@article{ref1,
title="Aversive startle potentiation and fear pathology: mediating role of threat sensitivity and moderating impact of depression",
journal="International journal of psychophysiology",
year="2014",
author="Yancey, James R. and Vaidyanathan, Uma and Patrick, Christopher J.",
volume="98",
number="2P2",
pages="262-269",
abstract="Enhanced startle during exposure to unpleasant cues (aversive startle potentiation; ASP) appears in the RDoC matrix as a physiological index of acute threat response. Increased ASP has been linked to focal fear disorders and to scale measures of dispositional fearfulness (i.e., threat sensitivity; THT+). However, some studies have reported reduced ASP for fear pathology accompanied by major depressive disorder (MDD) or pervasive distress. The current study evaluated whether (a) THT+as indexed by reported dispositional fearfulness mediates the relationship between fear disorders (when unaccompanied by depression) and ASP, and (b) depression moderates relations of THT+and fear disorders with ASP. Fear disorder participants without MDD showed enhanced ASP whereas those with MDD (or other distress conditions) showed evidence of reduced ASP. Continuous THT+scores also predicted ASP, and this association: (a) was likewise moderated by depression/distress, and (b) accounted for the relationship between ASP and fear pathology without MDD. These findings point to a role for the RDoC construct of acute threat, operationalized dispositionally, in enhanced ASP shown by individuals with fear pathology unaccompanied by distress pathology.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0167-8760",
doi="10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.10.014",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.10.014"
}