Increased threat learning after social isolation in human adolescents

Towner, E., Thomas, K., Tomova, L. and Blakemore, S-J. 2024. Increased threat learning after social isolation in human adolescents. Royal Society Open Science 11 (11) , 240101. 10.1098/rsos.240101

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (2MB)

Abstract

In animal models, social isolation impacts threat responding and threat learning, especially during development. This study examined the effects of acute social isolation on threat learning in human adolescents using an experimental, within-participant design. Participants aged 16–19 years underwent a session of complete isolation and a separate session of isolation with virtual social interactions, counterbalanced between participants, as well as a baseline session. At baseline and following each isolation session, participants reported their psychological state and completed a threat learning task in which self-report ratings and physiological responses to learned threat and safety cues were measured. Threat learning increased after both isolation sessions in two ways. First, participants found the learned threat cue more anxiety-inducing and unpleasant after isolation compared with baseline. Second, during threat extinction, electrodermal activity was partially elevated after isolation compared with baseline. Further, the results suggested that isolation influenced threat learning through state loneliness. Threat learning is central to threat-related disorders including anxiety, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and our findings suggest that isolation and loneliness in adolescence might increase vulnerability to the emergence of these disorders through increased threat learning.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Type: open-access
Publisher:	The Royal Society
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	13 November 2024
Date of Acceptance:	27 August 2024
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2024 09:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/173918

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item