Publications

@article{Espinosa2020,
title = {Enhanced social learning of threat in adults with autism},
author = {L Espinosa and J Lundin Kleberg and B Hofvander and S Berggren and S B\"{o}lte and A Olsson},
url = {https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1186/s13229-020-00375-w},
doi = {10.1186/s13229-020-00375-w},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-09-24},
journal = {Molecular Autism},
volume = {11},
number = {71},
abstract = {Background: Recent theories have linked autism to challenges in prediction learning and social cognition. It is unknown, however, how autism affects learning about threats from others “demonstrators” through observation, which contains predictive learning based on social information. The aims of this study are therefore to investigate social fear learning in individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to examine whether typically developing social cognition is necessary for successful observational learning.
Methods: Adults with ASD (n = 23) and neurotypical controls (n = 25) completed a social fear learning (SFL) procedure in which participants watched a “demonstrator” receiving electrical shocks in conjunction with a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS+), but never with a safe control stimulus (CS−). Skin conductance was used to measure autonomic responses of learned threat responses to the CS+ versus CS−. Visual attention was measured during learning using eye tracking. To establish a non-social learning baseline, each participant also underwent a test of Pavlovian conditioning.
Results: During learning, individuals with ASD attended less to the demonstrator’s face, and when later tested, displayed stronger observational, but not Pavlovian, autonomic indices of learning (skin conductance) compared to controls. In controls, both higher levels of attention to the demonstrator’s face and trait empathy predicted diminished expressions of learning during test.
Limitations: The relatively small sample size of this study and the typical IQ range of the ASD group limit the generalizability of our findings to individuals with ASD in the average intellectual ability range.
Conclusions: The enhanced social threat learning in individuals with ASD may be linked to difficulties using visual attention and mental state attributions to downregulate their emotion.},
keywords = {Anxiety, Attention, Autism, Eye tracking, Skin conductance, Social cognition, Social fear learning, Vicarious threat},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Olsson2016,
title = {Vicarious fear learning depends on empathic appraisals and trait empathy},
author = {A Olsson and K McMahon and G Papenberg and J Zaki and N Bolger and K N Ochsner},
url = {http://www.emotionlab.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Olsson2016.pdf},
doi = {10.1177/0956797615604124},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
journal = {Psychological Science},
volume = {27},
number = {1},
pages = {25-33},
abstract = {Empathy and vicarious learning of fear are increasingly understood as separate phenomena, but the interaction between the two remains poorly understood. We investigated how social (vicarious) fear learning is affected by empathic appraisals by asking participants to either enhance or decrease their empathic responses to another individual (the demonstrator), who received electric shocks paired with a predictive conditioned stimulus. A third group of participants received no appraisal instructions and responded naturally to the demonstrator. During a later test, participants who had enhanced their empathy evinced the strongest vicarious fear learning as measured by skin conductance responses to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the demonstrator. Moreover, this effect was augmented in observers high in trait empathy. Our results suggest that a demonstrator’s expression can serve as a “social” unconditioned stimulus (US), similar to a personally experienced US in Pavlovian fear conditioning, and that learning from a social US depends on both empathic appraisals and the observers’ stable traits.},
note = {PMID: 26637357},
keywords = {Emotion, Expressions, Observational aversive learning, Obsfear procedure, Open data, Skin conductance, Social conditioning},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Kleberg2015,
title = {Spontaneous eye movements and trait empathy predict vicarious learning of fear},
author = {J L Kleberg and I Selbing and D Lundqvist and B Hofvander and A Olsson},
url = {http://www.emotionlab.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Kleberg-et-al-2015-1.pdf},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.04.001},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-04-11},
journal = {International Journal of Psychophysiology},
volume = {98},
number = {3},
pages = {577--583},
abstract = {Learning to predict dangerous outcomes is important to survival. In humans, this kind of learning is often transmitted through the observation of others' emotional responses. We analyzed eye movements during an observational/vicarious fear learning procedure, in which healthy participants (N = 33) watched another individual (‘learning model’) receiving aversive treatment (shocks) paired with a predictive conditioned stimulus (CS +), but not a control stimulus (CS −). Participants' gaze pattern towards the model differentiated as a function of whether the CS was predictive or not of a shock to the model. Consistent with our hypothesis that the face of a conspecific in distress can act as an unconditioned stimulus (US), we found that the total fixation time at a learning model's face increased when the CS + was shown. Furthermore, we found that the total fixation time at the CS + during learning predicted participants' conditioned responses (CRs) at a later test in the absence of the model. We also demonstrated that trait empathy was associated with stronger CRs, and that autistic traits were positively related to autonomic reactions to watching the model receiving the aversive treatment. Our results have implications for both healthy and dysfunctional socio-emotional learning.},
keywords = {Autism, Empathy, Eye movements, Fear conditioning, Obsfear procedure, Skin conductance, Social learning, Vicarious fear learning},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Espinosa2020,
title = {Enhanced social learning of threat in adults with autism},
author = {L Espinosa and J Lundin Kleberg and B Hofvander and S Berggren and S B\"{o}lte and A Olsson},
url = {https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1186/s13229-020-00375-w},
doi = {10.1186/s13229-020-00375-w},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-09-24},
journal = {Molecular Autism},
volume = {11},
number = {71},
abstract = {Background: Recent theories have linked autism to challenges in prediction learning and social cognition. It is unknown, however, how autism affects learning about threats from others “demonstrators” through observation, which contains predictive learning based on social information. The aims of this study are therefore to investigate social fear learning in individual with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to examine whether typically developing social cognition is necessary for successful observational learning.
