Revisiting potential associations between brain morphology, fear acquisition and extinction through new data and a literature review
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Revisiting potential associations between brain morphology, fear acquisition and extinction through new data and a literature review. / Ehlers, Mana R; Nold, Janne; Kuhn, Manuel; Klingelhöfer-Jens, Maren; Lonsdorf, Tina B.
In: SCI REP-UK, Vol. 10, No. 1, 16.11.2020, p. 19894.Research output: SCORING: Contribution to journal › SCORING: Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Revisiting potential associations between brain morphology, fear acquisition and extinction through new data and a literature review
AU - Ehlers, Mana R
AU - Nold, Janne
AU - Kuhn, Manuel
AU - Klingelhöfer-Jens, Maren
AU - Lonsdorf, Tina B
PY - 2020/11/16
Y1 - 2020/11/16
N2 - Inter-individual differences in defensive responding are widely established but their morphological correlates in humans have not been investigated exhaustively. Previous studies reported associations with cortical thickness of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula and medial orbitofrontal cortex as well as amygdala volume in fear conditioning studies. However, these associations are partly inconsistent and often derived from small samples. The current study aimed to replicate previously reported associations between physiological and subjective measures of fear acquisition and extinction and brain morphology. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 107 healthy adults who completed a differential cued fear conditioning paradigm with 24 h delayed extinction while skin conductance response (SCR) and fear ratings were recorded. Cortical thickness and subcortical volume were obtained using the software Freesurfer. Results obtained by traditional null hypothesis significance testing and Bayesians statistics do not support structural brain-behavior relationships: Neither differential SCR nor fear ratings during fear acquisition or extinction training could be predicted by cortical thickness or subcortical volume in regions previously reported. In summary, the current pre-registered study does not corroborate associations between brain morphology and inter-individual differences in defensive responding but differences in experimental design and analyses approaches compared to previous work should be acknowledged.
AB - Inter-individual differences in defensive responding are widely established but their morphological correlates in humans have not been investigated exhaustively. Previous studies reported associations with cortical thickness of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, insula and medial orbitofrontal cortex as well as amygdala volume in fear conditioning studies. However, these associations are partly inconsistent and often derived from small samples. The current study aimed to replicate previously reported associations between physiological and subjective measures of fear acquisition and extinction and brain morphology. Structural magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 107 healthy adults who completed a differential cued fear conditioning paradigm with 24 h delayed extinction while skin conductance response (SCR) and fear ratings were recorded. Cortical thickness and subcortical volume were obtained using the software Freesurfer. Results obtained by traditional null hypothesis significance testing and Bayesians statistics do not support structural brain-behavior relationships: Neither differential SCR nor fear ratings during fear acquisition or extinction training could be predicted by cortical thickness or subcortical volume in regions previously reported. In summary, the current pre-registered study does not corroborate associations between brain morphology and inter-individual differences in defensive responding but differences in experimental design and analyses approaches compared to previous work should be acknowledged.
KW - Adolescent
KW - Adult
KW - Amygdala/physiopathology
KW - Anxiety/physiopathology
KW - Brain Mapping
KW - Brain/anatomy & histology
KW - Cerebral Cortex/physiopathology
KW - Extinction, Psychological
KW - Fear/physiology
KW - Female
KW - Healthy Volunteers
KW - Humans
KW - Individuality
KW - Longitudinal Studies
KW - Male
KW - Mental Recall
KW - Young Adult
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-020-76683-1
DO - 10.1038/s41598-020-76683-1
M3 - SCORING: Journal article
C2 - 33199738
VL - 10
SP - 19894
JO - SCI REP-UK
JF - SCI REP-UK
SN - 2045-2322
IS - 1
ER -