Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is associated with elevated noradrenergic signaling, which has an impact on emotional learning and memory. Fear extinction is thought to underlie the processes of exposure therapy, however the relationship between noradrenaline and extinction in PTSD is unclear. Participants with PTSD (n= 21), trauma-exposure without PTSD (TC; n = 36), and non-trauma-exposed controls (NTC; n = 27) completed a fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, and conditioned fear was indexed by skin conductance response (SCR). Salivary α-amylase (sAA) collected at baseline and immediately post-fear acquisition was used as an index of noradrenaline, and we examined whether sAA in response to fear acquisition was a moderator between fear extinction and PTSD symptoms. While there was a significant increase in sAA from baseline to postfear acquisition, this was not modulated by group. Compared to TC and NTC, the PTSD group displayed a slower decline in SCRs during early extinction, which generalized across stimulus type, and was not moderated by sAA. These findings suggest that the relationship between fear extinction and PTSD symptoms does not change as a function of sAA levels; however previous research suggests other processes of fear learning may be associated with noradrenergic activity in PTSD.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	PTSD, trauma, extinction, salivary alpha-amylase, sympathetic arousal
Research Division:	Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
Research Group:	Psychology
Research Field:	Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Physiological Psychology)
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
UTAS Author:	Zuj, DV (Mr Daniel Zuj)
UTAS Author:	Palmer, MA (Dr Matt Palmer)
ID Code:	130898
Year Published:	2018
Web of Science® Times Cited:	2
Deposited By:	Psychology
Deposited On:	2019-02-19
Last Modified:	2019-04-15
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