BIOMAT Database Logo BIOMAT Database Logo

Ethnic differences in physiological responses to fear conditioned stimuli. 2014

Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Department of Psychiatry, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The idea that emotional expression varies with ethnicity is based largely on questionnaires and behavioral observations rather than physiological measures. We therefore compared the skin conductance responses (SCR) of Hispanic (Puerto Rican) and White non-Hispanic subjects in a fear conditioning and fear extinction task. Subjects were recruited from two sites: San Juan, Puerto Rico (PR), and Boston, Massachusetts (MA), using identical methods. A total of 78 healthy subjects (39 from PR, 39 from MA) were divided by sex and matched for age and educational level. Females from the two sites did not differ in their SCRs during any experimental phase of fear conditioning (habituation, conditioning, or extinction). In contrast, PR males responded significantly to the conditioned stimulus than MA males or PR females. Subtracting ethnic differences observed during the habituation phase (prior to conditioning) eliminated differences from subsequent phases, suggesting that PR males are elevated in their response to novelty rather than fear learning. Our findings suggest that, in addition to sex differences, there are ethnic differences in physiological responses to novel stimuli at least in males, which could be relevant for the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008404 Massachusetts State bounded on the north by New Hampshire and Vermont, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Connecticut and Rhode Island, and on the west by New York.
D011647 Puerto Rico An island in the Greater Antilles in the West Indies. Its capital is San Juan. It is a self-governing commonwealth in union with the United States. It was discovered by Columbus in 1493 but no colonization was attempted until 1508. It belonged to Spain until ceded to the United States in 1898. It became a commonwealth with autonomy in internal affairs in 1952. Columbus named the island San Juan for St. John's Day, the Monday he arrived, and the bay Puerto Rico, rich harbor. The island became Puerto Rico officially in 1932. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p987 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p436)
D003213 Conditioning, Psychological Simple form of learning involving the formation, strengthening, or weakening of an association between a stimulus and a response. Conditioning, Psychology,Psychological Conditioning,Social Learning Theory,Social Learning Theories,Theory, Social Learning
D004522 Educational Status Educational attainment or level of education of an individual. Education Level,Educational Achievement,Educational Attainment,Educational Level,Level of Education,Maternal Education Level,Maternal Educational Attainment,Maternal Educational Level,Paternal Education Level,Paternal Educational Attainment,Paternal Educational Level,Achievement, Educational,Educational Status, Maternal,Educational Status, Paternal,Maternal Educational Status,Paternal Educational Status,Status, Educational,Attainment, Educational,Attainment, Maternal Educational,Attainment, Paternal Educational,Education Level, Maternal,Education Level, Paternal,Education Levels,Educational Achievements,Educational Attainment, Maternal,Educational Attainment, Paternal,Educational Attainments,Educational Level, Maternal,Educational Level, Paternal,Educational Levels,Level, Education,Level, Educational,Level, Maternal Education,Level, Maternal Educational,Level, Paternal Education,Level, Paternal Educational,Levels, Maternal Educational,Maternal Education Levels,Maternal Educational Attainments,Maternal Educational Levels,Paternal Education Levels,Paternal Educational Attainments,Paternal Educational Levels,Status, Maternal Educational,Status, Paternal Educational
D005108 Extinction, Psychological The procedure of presenting the conditioned stimulus without REINFORCEMENT to an organism previously conditioned. It refers also to the diminution of a conditioned response resulting from this procedure. Psychological Extinction,Extinction (Psychology),Extinctions (Psychology),Extinctions, Psychological,Psychological Extinctions
D005239 Fear The affective response to an actual current external danger which subsides with the elimination of the threatening condition. Threat Cues,Threat Sensitivity,Cue, Threat,Fears,Sensitivity, Threat,Threat Cue,Threat Sensitivities
D005260 Female Females
D005712 Galvanic Skin Response A change in electrical resistance of the skin, occurring in emotion and in certain other conditions. Electric Conductance, Skin,Electrodermal Response,Reflex, Psychogalvanic,Skin Electric Conductance,Conductance, Skin Electric,Conductances, Skin Electric,Electric Conductances, Skin,Electrodermal Responses,Galvanic Skin Responses,Psychogalvanic Reflex,Response, Electrodermal,Response, Galvanic Skin,Responses, Electrodermal,Responses, Galvanic Skin,Skin Response, Galvanic,Skin Responses, Galvanic
D006630 Hispanic or Latino A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/1997/10/30/97-28653/revisions-to-the-standards-for-the-classification-of-federal-data-on-race-and-ethnicity). In the United States it is used for classification of federal government data on race and ethnicity. Race and ethnicity terms are self-identified social construct and may include terms outdated and offensive in MeSH to assist users who are interested in retrieving comprehensive search results for studies such as in longitudinal studies. Cuban Americans,Hispanic Americans,Latin Americans, US,Latinas,Latinos,Latinx,Puerto Ricans,Spanish Americans,Hispanics,American, Hispanic,American, US Latin,Cuban American,Hispanic American,Hispanic or Latinos,Latin American, US,Latina,Latino,Puerto Rican,Spanish American,US Latin American,US Latin Americans

Related Publications

Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Cardiovascular and electrodermal responses conditioned to fear-relevant stimuli.
January 1979, Psychophysiology,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Ethnic differences in responses to multiple experimental pain stimuli.
January 2005, Pain,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Physiological arousal underlies preferential access to visual awareness of fear-conditioned (and possibly disgust-conditioned) stimuli.
April 2024, Emotion (Washington, D.C.),
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
On the automatic nature of phobic fear: conditioned electrodermal responses to masked fear-relevant stimuli.
February 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Language conditioning, emotional instructions, and cognitions in conditioned responses to fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli.
June 1985, Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Effects of suramin on neuroendocrine and behavioural responses to conditioned fear stimuli.
April 1998, Neuroreport,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Subjective, physiological, and behavioural responses towards evaluatively conditioned stimuli.
August 2018, Cognition & emotion,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Further physiological correlates of ethnic differences in responses to shock.
July 1967, Psychophysiology,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Multiple fear-related stimuli enhance physiological arousal during extinction and reduce physiological arousal to novel stimuli and the threat conditioned stimulus.
July 2018, Behaviour research and therapy,
Karen G Martínez, and José A Franco-Chaves, and Mohammed R Milad, and Gregory J Quirk
Ethnic differences in physiological responses to maximal effort in Malaysian adolescents.
September 1974, The Medical journal of Malaysia,
Copied contents to your clipboard!