Neurobioloigcal mechanisms of Social Return of Fear

• Applicant: Dr. Jan Haaker
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2015 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270958845

A challenge in the treatment of Traumatic Stress and Anxiety disorders is the frequently observed relapse after psychological treatment. Relapse constitutes the return of fear ROF after an initially successful treatment, and can be triggered by, for example, exposure to unexpected stressor (reinstatement).Although reinstatement is a widely used model for studying the relapse after treatment of anxiety related disorders, it has been described in rodents and humans by using directly experienced aversive events exclusively. However, many fears and traumas are acquired through social transmission, contain social information, and might recover in social contexts.This project aims to investigate the social influence on ROF employing a novel experimental paradigm using a socially transmitted stressor (pain observed in others without the actual sensation of pain) to reinstate fear responses. This social reinstatement enables the investigation of the ecological valid social domain in relapse in anxiety related disorders, thus extending established models of ROF. This endeavor includes the investigation of 1a) peripheral nervous responses (skin conductance responses, fear potentiated startle) as well as 1b) brain responses (fMRI) to delineate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying social ROF. Moreover, a translational cooperation will allow a transfer of this paradigm to rodents. In addition, 2) the first neuropsychopharmacological examination of social transmitted fear will enable us to delineate novel insights in the underlying transmitter system of socially transmitted fear. The main goal of this project, with the research group of Dr. Andreas Olsson at the Karolinska Institutet as the hosting institution, is to bridge research on social affective learning with mechanisms of memory formation and retrieval. This will enable a better understanding of social transmitted fear and social ROF, which can lead to the development of more effective treatment of Traumatic Stress and Anxiety disorders to prevent relapse in the long run.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Sweden
• Host: Andreas Olsson, Ph.D.