Page 29 - MEGIN Book Of Abstracts - 2023

Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behav- that nonresponders showed a decline of their (inhibi-
ioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany. tory) frontal activations to safety-signaling CS- and gen-
Electronic address: [email protected]; Institute eralization stimuli compared with CS+ over time, while
for Translational Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, responders maintained these activations at early (<300
Germany; Center for Mental Health, Department of Psychia- ms) and late processing stages.
try, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, University Hospital
of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Institute of Medical CONCLUSIONS Results provide initial evidence that
Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Münster, pretreatment differences of behavioral and neural
Münster, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and markers of fear generalization may act as moderators
Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster, of later responses to behavioral exposure. Stimulating
Germany; Institute for Translational Psychiatry, University further research on fear generalization as a potential
of Münster, Münster, Germany; Center for Mental Health, predictive marker, our findings are an important first
Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychother- step in the attempt to identify patients who may not
apy, University Hospital of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; benefit from exposure therapy and to personalize
Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and optimize treatment strategies for this vulnerable
Humboldt, Germany; Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive patient group.
and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Münster, Münster,
Germany; Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neu- Keywords: Anxiety disorders, Exposure outcome, Fear
roscience, University of Münster, Münster, Germany generalization, MEG/EEG, Specific phobia, Virtual reality
exposure therapy
BACKGROUND Because overgeneralization of fear is a
pathogenic marker of anxiety disorders, we investigat- Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and
ed whether pretreatment levels of fear generalization neuroimaging (2022), Vol. 7, No. 2 (34325047) (3 citations)
in spider-phobic patients are related to their response
to exposure-based treatment to identify pretreatment
moderators of treatment success. Reduced coupling of somatosensory gating and
gamma oscillation in panic disorder (2021)
METHODS A total of 90 patients with spider phobia
completed pretreatment clinical and magnetoen- Cheng, Chia-Hsiung; Liu, Chia-Yih; Hsu, Shih-Chieh;
cephalography assessments, one session of virtual Tseng, Yi-Jhan
reality exposure therapy, and a posttreatment clini-
cal assessment. Based on the primary outcome (30% Department of Occupational Therapy and Graduate Institute
symptom reduction in self-reported symptoms), they of Behavioral Sciences, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Tai-
were categorized as responders or nonresponders. In wan; Healthy Aging Research Center, Chang Gung University,
a pretreatment magnetoencephalography fear gener- Taoyuan, Taiwan; Laboratory of Brain Imaging and Neural
alization paradigm involving fear conditioning with 2 Dynamics (BIND Lab), Chang Gung University, Taoyuan,
unconditioned stimuli (UCS), we obtained fear ratings, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial
UCS expectancy ratings, and event-related fields to Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan. Electronic address: ch.cheng@mail.
conditioned stimuli (CS: CS-, CS+) and 7 different gener- cgu.edu.tw; Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memo-
alization stimuli on a perceptual continuum from CS- to rial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan; College of Medicine, Chang
CS+. Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Department of Psychiatry,
Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taiwan; College of
RESULTS Before treatment, nonresponders showed Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Depart-
behavioral overgeneralization indicated by more linear ment of Psychiatry, New Taipei Municipal TuCheng Hospital
generalization gradients in fear ratings. Analyses of (Built and Operated by Chang Gung Medical Foundation),
magnetoencephalography source estimations revealed Taiwan; Department of Medical Research, Hsinchu Mackay

 ontents  Index 8
C