Taxonomic relations evoke more fear than thematic relations after fear conditioning: An EEG study.

Taxonomic relations evoke more fear than thematic relations after fear conditioning: An EEG study. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2019 Nov 04;:107099 Authors: Lei Y, Mei Y, Dai Y, Peng W Abstract When fear is generalized, knowledge based on concepts is also retrieved. Concepts have two very different relations: thematic relations based on the co-occurrence of events or scenarios, and taxonomic relations based on similarity or shared features. However, it remains unclear whether thematic and taxonomic relationships differentially affect fear generalization. To clarify the underlying cognitive mechanisms of these relations, the current study combined the classical fear conditioning procedure with electroencephalography (EEG). Forty participants were conditioned to a neutral word by pairing the presentation of the word with an unpleasant electrical pulse. A different stimulus was not paired with the electrical pulse. Next, during generalization testing, thematically related or taxonomic-related words were presented. Behavioral responses (shock expectancy and response time) and brain responses (event-related potentials [ERP] and oscillation activity) were recorded. Behavioral results showed that taxonomic relations initiated higher shock expectancy compared with thematic relations, and that conceptual relations did not affect response times. Taxonomic relations induced larger P2 components than thematic relations, and danger generalization stimuli...
Source: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Learn Mem Source Type: research