Concept-Based Fear Generalizations in People with PTSD: A Neural Difference

Biological and behavioral studies of fear generalization in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have explored their differential responses to the perceptual aspects of conditioned stimuli. Conceptual aspects of conditioned stimuli are less studied although these are likely more relevant in understanding clinical PTSD phenomena. In this study, 46 trauma-exposed military veterans (23 with PTSD) were conditioned with wrist shocks paired with pictures of either animals or tools and were retested with pictures from either the same or the other conceptual category.

All participants generalized threat associations across different items within the conceptual category, a finding validated by skin conductance responses and participant-r…