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Fear conditioning and affective modulation of the startle reflex in male adolescents with early-onset or adolescence-onset conduct disorder and healthy control subjects

Fear conditioning and affective modulation of the startle reflex in male adolescents with early-onset or adolescence-onset conduct disorder and healthy control subjects
Fear conditioning and affective modulation of the startle reflex in male adolescents with early-onset or adolescence-onset conduct disorder and healthy control subjects
Background: Impairments in emotional processing may play an etiological role in the development of aggressive or antisocial behavior such as is seen in conduct disorder (CD). These findings may be developmentally sensitive, with neuropsychological impairments confined to those with the early-onset form of CD, which emerges in childhood. We investigated whether adolescents with early- or adolescence-onset CD would acquire fear conditioned responses to a visual conditioned stimulus and show a normal pattern of affective modulation of the startle reflex

Methods: Electrodermal activity was measured during the fear conditioning process, and electromyographic recording methods were used to assess blink magnitudes elicited by acoustic startle probes during the viewing of emotionally valenced pictures. Forty-one early-onset CD, 28 adolescence-onset CD, and 54 healthy control adolescents participated in the study.

Results: Both CD groups showed impaired differential fear conditioning relative to control subjects, while retaining the ability to generate normal skin conductance responses to the aversive unconditioned stimulus. There was a similar relationship between emotional valence of the slides and startle magnitude in CD and control adolescents, but startle-elicited blinks were lower across all emotion categories in both CD subtypes.

Conclusions: Fear conditioning deficits and reduced startle amplitudes were observed in participants with early- and adolescence-onset forms of CD. These findings are consistent with impairments in neural systems subserving emotion and involving the amygdala in CD, regardless of age of onset.
aggression, amygdala, antisocial behavior, conduct disorder, fear conditioning, startle
0006-3223
279-285
Fairchild, Graeme
f99bc911-978e-48c2-9754-c6460666a95f
Van Goozen, Stephanie H.
b36f8a55-ec4d-4e3d-8604-d4e8f58714f6
Stollery, Sarah J.
6e3ade33-c0cf-47d0-aaeb-bba8c419d636
Goodyer, Ian M.
b61b8ae9-a305-462b-9fe5-66f8d3fb6312
Fairchild, Graeme
f99bc911-978e-48c2-9754-c6460666a95f
Van Goozen, Stephanie H.
b36f8a55-ec4d-4e3d-8604-d4e8f58714f6
Stollery, Sarah J.
6e3ade33-c0cf-47d0-aaeb-bba8c419d636
Goodyer, Ian M.
b61b8ae9-a305-462b-9fe5-66f8d3fb6312

Fairchild, Graeme, Van Goozen, Stephanie H., Stollery, Sarah J. and Goodyer, Ian M. (2008) Fear conditioning and affective modulation of the startle reflex in male adolescents with early-onset or adolescence-onset conduct disorder and healthy control subjects. Biological Psychiatry, 63 (3), 279-285. (doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.06.019).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: Impairments in emotional processing may play an etiological role in the development of aggressive or antisocial behavior such as is seen in conduct disorder (CD). These findings may be developmentally sensitive, with neuropsychological impairments confined to those with the early-onset form of CD, which emerges in childhood. We investigated whether adolescents with early- or adolescence-onset CD would acquire fear conditioned responses to a visual conditioned stimulus and show a normal pattern of affective modulation of the startle reflex

Methods: Electrodermal activity was measured during the fear conditioning process, and electromyographic recording methods were used to assess blink magnitudes elicited by acoustic startle probes during the viewing of emotionally valenced pictures. Forty-one early-onset CD, 28 adolescence-onset CD, and 54 healthy control adolescents participated in the study.

Results: Both CD groups showed impaired differential fear conditioning relative to control subjects, while retaining the ability to generate normal skin conductance responses to the aversive unconditioned stimulus. There was a similar relationship between emotional valence of the slides and startle magnitude in CD and control adolescents, but startle-elicited blinks were lower across all emotion categories in both CD subtypes.

Conclusions: Fear conditioning deficits and reduced startle amplitudes were observed in participants with early- and adolescence-onset forms of CD. These findings are consistent with impairments in neural systems subserving emotion and involving the amygdala in CD, regardless of age of onset.

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Submitted date: 1 February 2007
Accepted/In Press date: 21 June 2007
e-pub ahead of print date: 31 August 2007
Published date: 1 February 2008
Keywords: aggression, amygdala, antisocial behavior, conduct disorder, fear conditioning, startle

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 155601
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/155601
ISSN: 0006-3223
PURE UUID: d00df4a2-31b9-4266-af3e-f749cdd521ac
ORCID for Graeme Fairchild: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7814-9938

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Date deposited: 28 May 2010 09:37
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 01:39

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Contributors

Author: Graeme Fairchild ORCID iD
Author: Stephanie H. Van Goozen
Author: Sarah J. Stollery
Author: Ian M. Goodyer

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