Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent mental disorders. Treatment of these disorders, such as exposure-based treatment, is commonly derived from the principle of fear conditioning and fear...Show moreAnxiety disorders are highly prevalent mental disorders. Treatment of these disorders, such as exposure-based treatment, is commonly derived from the principle of fear conditioning and fear extinction. In the current study the element of novelty was introduced into the process of extinction to explore how to promote fear extinction, as with standard extinction fear frequently returns over time. Extinction by means of novelty was studied in 32 human subjects using a within-subjects design. First, the participants underwent fear conditioning, in which conditioned stimuli (sounds) were paired with fearful images. This phase was directly followed by an extinction phase with a novelty-facilitated, familiar and standard extinction condition. After a time gap of a minimum of 12 to a maximum of 36 hours responses to the conditioned stimuli were tested again. Pupil size measurements and subjective arousal ratings during this post-extinction phase did not indicate an effect for novelty-facilitated extinction on the extent of fear, this may be the result of potential weak conditioning in the current study. The results of this study express the need for more research to understand the effect of novelty on fear extinction. This could contribute to future implementation of novelty in treatment of anxiety disorders.Show less
