Abstract
Individuals with anxiety disorders have previously demonstrated abnormal habituation to aversiveness over time. As anxiety sensitivity (AS), or an individuals' propensity to fear of anxiety-related sensations, has been shown to be a risk factor for anxiety disorders (particularly panic disorder), the present study examined whether AS was also associated with abnormal habituation. This association was examined in two independent samples of undergraduates (Ntotal=178). Habituation was operationalised as the reduction in startle response to multiple startle probes presented over 2.5 minutes and three definitions of this reduction were employed. Results indicated that individuals with higher levels of AS evidenced deficits in startle habituation, but the strength of this relationship was somewhat dependent on the definition of startle habituation, with the most robust definition being an analysis of participants' individual slopes across all nine blinks. The present findings suggest that startle habituation is a key mechanism underlying AS, and may help elucidate the role this risk factor plays in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 46-58 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Cognition and Emotion |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2014 |
Funding
Correspondence should be addressed to: Stewart A. Shankman, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W. Harrison Street, M/C 285, Chicago, IL 60607, USA. E-mail: [email protected] This project was supported by an NIH R21 grant MH08069, the University of Illinois at Chicago Chancellor’s Fund, and a Center for Clinical Translational Science (CCTS) grant UL1TR000050 awarded to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Keywords
- Anxiety sensitivity
- Startle habituation
- Startle reduction
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)