Learning about threat from friends and strangers is equally effective: An fMRI study on observational fear conditioning
Anna M. Kaźmierowska,
Michał Szczepanik,
Marek Wypych,
Dawid Droździel,
Artur Marchewka,
Jarosław M. Michałowski,
Andreas Olsson,
Ewelina Knapska
Affiliations
Anna M. Kaźmierowska
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland; Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology, BRAINCITY - Centre of Excellence for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland
Michał Szczepanik
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland; Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology, BRAINCITY - Centre of Excellence for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Brain & Behavior (INM-7), Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Marek Wypych
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland
Dawid Droździel
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland
Artur Marchewka
Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland
Jarosław M. Michałowski
Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience in Poznan, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, 10 Kutrzeby Str., Poznań 61-719, Poland
Andreas Olsson
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Ewelina Knapska
Laboratory of Emotions Neurobiology, BRAINCITY - Centre of Excellence for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences, 3 Pasteur Str., Warsaw 02-093, Poland; Corresponding author.
Humans often benefit from social cues when learning about the world. For instance, learning about threats from others can save the individual from dangerous first-hand experiences. Familiarity is believed to increase the effectiveness of social learning, but it is not clear whether it plays a role in learning about threats. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we undertook a naturalistic approach and investigated whether there was a difference between observational fear learning from friends and strangers. Participants (observers) witnessed either their friends or strangers (demonstrators) receiving aversive (shock) stimuli paired with colored squares (observational learning stage). Subsequently, participants watched the same squares, but without receiving any shocks (direct-expression stage). We observed a similar pattern of brain activity in both groups of observers. Regions related to threat responses (amygdala, anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex) and social perception (fusiform gyrus, posterior superior temporal sulcus) were activated during the observational phase, possibly reflecting the emotional contagion process. The anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex were also activated during the subsequent stage, indicating the expression of learned threat. Because there were no differences between participants observing friends and strangers, we argue that social threat learning is independent of the level of familiarity with the demonstrator.
