Anxiety

Question 1

__-__% of the variance in anxiety is due to genetics

Answer 1

30-40%

Question 2

Reduced ___ R functioning is found in both anxious and depressed people

Answer 2

Serotonin

Question 3

Lau (2008) confirms the finding that whilst anxious Pps show a greater CR regardless of the stimulus (CS+ vs. -) presented than controls (a main effect of group), there is no sig difference between…

Answer 3

Anxious and control Pps’ CRs to the CS+ nor CS- (i.e. no main effect of group by stimulus)

Question 4

Lau’s (2008) results showed that anxiety disorders do not reflect a deficit in…. The CS+ was a fearful face (= already fearful i.e. not neutral = flawed) accompanied by a loud bang (the US). The CS- was…

Answer 4

learning cues’ relative contigencies. A neutral face not accompanied by a loud bang

Question 5

Grillon & Morgan (1999) tested PTSD vs. controls’ baseline startle reflexes on day 1 and no difference was found. However, when they…. This suggests that anxiety is characterised by an increased tendency to…

Answer 5

were instructed of a CS-US pairing also on day 1, then on days 4-5 (session 2) PTSD patients showed a greater baseline startle reflex. Associate fear to contexts

Question 6

Name 3 ways in which future research might investigate whether anxiety is caused by hyper-vigilance towards threats vs. impaired disengagement from threats

Answer 6

1) Re-analyse visual probe dot data, 2) Use cognitive psychology paradigms e.g. Flanker task, Attention Blink task & 3) Use eye-movement data e.g. socially anxious Pp look more at expressions of disgust than of happiness

Question 7

Etkin’s (2007) meta-analysis confirmed that PTSD, social anxiety & specific phobias are characterised by __-activity in the ___ during even ___ ___ processing to masked threat stimuli

Answer 7

Hyper. Amygdala. Unconscious emotional

Question 8

If you take away vPFC activity during an ___ fear conditioning experience from vPFC activity during a ___ fear conditioning experience, trait anxiety -vely correlates with the amount of vPFC activity left

Answer 8

Unpredictable taken away from predictable

Question 9

vPFC is active during extinction in…but not in…

Answer 9

In healthy controls but not in anxiety patients

Question 10

How do Bishop (2006/7) manipulate processing load and distractor type?

Answer 10

Distractor type: fearful vs. neutral face. Processing load: find the X or N amongst a series of different letters on top of the face vs. OOXOOOOO on top of the face

Question 11

The black bars on the graph by Bishop (2007) indicate…vs. the diagonally striped bars indicate…. F-N on the key means subtracting…

Answer 11

Black: low load & so LA/HAnxiety differences are significant. Stiped: high load = not sig. dlPFC activity during the neutral face distractor condition from dlPFC activity during the fearful face distractor condition

Question 12

What is the one occasion upon which dlPFC activity is found to be greater in anxiety patients relative to controls?

Answer 12

During cognitive appraisals

Question 13

Have neural findings re: PFC vs. amygdala activity been replicated in social anxiety?

Answer 13

Yes