Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Program

Cognitive Neuroscience

Advisor

Tony Ro

Committee Members

Martijn Wokke

David Johnson

Subject Categories

Biological Psychology | Cognitive Psychology | Cognitive Science

Keywords

Pavlovian Conditioning, Unconscious Threat Anticipation, Electrodermal Response, Anxiety

Abstract

The current study employed a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm to investigate the influence of pre-stimulus unconscious threat anticipation on subsequent fear responses in associative learning. Additionally, we explored the differences in pre-stimulus anticipation among individuals with varying levels of anxiety. Electrodermal response (EDA) was chosen as a primary measure due to its robustness in fear conditioning paradigms. Moreover, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was utilized to assess anxiety levels in participants. Twenty-seven subjects were recruited to determine if pre-stimulus skin conductance responses (SCR) would exhibit stimulus-specific patterns influenced by implicit cues (L-shaped configurations) that indicated an upcoming face or a house and if any stress fluctuations would occur in the skin conductance levels (SCL). The target type conditions were separated into three groups: One group represents houses and acts as a neutral stimulus (NS), where the aversive stimulus never happens. Another group represents the face targets, which are not paired with an aversive event (Face CS-), and the last one is the face targets paired with an electric pulse (Face CS+) at the end of the target presentation (last 0.05 sec). Participants exhibited significant changes in SCRs and SCLs between CS+ vs. CS- and NS vs. CS+ conditions. This result highlights the substantial impact of the administered electric pulse, eliciting heightened EDA responses across conditions. As there were no reliable differences from the cues, further research with larger sample sizes will be necessary to determine whether unconscious fear learning can take place or can be measured with EDA. Understanding the effects mentioned above can shed light on anxiety-related disorders and individual differences in associative learning processes, enhancing our understanding of the interplay between anxiety, anticipation, and physiology in cue-related threat paradigms.

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