TY - JOUR A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Hufenbach, Miriam Catrin A1 - König, Jörg A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Effects of verbal instructions and physical threat removal prior to extinction training on the return of conditioned fear JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Instructions given prior to extinction training facilitate the extinction of conditioned skin conductance (SCRs) and fear-potentiated startle responses (FPSs) and serve as laboratory models for cognitive interventions implemented in exposure-based treatments of pathological anxiety. Here, we investigated how instructions given prior to extinction training, with or without the additional removal of the electrode used to deliver the unconditioned stimulus (US), affect the return of fear assessed 24 hours later. We replicated previous instruction effects on extinction and added that the additional removal of the US electrode slightly enhanced facilitating effects on the extinction of conditioned FPSs. In contrast, extinction instructions hardly affected the return of conditioned fear responses. These findings suggest that instruction effects observed during extinction training do not extent to tests of return of fear 24 hours later which serve as laboratory models of relapse and improvement stability of exposure-based treatments. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57934-7 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 10 PB - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Hufenbach, Miriam Catrin A1 - König, Jörg A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Effects of verbal instructions and physical threat removal prior to extinction training on the return of conditioned fear T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Instructions given prior to extinction training facilitate the extinction of conditioned skin conductance (SCRs) and fear-potentiated startle responses (FPSs) and serve as laboratory models for cognitive interventions implemented in exposure-based treatments of pathological anxiety. Here, we investigated how instructions given prior to extinction training, with or without the additional removal of the electrode used to deliver the unconditioned stimulus (US), affect the return of fear assessed 24 hours later. We replicated previous instruction effects on extinction and added that the additional removal of the US electrode slightly enhanced facilitating effects on the extinction of conditioned FPSs. In contrast, extinction instructions hardly affected the return of conditioned fear responses. These findings suggest that instruction effects observed during extinction training do not extent to tests of return of fear 24 hours later which serve as laboratory models of relapse and improvement stability of exposure-based treatments. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 599 Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-444796 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 599 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Junge, Martin A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Lischke, Alexander T1 - Heartfelt memories BT - Cardiac vagal tone correlates with increased memory for untrustworthy faces JF - Emotion : a new journal from the American Psychological Association N2 - During social interactions, we rapidly judge others’ trustworthiness on basis of their facial characteristics. Face-based trustworthiness judgments may not only affect our current but also our future interactions because we seem to be more inclined to remember untrustworthy than trustworthy faces. Memory formation of salient stimuli like untrustworthy faces may be modulated by the interplay between the autonomic and central nervous system, which can be indexed by changes in vagally mediated heart rate variability (HRV). To test this assumption, we investigated whether differences in HRV would be associated with differences in memory formation of untrustworthy faces in a sample of healthy participants (n = 34, all female). Untrustworthy faces were remembered more accurately than trustworthy faces, albeit only by participants with high and not low HRV. Across participants, increased memory accuracy for untrustworthy faces was associated with increased HRV. We discuss these findings in the context of neurobiological theories regarding the interplay between the autonomic and central nervous system during the regulation of autonomic, emotional and cognitive processes. (PsycInfo Database Record KW - trustworthiness KW - face memory KW - heart rate variability KW - amygdala KW - prefrontal cortex Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000396 SN - 1528-3542 SN - 1931-1516 VL - 19 IS - 1 SP - 178 EP - 182 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lischke, Alexander A1 - Junge, Martin A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - Enhanced processing of untrustworthiness in natural faces with neutral expressions JF - Emotion : a new journal from the American Psychological Association N2 - During social interactions, individuals rapidly and