UNCONSCIOUS FEAR EFFECTS ON DECISION MAKING

这个子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和调查员(PI)可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可能会出现在其他CRISE条目中。列出的机构是针对中心的，而不一定是针对调查员的机构。使用爱荷华州赌博任务(IGT)的研究表明，通过皮肤抵抗力(SCR)的下降来衡量的预期恐惧反应先于对恐惧的有意识意识以及对恐惧刺激的行为回避(在这项任务中--在赌博任务中导致输赢的卡片)。许多人对这些发现进行了解读，认为无意识的恐惧反应可能会在没有意识到的情况下影响行为。虽然这一现象在非临床样本中得到了广泛的研究，但这项工作的临床相关性几乎没有受到关注。众所周知，恐惧症受试者会对与恐惧相关的刺激产生SCR，即使在潜意识中也是如此。这项研究将调查恐惧症受试者对潜意识刺激的这种预期恐惧反应是否会导致避免与恐惧相关的刺激。400名大学生将接受蜘蛛恐惧症筛查，极端得分手处于高度恐惧状态？(HF)和？低恐惧？(LF)组。这两个小组都将执行爱荷华州赌博任务的修改版本，其中将包括在做出特定选择时对与恐惧相关的刺激进行潜意识呈现。只有恐惧症受试者应该对恐惧相关的刺激产生SCR，因此应该是唯一表现出对此类刺激的行为回避的群体，即使在不知道刺激呈现的情况下也是如此。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Studies using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) have shown that anticipatory fear responses, as measured by decreases in skin resistance (SCR), precede both conscious awareness of fear as well behavioral avoidance of feared stimuli (in this task-- cards that lead to losses during a gambling task). Many have interpreted such findings to suggest that non-conscious fear responses may influence behavior without awareness. While this phenomenon is being widely studied in non-clinical samples, the clinical relevance of this work has received little attention. Phobic subjects are known to produce SCRs to fear-related stimuli even when presented subliminally. This study will investigate whether such anticipatory fear responses to subliminal stimuli will lead to avoidance of fear-related stimuli in phobic subjects. Four hundred college students will be screened for spider fear with extreme scorers placed into ?high fear? (HF) and ?low fear? (LF) groups. Both groups will perform a modified version of the Iowa Gambling Task that will include subliminal presentations of fear-related stimuli when certain choices are made. Only phobic subjects should produce SCRs to fear-related stimuli and thus should be the only group to show behavioral avoidance of such stimuli even when unaware of the stimulus presentation.