TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Physiological synchrony predicts observational threat learning in humans
JO  - Proceedings of the Royal Society - biological sciences
A1  - Pärnamets, Philip
A1  - Espinosa, Lisa
A1  - Olsson, Andreas
SP  - e20192779
EP  - e20192779
VL  - 287
IS  - 1927
N2  - Understanding how information about threats in the environment is shared and transmitted between individuals is crucial for explaining adaptive, survival-related behaviour in humans and other animals, and for developing treatments for phobias and other anxiety disorders. Research across species has shown that observing a conspecific's, a 'demonstrator's,' threat responses causes strong and persistent threat memories in the 'observer'. Here, we examined if physiological synchrony between demonstrator and observer can serve to predict the strength of observationally acquired conditioned responses. We measured synchrony between demonstrators' and observers' phasic electrodermal signals during learning, which directly reflects autonomic nervous system activity. Prior interpersonal synchrony predicted the strength of the observer's later skin conductance responses to threat predicting stimuli, in the absence of the demonstrator. Dynamic coupling between an observer's and a demonstrator's autonomic nervous system activity may reflect experience sharing processes facilitating the formation of observational threat associations.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0962-8452
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2779
ID  - ref1
ER  -