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• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Choose an application

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• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

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Interoceptive fear conditioning and generalization have all been proposed to play a part in the development of panic disorder (PD). Interoceptive fear conditioning with respiratory stimuli has been studied in healthy participants, but not in patients with PD. Furthermore, interoceptive fear conditioning and generalization with respiratory stimuli in a between-subject paired/unpaired paradigm have never been combined in one study. This study aims to investigate whether healthy participants (N = 40) and PD patients (N = 15) can learn fear to an interoceptive stimulus, whether this fear generalizes to similar stimuli, and whether it influences interoceptive accuracy. An inspiratory breathing impairment (inspiratory load of 15 cmH2O/l/s) serves as the interoceptive conditioned stimulus, along with a total inspiratory blocking (occlusion) as the unconditioned stimulus (US) in a between-subject paired/unpaired conditioning paradigm. Generalization is tested with four inspiratory loads surrounding the CS (GSs: 5-10-20-25 cmH2O/l/s). Measures include PD relevant questionnaires, startle blink EMG responses, skin conductance responses, electrocardiographic activity, respiration, and US expectancy. Respiratory stimulus perception was assessed with self-report scales. This study successfully established interoceptive fear conditioning with respiratory stimuli in the CS-US paired condition. Moreover, our findings show a trend for the unpaired group (decreased US expectancy in acquisition) that could point to safety learning. Our results did not support generalization to GSs close to the CS after fear conditioning. Interoceptive accuracy appeared to decrease after fear acquisition in the paired condition, however this was a non-significant trend. All participants did show signs of habituation to the respiratory loads. Due to the small sample size in the patient group, the current sample lacks the statistical power to draw conclusions and therefore, additional data collection is needed.