Utilizing Reward to Change Fear

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. So Young Q. Park, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2015 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 272598356

Visiting a dentist can be a fearful experience for children. But the perspective of getting reward such as a treat afterwards may help them to counteract the fear. Even though learning what causes harm is essential for survival, abnormal fear processing can lead to severe psychiatric disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or anxiety disorders. Despite of the fact that fear-related disorders are one of the most prevalent psychiatric diseases, successful treatments and effective prevention programs are rare.In this application, I propose to investigate the neural mechanisms of how rewards change fear. Reward has been suggested to be a powerful motivator counteracting fear. Specifically, appetitive-aversive interaction theory suggests an inhibitory interaction between the aversive and appetitive motivational systems. According to this, reward activates the appetitive system that in turn inhibits the aversive system and this could lead to fear reduction. Although animal behavioral studies demonstrate that reward can be applied successfully to change fear, up to date, its efficacy in humans and underlying neural mechanisms are unknown.Here, I propose a series of experiments that test whether and how reward modulates fear learning and fear extinction. Rewards are introduced in different learning situations and protocols to modulate fear. All hypotheses, which are derived from formal learning theory and appetitive-aversive interaction theory, will be tested in humans by applying computational learning models to behavioral, physiological, and neural data (functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)). With the proposed experiments, I will unveil the cognitive and neural mechanisms that mediate the protective effects of reward on fear learning and the enhancing effect of reward on fear extinction.The ultimate goal of this proposal is to understand the neural mechanisms of reward-based fear modulation. Each experiment targets different learning mechanisms and will thus provide the scientific foundation to understand the dynamics of the motivational systems. Together, they will allow us to draw a general conclusion about the underlying neural mechanisms of appetitive-aversive interactions. Understanding the basic organization and interactions of the motivational system will contribute to a broad range of scientific theories in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, education and economics. Furthermore, the functional and neural mechanisms revealed by these experiments will make important contributions to understand the underlying mechanisms of relevant disorders. And this will open new perspectives to novel psycho- and pharmacological therapeutic approaches. Therefore, the results of this project will not only advance basic science but also promote psychopathological models and clinical applications.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants