No Evidence for Decreased Generalization of Fear Extinction in High-Trait Anxious Individuals

Abstract

Exposure-based therapy for anxiety disorders involves confrontations with feared but innocuous stimuli to promote inhibitory safety learning and fear extinction. Little is known about factors that may impede generalization of fear extinction memory from stimuli used during exposure therapy to similar stimuli later encountered. Trait anxiety is a vulnerability factor for developing anxiety-related disorders and is associated with deficient safety learning. In this preregistered study, we tested whether high-trait compared to low-trait anxious individuals would show less generalization of fear extinction. Intolerance of uncertainty and worry were also measured as closely related dimensions of dispositional negativity. Participants completed a fear conditioning paradigm with three phases: acquisition, extinction, and extinction generalization. Dependent measures were online threat expectancy and distress ratings. Fear acquisition and extinction were successful in both groups, and there were no group differences in extinction generalization. These results suggest that high trait anxiety does not impede generalization of fear extinction memory.