Page 28 - MEGIN Book Of Abstracts - 2023

Neural correlates of fear conditioning are related to percentual symptom reductions from pre- to
associated with treatment-outcomes to behavioral post-treatment, as assessed via spider phobia question-
exposure in spider phobia - Evidence from naire (SPQ), behavioral avoidance test (BAT), and remis-
magnetoencephalography (2022) sion status at 6-month follow-up.

Roesmann, Kati; Toelle, Julius; Leehr, Elisabeth Johanna; RESULTS We observed no associations between pre-
Wessing, Ida; Böhnlein, Joscha; Seeger, Fabian; treatment CS+/CS- differences in fear ratings and any
Schwarzmeier, Hanna; Siminski, Niklas; Herrmann, treatment outcome. CS+/CS- differences in source
Martin J; Dannlowski, Udo; Lueken, Ulrike; Klucken, Tim; estimations of ERFs revealed that higher CS- activity
Straube, Thomas; Junghöfer, Markus in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) was
related with SPQ- and BAT-reductions. Associations
Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University between CS+/CS- differences and treatment outcomes
of Münster, Germany; Institute for Clinical Psychology and were also observed in left ventromedial prefrontal
Psychotherapy, University of Siegen, Germany. Electronic cortex (vmPFC) regions, which additionally revealed
address: [email protected]; Institute for Transla- associations with the follow-up remission status.
tional Psychiatry, University of Münster, Germany; Institute for
Biomagnetism and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, CONCLUSIONS Results provide initial evidence that
Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, neural pre-treatment CS+/CS- differences may hold
University of Münster, Germany; Center for Mental Health, predictive information regarding outcomes of behav-
Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychothera- ioral exposure. Our findings highlight a key role of
py, University Hospital of Würzburg, Germany; Department of neural responses to safety cues with potentially inhibi-
General Psychiatry, University of Heidelberg, Germany; Center tory effects on affect-generating structures during fear
for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomat- conditioning.
ics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Ger-
many; Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Keywords: Anxiety disorders, Exposure outcome, Fear
Berlin, Germany; Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems conditioning, MEG/EEG, Specific phobia, Virtual reality
Neuroscience, University of Münster, Germany exposure therapy

BACKGROUND Models of anxiety disorders and the ra- NeuroImage. Clinical (2022), Vol. 35 (35609411) (1 citation)
tionale of exposure therapy (ET) are grounded on clas-
sical fear conditioning. Yet, it is unclear whether lower
fear ratings of conditioned safety versus threat cues Behavioral and Magnetoencephalographic
and corresponding neural markers of safety-learning Correlates of Fear Generalization Are Associated
and/or fear inhibition assessed before treatment would With Responses to Later Virtual Reality Exposure
predict better outcomes of behavioral exposure. Therapy in Spider Phobia (2022)

METHODS Sixty-six patients with spider phobia com- Roesmann, Kati; Leehr, Elisabeth Johanna; Böhnlein,
pleted pre-treatment clinical and experimental fear Joscha; Steinberg, Christian; Seeger, Fabian;
conditioning assessments, one session of virtual reality Schwarzmeier, Hanna; Gathmann, Bettina; Siminski,
ET, a post-treatment clinical assessment, and a 6-month Niklas; Herrmann, Martin J; Dannlowski, Udo; Lueken,
follow-up assessment. Tilted Gabor gratings served as Ulrike; Klucken, Tim; Hilbert, Kevin; Straube, Thomas;
conditioned stimuli (CS) that were either paired (CS+) Junghöfer, Markus
or remained unpaired (CS-) with an aversive phobia-
related and phobia-unrelated unconditioned stimulus Institute for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Univer-
(UCS). CS+/CS- differences in fear ratings and magne- sity of Siegen, Siegen, Germany; Institute for Biomagnetism
toencephalographic event-related fields (ERFs) were and Biosignalanalysis, University of Münster, Münster,

 ontents  Index 7
C