Reference : Learned Fear of Gastrointestinal Sensations in Healthy Adults
Scientific journals : Article
Human health sciences : Gastroenterology & hepatology
http://hdl.handle.net/10993/28970
Learned Fear of Gastrointestinal Sensations in Healthy Adults
English
Ceunen, Erik mailto [University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education (FLSHASE) > Integrative Research Unit: Social and Individual Development (INSIDE)]
Zaman, Jonas [> >]
Weltens, Nathalie [> >]
Sarafanova, Ekaterina [> >]
Arijs, Vicky [> >]
Vlaeyen, Johan []
Van Oudenhove, Lukas [> >]
Van Diest, Ilse [> >]
Nov-2016
Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Elsevier
14
11
1552–1558.e2
Yes (verified by ORBilu)
International
1542-3565
[en] Functional gastrointestinal disorders ; FGID ; visceral pain ; interoception ; interoceptive conditioning ; gastrointestinal symptom-specific fear
[en] Background & Aims
Gastrointestinal symptom-specific fear and anxiety are important determinants of gastrointestinal symptom perception. We studied learning of fear toward innocuous gastrointestinal sensations as a putative mechanism in the development of gastrointestinal symptom-specific fear and anxiety.

Methods
Fifty-two healthy subjects (26 women) received 2 types of esophageal balloon distention at a perceptible but nonpainful intensity (conditioned stimulus [CS], the innocuous sensation) and at a painful intensity (unconditioned stimulus [US]). Subjects were assigned randomly to 1 of 2 groups. During the learning phase, the innocuous CS preceded the painful US in the experimental group (n = 26). In the control group (n = 26), on the contrary, the US never followed the CS directly. During a subsequent extinction phase, both groups received only CS distention—the painful US was no longer administered. Indexes of fear learning toward the innocuous CS distention included the skin conductance response, fear-potentiated startle (measured by the eye-blink electromyogram), and self-reported expectancy of the US.

Results
During the learning phase, only the experimental group learned to fear the innocuous gastrointestinal CS, based on the increase in US expectancy (compared with the control group, P = .04), increased skin conductance response (compared with the control group, P = .03), and potentiated startle reflex (compared with the control group, P = .001) in response to the CS. The differences between the experimental and control groups in US expectancy and skin conductance, but not fear-potentiated startle, disappeared during the extinction phase.

Conclusions
Fear toward innocuous gastrointestinal sensations can be established through associative learning in healthy human beings. This may be an important mechanism in the development of fear of gastrointestinal symptoms, implicated in the pathophysiology of functional gastrointestinal disorders.
Integrative Research Unit: Social and Individual Development (INSIDE) > Institute for Health and Behaviour
Fund for Scientific Research–Flanders ; KU Leuven grant (PF/10/005)
Researchers ; Professionals ; Students ; Others
http://hdl.handle.net/10993/28970
10.1016/j.cgh.2016.04.035
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1542356516301483
The following is the author's postprint allowed for archiving. The original publication is available at www.sciencedirect.com

File(s) associated to this reference

Fulltext file(s):

FileCommentaryVersionSizeAccess
Open access
Learned fear author's post-print.pdfAuthor postprint837.33 kBView/Open

Additional material(s):

File Commentary Size Access
Limited access
editorial learned fear GI.pdf165.43 kBRequest a copy

Bookmark and Share SFX Query

All documents in ORBilu are protected by a user license.