Mental imagery can generate and regulate acquired differential fear conditioned reactivity.

ABSTRACT: Mental imagery is an important tool in the cognitive control of emotion. The present study tests the prediction that visual imagery can generate and regulate differential fear conditioning via the activation and prioritization of stimulus representations in early visual cortices. We combined differential fear conditioning with manipulations of viewing and imagining basic visual stimuli in humans. We discovered that mental imagery of a fear-conditioned stimulus compared to imagery of a safe conditioned stimulus generated a significantly greater conditioned response as measured by self-reported fear, the skin conductance response, and right anterior insula activity (experiment 1). Moreover, mental imagery effectively down- and up-regulated the fear conditioned responses (experiment 2). Multi

SUBMITTER: Greening SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8770773 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature