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Fear extinction is the fundamental principle behind exposure therapy, a common treatment for anxiety disorders. In this process, the conditioned fear responses diminish progressively over time, when the previously conditioned stimulus is presented without being paired with the unconditioned stimulus. [20]
The neural circuit responsible for expressing signaled avoidance behavior is the same that controls extinction of fear responses. The presentation of the aversive stimulus activates neurons in the central amygdala which project to the periaqueductal gray region to elicit a fear-motivated motor response.
In fear conditioning, the main circuits that are involved are the sensory areas that process the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli, certain regions of the amygdala that undergo plasticity (or long-term potentiation) during learning, and the regions that bear an effect on the expression of specific conditioned responses.
Exposure therapy is based on the principle of respondent conditioning often termed Pavlovian extinction. [10] The exposure therapist identifies the cognitions, emotions and physiological arousal that accompany a fear-inducing stimulus and then tries to break the pattern of escape that maintains the fear.
Neurons in this area aren't fired during the desensitization process despite reducing spontaneous fear responses when artificially fired, suggesting the area stores extinction memories that reduce phobic responses to future stimuli related to the phobia (conditioned), which explains the long-term impact of desensitization. [21]
Pavlovian fear conditioning is a behavioral paradigm in which organisms learn to predict aversive events. [1] It is a form of learning in which an aversive stimulus (e.g. an electrical shock) is associated with a particular neutral context (e.g., a room) or neutral stimulus (e.g., a tone), resulting in the expression of fear responses to the originally neutral stimulus or context.
Fear-potentiated startle (FPS) is a reflexive physiological reaction to a presented stimulus, and is an indicator of the fear reaction in an organism. The FPS response can be elicited in the face of any threatening stimulus (e.g., any object, person or situation that would cause someone to experience feelings of fear), but it can also be elicited by a neutral stimulus as a result of fear ...
This fear hierarchy would list the relative unpleasantness of various levels of exposure to a snake. For example, seeing a picture of a snake might elicit a low fear rating, compared to live snakes crawling on the individual—the latter scenario becoming highest on the fear hierarchy. Learn coping mechanisms or incompatible responses.