Effects of Arousal and Stress in Anxiety
| Status: | Recruiting |
|---|---|
| Conditions: | Anxiety, Psychiatric |
| Therapuetic Areas: | Psychiatry / Psychology |
| Healthy: | No |
| Age Range: | 18 - 50 |
| Updated: | 1/23/2019 |
| Start Date: | June 27, 2001 |
| Contact: | Christian Grillon, Ph.D. |
| Email: | grillonc@mail.nih.gov |
| Phone: | (301) 594-2894 |
Effects of Arousal and Stress on Classical Conditioning
This study has several parts. One part will examine the influence of factors such as
personality and past experience on reactions to unpleasant stimuli. Others will examine the
effect of personality and emotional and attentional states on learning and memory.
When confronted with fearful or unpleasant events, people can develop fear of specific cues
that were associated with these events as well as to the environmental context in which the
events occurred via a process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has been
used to model anxiety disorders, but the relationship between stress and anxiety and
conditioned responses remains unclear. This study will examine the relationship between cued
conditioning and context conditioning . This study will also explore the acquisition and
retention of different types of motor, emotional, and cognitive associative processes during
various tasks that range from mildly arousing to stressful.
personality and past experience on reactions to unpleasant stimuli. Others will examine the
effect of personality and emotional and attentional states on learning and memory.
When confronted with fearful or unpleasant events, people can develop fear of specific cues
that were associated with these events as well as to the environmental context in which the
events occurred via a process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has been
used to model anxiety disorders, but the relationship between stress and anxiety and
conditioned responses remains unclear. This study will examine the relationship between cued
conditioning and context conditioning . This study will also explore the acquisition and
retention of different types of motor, emotional, and cognitive associative processes during
various tasks that range from mildly arousing to stressful.
Objective: Fear and anxiety are adaptive responses to different types of threats. Fear is a
short-duration response evoked by explicit threat cues and anxiety a more sustained state of
apprehension evoked by unpredictable threat. This protocol studied fear using Pavlovian fear
conditioning in two studies. Studies 1 and 3. Study 2 focused on anxiety. Studies 1 and 3
will be discontinued to focus uniquely on the study of anxiety. Specifically, we will examine
the interactions between anxiety induced experimentally using verbal threat and cognitive
processes. We will seek to 1) characterize the effect of anxiety on key cognitive processes
including working memory and attention control and 2) examine the extent to which performance
of cognitive tasks distract from anxiety.
Study population: This more-than-minimal-risk protocol will test medically and
psychiatrically healthy volunteers aged 18-50. Pregnant or nursing women will be excluded.
Method: Fear and anxiety will be measured using the startle reflex to brief and loud sounds.
Fear conditioning will be assessed using shock as unconditioned stimulus. Cognitive
performance will be examined during periods of unpredictable shock anticipation.
Outcome measures: The study will include cognitive performance and measure of aversive
states, primarily the startle reflex.
short-duration response evoked by explicit threat cues and anxiety a more sustained state of
apprehension evoked by unpredictable threat. This protocol studied fear using Pavlovian fear
conditioning in two studies. Studies 1 and 3. Study 2 focused on anxiety. Studies 1 and 3
will be discontinued to focus uniquely on the study of anxiety. Specifically, we will examine
the interactions between anxiety induced experimentally using verbal threat and cognitive
processes. We will seek to 1) characterize the effect of anxiety on key cognitive processes
including working memory and attention control and 2) examine the extent to which performance
of cognitive tasks distract from anxiety.
Study population: This more-than-minimal-risk protocol will test medically and
psychiatrically healthy volunteers aged 18-50. Pregnant or nursing women will be excluded.
Method: Fear and anxiety will be measured using the startle reflex to brief and loud sounds.
Fear conditioning will be assessed using shock as unconditioned stimulus. Cognitive
performance will be examined during periods of unpredictable shock anticipation.
Outcome measures: The study will include cognitive performance and measure of aversive
states, primarily the startle reflex.
- INCLUSION CRITERIA:
- Males and females
- Age 18-50
EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
- Pregnancy
- Any current ongoing medical illness
- Current Axis I disorders
- Past significant psychiatric disorders (e.g., psychotic disorders) according to DSM-IV
- Current alcohol or substance abuse according to DSM-IV criteria
- History of alcohol or substance dependence based on DSM-IV criteria within 6 months
prior to screening
- Current psychotropic medication use
- Current or past organic central nervous system disorders, including but not limited to
seizure disorder or neurological symptoms of the wrist and arms (e.g., carpal tunnel
syndrome). The latter exclusion is for shock studies only.
- Negative urine toxicology screen
- Employees of NIMH or an immediate family member of a NIMH employee.
We found this trial at
1
site
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Phone: 800-411-1222
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