Rapid Unconscious Acquisition of Conditioned Fear with Low-Spatial-Frequency but Emotionally Neutral Stimuli  

作　　者：Yujie Chen Si Chen Zhongju Sun Xilei Zhang Xiangyong Yuan Liang Wang Yi Jiang 

机构地区：[1]State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences,CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology,Institute of Psychology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China [2]Department of Psychology,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100049,China [3]Chinese Institute for Brain Research,Beijing 102206,China [4]CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health,Institute of Psychology,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China

出　　处：《Research》2024年第1期753-762,共10页研究（英文）

基　　金：grants from the STl2030-Major Projects(2021ZD0204200,2021ZD0203800,and 2022ZD0205000);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31830037,32020103009,and 32100863);the Strategic Priority Research Program(XDB32010300);CAS Interdisciplinary Innovation Team(JCTD-2018-07 and JCTD-2021-06);the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

摘　　要：It has long been proposed that emotionally“prepared”(i.e.,fear-related)stimuli are privileged in the unconscious acquisition of conditioned fear.However,as fear processing is suggested to highly depend on the coarse,low-spatial-frequency(LSF)components of the fear-related stimuli,it is plausible that LSF may play a unique role in the unconscious fear conditioning even with emotionally neutral stimuli.Here,we provided empirical evidence that,following classical fear conditioning,an invisible,emotionally neutral conditioned stimulus(CS+)with LSF,but not with high spatial frequency(HSF),can rapidly elicit stronger skin conductance responses(SCRs)and larger pupil diameters than its CS−counterpart.In comparison,consciously perceived emotionally neutral CS+with LSF and HSF elicited comparable SCRs.Taken together,these results support that the unconscious fear conditioning does not necessarily entail emotionally prepared stimuli but prioritizes LSF information processing and highlight the crucial distinctions between the unconscious and the conscious fear learning.These findings not only coincide with the postulation that a rapid,spatial-frequency-dependent subcortical route is engaged in unconscious fear processing but also suggest the existence of multiple routes for conscious fear processing.

关 键 词：NEUTRAL necessarily DIAMETERS 

分 类 号：O17[理学—数学]