Implicit Threat Learning Involves the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex and the Cerebellum

Overview

Journal Int J Clin Health Psychol

Specialty Psychology

Date 2022 Dec 5

PMID 36467265

Authors

Charlene L M Lam

Clive H Y Wong

Markus Junghofer

Kati Roesmann

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background/objective: Most studies investigating the neural correlates of threat learning were carried out using an explicit Pavlovian conditioning paradigm where declarative knowledge on contingencies between conditioned (CS) and unconditioned stimuli (US) is acquired. The current study aimed at understanding the neural correlates of threat conditioning when contingency awareness is limited or even absent.

Method: We conducted an fMRI report of threat learning in an implicit associative learning paradigm called multi-CS conditioning, in which a number of faces were associated with aversive screams (US) such that participants could not report contingencies between the faces and the screams.

Results: The univariate results showed support for the recruitment of threat-related regions including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the cerebellum during acquisition. Further analyses by the multivariate representational similarity technique identified learning-dependent changes in the bilateral dlPFC.

Conclusion: Our findings support the involvement of the dlPFC and the cerebellum in threat conditioning that occurs with highly limited or even absent contingency awareness.

Citing Articles

PREFRONTAL CORRELATES OF FEAR GENERALIZATION DURING ENDOCANNABINOID DEPLETION.

Rosas-Vidal L, Naskar S, Mayo L, Perini I, Altemus M, Engelbrektsson H bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 38352388 PMC: 10862899. DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.30.577847.

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