@article{SzeskaRichterWendtetal.2020,
  author    = {Szeska, Christoph and Richter, Jan and Wendt, Julia and Weymar, Mathias and Hamm, Alfons O.},
  title     = {Promoting long-term inhibition of human fear responses by non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation during extinction training},
  series = {Scientific reports},
  volume    = {10},
  journal   = {Scientific reports},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {Nature Publishing Group},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2045-2322},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41598-020-58412-w},
  pages     = {16},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Inhibiting fear-related thoughts and defensive behaviors when they are no longer appropriate to the situation is a prerequisite for flexible and adaptive responding to changing environments. Such inhibition of defensive systems is mediated by ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), limbic basolateral amygdala (BLA), and brain stem locus-coeruleus noradrenergic system (LC-NAs). Non-invasive, transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) has shown to activate this circuit. Using a multiple-day single-cue fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, we investigated long-term effects of tVNS on inhibition of low-level amygdala modulated fear potentiated startle and cognitive risk assessments. We found that administration of tVNS during extinction training facilitated inhibition of fear potentiated startle responses and cognitive risk assessments, resulting in facilitated formation, consolidation and long-term recall of extinction memory, and prevention of the return of fear. These findings might indicate new ways to increase the efficacy of exposure-based treatments of anxiety disorders.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WendtMorriss2022,
  author    = {Wendt, Julia and Morriss, Jayne},
  title     = {An examination of intolerance of uncertainty and contingency instruction on multiple indices during threat acquisition and extinction training},
  series = {International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology},
  volume    = {177},
  journal   = {International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology},
  publisher = {Elsevier},
  address   = {Amsterdam [u.a.]},
  issn      = {0167-8760},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.05.005},
  pages     = {171 -- 178},
  year      = {2022},
  abstract  = {Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to find uncertainty aversive. Prior research has demonstrated that under uncertainty individuals with high IU display difficulties in updating learned threat associations to safety associations. Importantly, recent research has shown that providing contingency instructions about threat and safety contingencies (i.e. reducing uncertainty) to individuals with high IU promotes the updating of learned threat associations to safety associations. Here we aimed to conceptually replicate IU and contingency instruction-based effects by conducting a secondary analysis of self-reported IU, ratings, skin conductance, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data recorded during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training (n = 48). Generally, no significant associations were observed between self-reported IU and differential responding to learned threat and safety cues for any measure during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training. There was some tentative evidence that higher IU was associated with greater ratings of unpleasantness and arousal to the safety cue after the experiment and greater skin conductance response to the safety cue during extinction generally. Potential explanations for these null effects and directions for future research are discussed.},
  language  = {en}
}