automatically judge others’ trustworthiness on the basis of subtle facial cues. To investigate the behavioral and neural correlates of these judgments, we conducted 2 studies: 1 study for the construction and evaluation of a set of natural faces differing in trustworthiness (Study 1: n = 30) and another study for the investigation of event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to this set of natural faces (Study 2: n = 30). Participants of both studies provided highly reliable and nearly identical trustworthiness ratings for the selected faces, supporting the notion that the discrimination of trustworthy and untrustworthy faces depends on distinct facial cues. These cues appear to be processed in an automatic and bottom-up-driven fashion because the free viewing of these faces was sufficient to elicit trustworthiness-related differences in late positive potentials (LPPs) as indicated by larger amplitudes to untrustworthy as compared with trustworthy faces. Taken together, these findings suggest that natural faces contain distinct cues that are automatically and rapidly processed to facilitate the discrimination of untrustworthy and trustworthy faces across various contexts, presumably by enhancing the elaborative processing of untrustworthy as compared with trustworthy faces. ( KW - face perception KW - emotion KW - trustworthiness KW - event-related potentials KW - amygdala Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000318 SN - 1528-3542 SN - 1931-1516 VL - 18 IS - 2 SP - 181 EP - 189 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Loew, Andreas A1 - Hamm, Carmen A1 - Struck, Anne-Marie A1 - Kirschbaum, Clemens A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Cognitive functioning and emotion processing in breast cancer survivors and controls: An ERP pilot study JF - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research N2 - Diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer is a very emotionally aversive and stressful life event, which can lead to impaired cognitive functioning and mental health. Breast cancer survivors responding with repressive emotion regulation strategies often show less adaptive coping and adverse outcomes. We investigated cognitive functioning and neural correlates of emotion processing using ERPs. Self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and fatigue, as well as hair cortisol as an index of chronic stress, were assessed. Twenty breast cancer survivors (BCS) and 31 carefully matched healthy controls participated in the study. After neuropsychological testing and subjective assessments, participants viewed 30 neutral, 30 unpleasant, and 30 pleasant pictures, and ERPs were recorded. Recognition memory was tested 1 week later. BCS reported stronger complaints about cognitive impairments and more symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Moreover, they showed elevated hair cortisol levels. Except for verbal memory, cognitive functioning was predominantly in the normative range. Recognition memory performance was decreased in cancer survivors, especially for emotional contents. In ERPs, survivors showed smaller late positive potential amplitudes for unpleasant pictures relative to controls in a later time window, which may indicate less elaborative processing of this material. Taken together, we found cognitive impairments in BCS in verbal memory, impaired emotional picture memory accuracy, and reduced neural activity when breast cancer survivors were confronted with unpleasant materials. Further studies and larger sample sizes, however, are needed to evaluate the relationship between altered emotion processing and reduced memory in BCS in order to develop new treatment strategies. KW - attention KW - breast cancer survivors KW - emotion KW - ERPs KW - memory KW - neuropsychology Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12874 SN - 0048-5772 SN - 1469-8986 VL - 54 SP - 1209 EP - 1222 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Loew, Andreas A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Lotze, Martin A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Active avoidance and attentive freezing in the face of approaching threat JF - NeuroImage : a journal of brain function N2 - Defensive behaviors in animals and humans vary dynamically with increasing proximity of a threat and depending upon the behavioral repertoire at hand. The current study investigated physiological and behavioral adjustments and associated brain activation when participants were exposed to dynamically approaching threat that was either inevitable or could be avoided by motor action. When the approaching threat was inevitable, attentive freezing was observed as indicated by fear bradycardia, startle potentiation, and a dynamic increase in activation of the anterior insula and the periaqueductal grey. In preparation for active avoidance a switch in defensive behavior was observed characterized by startle inhibition and heart rate acceleration along with potentiated activation of the amygdala and the periaqueductal grey. Importantly, the modulation of defensive behavior according