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A twin study of the...
Abstract
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- Fear conditioning is a traditional model for the acquisition of fears and phobias. Studies of the genetic architecture of fear conditioning may inform gene-finding strategies for anxiety disorders. The objective of this study was to determine the genetic and environmental sources of individual differences in fear conditioning by means of a twin sample. METHODS: Classic fear conditioning data were experimentally obtained from 173 same-sex twin pairs (90 monozygotic and 83 dizygotic). Sequences of evolutionary fear-relevant (snakes and spiders) and fear-irrelevant (circles and triangles) pictorial stimuli served as conditioned stimuli paired with a mild electric shock serving as the unconditioned stimulus. The outcome measure was the electrodermal skin conductance response. We applied structural equation modeling methods to the 3 conditioning phases of habituation, acquisition, and extinction to determine the extent to which genetic and environmental factors underlie individual variation in associative and nonassociative learning. RESULTS: All components of the fear conditioning process in humans demonstrated moderate heritability, in the range of 35% to 45%. Best-fitting multivariate models suggest that 2 sets of genes may underlie the trait of fear conditioning: one that most strongly affects nonassociative processes of habituation that also is shared with acquisition and extinction, and a second that appears related to associative fear conditioning processes. In addition, these data provide tentative evidence of differences in heritability based on the fear relevance of the stimuli. CONCLUSION: Genes represent a significant source of individual variation in the habituation, acquisition, and extinction of fears, and genetic effects specific to fear conditioning are involved.
Keyword
- Adult
- Association Learning/physiology
- Comparative Study
- Conditioning; Classical/*physiology
- Diseases in Twins/etiology/*genetics
- Extinction (Psychology)/physiology
- Family
- Fear/*physiology
- Female
- Galvanic Skin Response/physiology
- Habituation (Psychophysiology)/physiology
- Humans
- Male
- Models; Genetic
- Multivariate Analysis
- Phobic Disorders/etiology/*genetics
- Reinforcement (Psychology)
- Research Support; Non-U.S. Gov't
- Research Support; U.S. Gov't; P.H.S.
- Social Environment
- Twins; Dizygotic/genetics
- Twins; Monozygotic/genetics
Publication and Content Type
- ref (subject category)
- art (subject category)
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