Equal pain-Unequal fear response: enhanced susceptibility of tooth pain to fear conditioning

• Published in: Frontiers in human neuroscience Vol. 8; p. 526
• Main Authors: Meier, Michael L, de Matos, Nuno M P, Brügger, Mike, Ettlin, Dominik A, Lukic, Nenad, Cheetham, Marcus, Jäncke, Lutz, Lutz, Kai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 18.07.2014; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Amygdala; Anxiety; Canine teeth; Conditioned stimulus; Conductance; Cortex (cingulate); Fear & phobias; Fear conditioning; fMRI; Neuroscience; Pain; Participation; Prefrontal cortex; Skin conductance response; Thalamus; Tibia; Tooth; Unconditioned stimulus; Switzerland; dental phobia; fMRI; amygdala; pain; fear conditioning; medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC); skin conductance response; tooth

Experimental fear conditioning in humans is widely used as a model to investigate the neural basis of fear learning and to unravel the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. It has been observed that fear conditioning depends on stimulus salience and subject vulnerability to fear. It is further known th...