to threat imminence and the behavioral option at hand was associated with activity changes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings improve our understanding of brain mechanisms guiding human behavior during approaching threat depending on available resources. KW - Defensive response patterns KW - Active avoidance KW - Freezing KW - Psychophysiology KW - fMRI Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.06.054 SN - 1053-8119 SN - 1095-9572 VL - 158 SP - 196 EP - 204 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wirkner, Janine A1 - Low, Andreas A1 - Struck, Anne-Marie A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Weymar, Mathias T1 - DOES AGE INFLUENCE BRAIN POTENTIALS DURING AFFECTIVE PICTURE PROCESSING IN MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN? T2 - Psychophysiology : journal of the Society for Psychophysiological Research Y1 - 2017 SN - 0048-5772 SN - 1469-8986 VL - 54 SP - S40 EP - S40 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pahnke, Rike A1 - Mau-Möller, Anett A1 - Junge, Martin A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Lischke, Alexander T1 - Oral Contraceptives Impair Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Women JF - Frontiers in neuroscience N2 - Despite the widespread use of oral contraceptives (OCs), remarkably little is known about the effects of OCs on emotion, cognition, and behavior. However, coincidental findings suggest that OCs impair the ability to recognize others’ emotional expressions, which may have serious consequences in interpersonal contexts. To further investigate the effects of OCs on emotion recognition, we tested whether women who were using OCs (n = 42) would be less accurate in the recognition of complex emotional expressions than women who were not using OCs (n = 53). In addition, we explored whether these differences in emotion recognition would depend on women’s menstrual cycle phase. We found that women with OC use were indeed less accurate in the recognition of complex expressions than women without OC use, in particular during the processing of expressions that were difficult to recognize. These differences in emotion recognition did not depend on women’s menstrual cycle phase. Our findings, thus, suggest that OCs impair women’s emotion recognition, which should be taken into account when informing women about the side-effects of OC use. KW - oral contraceptives KW - menstrual cycle KW - estrogen KW - progesterone KW - emotion recognition KW - social cognition Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.01041 SN - 1662-453X VL - 12 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Szeska, Christoph A1 - Richter, Jan A1 - Wendt, Julia A1 - Weymar, Mathias A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. T1 - Promoting long-term inhibition of human fear responses by non-invasive transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation during extinction training JF - Scientific reports N2 - 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. KW - Amygdala KW - Autonomic nervous system KW - Electromyography – EMG KW - Extinction KW - Fear conditioning Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58412-w SN - 2045-2322 VL - 10 IS - 1 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weck, Florian A1 - Grikscheit, Florian A1 - Höfling, Volkmar A1 - Kordt, Anne A1 - Hamm, Alfons O. A1 - Gerlach, Alexander L. A1 - Alpers, Georg W. A1 - Arolt, Volker A1 - Kircher, Tilo A1 - Pauli, Paul A1 - Rief, Winfried A1 - Lang, Thomas T1 - The role of treatment delivery factors in exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy for panic disorder with agoraphobia JF - Journal of anxiety disorders N2 - Treatment delivery factors (i.e., therapist adherence, therapist competence, and therapeutic alliance) are considered to be important for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for panic disorder and agoraphobia (PD/AG). In the current study, four independent raters conducted process evaluations based on 168 two-hour videotapes of 84 patients with PD/AG treated with exposure-based CBT. Two raters evaluated patients’ interpersonal behavior in Session 1. Two raters evaluated treatment delivery factors in Session 6, in which therapists provided the rationale for conducting exposure exercises. At the 6-month follow-up, therapists’ adherence (r = 0.54) and therapeutic alliance (r = 0.31) were significant predictors of changes in agoraphobic avoidance behavior; therapist competence was not associated with treatment outcomes. Patients’ interpersonal behavior in Session 1 was a significant predictor of the therapeutic alliance in Session 6 (r = 0.17). The findings demonstrate that treatment delivery factors, particularly therapist adherence, are relevant to the long-term success of CBT for PD/AG. KW - Interpersonal behavior KW - Panic disorder with agoraphobia KW - Therapeutic alliance KW - Therapist adherence KW - Therapist competence Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2016.05.007 SN - 0887-6185 SN - 1873-7897 VL - 42 SP - 10 EP - 18 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER -