High-level cognition in phobics: Abstract anticipatory memory is associated with the attenuation of physiological reactivity to threat

The extent to which anxious people benefit from exposure-based treatments s eems to depend on the degree to which they activate their fear network duri ng exposure. This study was designed to investigate whether the cognitive p rocessing of threat in anxious individuals is dominated by abstract anticip atory memory, and whether this abstract memory mode is related to the incom plete activation of the fear network. Activation of the fear network was as sessed during phobic exposure, as evidenced by the initial autonomic reacti on. Spider phobics and controls were presented with a threatening imagery s cript. Half of them were exposed to a real-life spider. Spider phobics memo rized relatively more abstract anticipatory descriptions than concrete sens ory descriptions when compared with the control subjects. Only in phobic su bjects, higher recognition of abstract anticipatory descriptions was invers ely related to heart rate reactivity during exposure, A preferential memory mode for abstract information was related to an attenuated heart rate reac tivity to threat in spider phobics. It is suggested that the preferential m emory mode for abstract information may inhibit the activation of the subco rtical affective memory system, which is crucial for the complete activatio n of the fear network. The absence of complete fear network activation map play a role in the persistence of anxiety disorders by hindering anxious in dividuals to learn that the stimuli they fear are not as dangerous as they assumed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.