Influence of contingency awareness on neural, electrodermal and evaluative responses during fear conditioning.

ABSTRACT: In an fMRI study, effects of contingency awareness on conditioned responses were assessed in three groups comprising 118 subjects. A differential fear-conditioning paradigm with visual conditioned stimuli, an electrical unconditioned stimulus and two distractors was applied. The instructed aware group was informed about the contingencies, whereas the distractors prevented contingency detection in the unaware group. The third group (learned aware) was not informed about the contingencies, but learned them despite the distractors. Main effects of contingency awareness on conditioned responses emerged in several brain structures. Post hoc tests revealed differential dorsal anterior cingulate, insula and ventral striatum responses in aware conditioning only, whereas the amygdala was activated

SUBMITTER: Tabbert K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3150860 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature