Rapid amygdala responses during trace fear conditioning without awareness. PLoS One 2014;9(5):e96803
Date
05/16/2014Pubmed ID
24823365Pubmed Central ID
PMC4019542DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0096803Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84901269641 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 23 CitationsAbstract
The role of consciousness in learning has been debated for nearly 50 years. Recent studies suggest that conscious awareness is needed to bridge the gap when learning about two events that are separated in time, as is true for trace fear conditioning. This has been repeatedly shown and seems to apply to other forms of classical conditioning as well. In contrast to these findings, we show that individuals can learn to associate a face with the later occurrence of a shock, even if they are unable to perceive the face. We used a novel application of magnetoencephalography (MEG) to non-invasively record neural activity from the amygdala, which is known to be important for fear learning. We demonstrate rapid (∼ 170-200 ms) amygdala responses during the stimulus free period between the face and the shock. These results suggest that unperceived faces can serve as signals for impending threat, and that rapid, automatic activation of the amygdala contributes to this process. In addition, we describe a methodology that can be applied in the future to study neural activity with MEG in other subcortical structures.
Author List
Balderston NL, Schultz DH, Baillet S, Helmstetter FJAuthor
Fred Helmstetter PhD Professor in the Psychology / Neuroscience department at University of Wisconsin - MilwaukeeMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdolescentAdult
Amygdala
Awareness
Brain Mapping
Conditioning, Classical
Consciousness
Electroshock
Fear
Female
Galvanic Skin Response
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetoencephalography
Male
Photic Stimulation
Young Adult
