSF, but not with high spatial frequency (HSF), can rapidly elicit stronger skin conductance responses (SCRs) and larger pupil diameters than its CS- counterpart. In comparison, consciously perceived emotionally neutral CS+ with LSF and

SUBMITTER: Chen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10298222 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature