Fear Conditioning Using Computer-Generated Virtual Reality

The purpose of this study is to use a computer-generated virtual reality environment to study fear conditioning. Fear conditioning is used to explore the causes and persistence of anxiety and anxiety disorders.

When confronted with fearful or unpleasant events, people can develop fear of specific cues that were associated with these events as well as to the environmental context in which the events occurred via a process called classical or aversive conditioning. Advances in computer-generated visual stimulations could facilitate the design of new aversive conditioning studies. This study will develop a virtual reality environment to examine human contextual fear conditioning in the laboratory. During the procedure, moderately painful stimuli will be administered. Participants in this study will be screened with a medical history, physical examination, psychiatric evaluation, and hearing test. Participants will wear headphones and special goggles that will enable them to view a virtual reality environment. Measures will be taken during the study to see how the brain adapts to environmental stimuli.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Anxiety Disorder

Detailed Description

Fear conditioning paradigms are tools to explore symptoms of anxiety disorders. During fear conditioning, the organism develops fear to the phasic explicit cue (e.g., a light) that was associated with the aversive unconditioned stimulus (e.g., a shock) during conditioning as well as to the environmental context (e.g., the experimental room). Explicit cue conditioning and context conditioning are separate processes mediated by distinct brain structures. Whereas explicit cue conditioning is only dependent on the amygdala, context conditioning involves the amygdala, the hippocampus and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). We have been using explicit cue and context conditioning as models of phasic fear and sustained anxiety, respectively. However, contextual fear is relatively difficult to study in humans in the laboratory because it requires two experimental sessions and the use of different experimental rooms. Advances in computer-generated visual stimulation now offer the possibility to develop more sophisticated paradigms in the laboratory that could facilitate the design of fear conditioning studies. In addition, compared to traditional paradigms, computer generated three-dimensional stimulation provides the opportunity to create more realistic virtual environment. The main objective of this study is to use virtual reality to further our understanding of fear conditioning in humans.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 202

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Maryland
    • Bethesda, Maryland, United States, 20892
      • National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, 9000 Rockville Pike

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 7 years to 50 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

• INCLUSION CRITERIA:

Subjects will be healthy volunteers ages 7-50 recruited through advertisements in the local media.

Subjects will be free of current or past psychotic disorder and organic central nervous system disorders.

All children will be screened for lifetime history of psychiatric disorders using the K-SADS Interview. The interview will be administered by a trained clinician (at least master level) supervised by Dr. Pine.

The children/adolescents will be able to give assent and parents will give consent.

They will have an IQ greater than 70 based on WASI.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA:

Ongoing medical illness that could interfere with the study

Current psychiatric or neurological disorder (including seizure)

Past psychotic disorder

Current substance abuse

Current psychotropic medication

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Grillon C, Davis M. Fear-potentiated startle conditioning in humans: explicit and contextual cue conditioning following paired versus unpaired training. Psychophysiology. 1997 Jul;34(4):451-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1997.tb02389.x.
• Grillon C, Ameli R, Woods SW, Merikangas K, Davis M. Fear-potentiated startle in humans: effects of anticipatory anxiety on the acoustic blink reflex. Psychophysiology. 1991 Sep;28(5):588-95. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1991.tb01999.x.
• Grillon C, Ameli R, Goddard A, Woods SW, Davis M. Baseline and fear-potentiated startle in panic disorder patients. Biol Psychiatry. 1994 Apr 1;35(7):431-9. doi: 10.1016/0006-3223(94)90040-x.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: October 22, 2001
• Study Completion: April 10, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 26, 2001
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 26, 2001
• First Posted (Estimate): October 28, 2001

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 2, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 30, 2017
• Last Verified: April 10, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Anxiety; Stress; Adults; HV; Healthy Volunteer; Virtual Reality; Associative Learning; Normal Control; Fear Conditioning; Normal Volunteers; Context Conditioning
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Anxiety Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 020003; 02-M-0003