Methods: Adults with ASD (n = 23) and neurotypical controls (n = 25) completed a social fear learning (SFL) procedure in which participants watched a “demonstrator” receiving electrical shocks in conjunction with a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS+), but never with a safe control stimulus (CS−). Skin conductance was used to measure autonomic responses of learned threat responses to the CS+ versus CS−. Visual attention was measured during learning using eye tracking. To establish a non-social learning baseline, each participant also underwent a test of Pavlovian conditioning.
Results: During learning, individuals with ASD attended less to the demonstrator’s face, and when later tested, displayed stronger observational, but not Pavlovian, autonomic indices of learning (skin conductance) compared to controls. In controls, both higher levels of attention to the demonstrator’s face and trait empathy predicted diminished expressions of learning during test.
Limitations: The relatively small sample size of this study and the typical IQ range of the ASD group limit the generalizability of our findings to individuals with ASD in the average intellectual ability range.
Conclusions: The enhanced social threat learning in individuals with ASD may be linked to difficulties using visual attention and mental state attributions to downregulate their emotion.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Olsson2016,
title = {Vicarious fear learning depends on empathic appraisals and trait empathy},
author = {A Olsson and K McMahon and G Papenberg and J Zaki and N Bolger and K N Ochsner},
url = {http://www.emotionlab.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Olsson2016.pdf},
doi = {10.1177/0956797615604124},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
journal = {Psychological Science},
volume = {27},
number = {1},
pages = {25-33},
abstract = {Empathy and vicarious learning of fear are increasingly understood as separate phenomena, but the interaction between the two remains poorly understood. We investigated how social (vicarious) fear learning is affected by empathic appraisals by asking participants to either enhance or decrease their empathic responses to another individual (the demonstrator), who received electric shocks paired with a predictive conditioned stimulus. A third group of participants received no appraisal instructions and responded naturally to the demonstrator. During a later test, participants who had enhanced their empathy evinced the strongest vicarious fear learning as measured by skin conductance responses to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the demonstrator. Moreover, this effect was augmented in observers high in trait empathy. Our results suggest that a demonstrator’s expression can serve as a “social” unconditioned stimulus (US), similar to a personally experienced US in Pavlovian fear conditioning, and that learning from a social US depends on both empathic appraisals and the observers’ stable traits.},
note = {PMID: 26637357},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Kleberg2015,
title = {Spontaneous eye movements and trait empathy predict vicarious learning of fear},
author = {J L Kleberg and I Selbing and D Lundqvist and B Hofvander and A Olsson},
url = {http://www.emotionlab.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Kleberg-et-al-2015-1.pdf},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.04.001},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-04-11},
journal = {International Journal of Psychophysiology},
volume = {98},
number = {3},
pages = {577--583},
abstract = {Learning to predict dangerous outcomes is important to survival. In humans, this kind of learning is often transmitted through the observation of others' emotional responses. We analyzed eye movements during an observational/vicarious fear learning procedure, in which healthy participants (N = 33) watched another individual (‘learning model’) receiving aversive treatment (shocks) paired with a predictive conditioned stimulus (CS +), but not a control stimulus (CS −). Participants' gaze pattern towards the model differentiated as a function of whether the CS was predictive or not of a shock to the model. Consistent with our hypothesis that the face of a conspecific in distress can act as an unconditioned stimulus (US), we found that the total fixation time at a learning model's face increased when the CS + was shown. Furthermore, we found that the total fixation time at the CS + during learning predicted participants' conditioned responses (CRs) at a later test in the absence of the model. We also demonstrated that trait empathy was associated with stronger CRs, and that autistic traits were positively related to autonomic reactions to watching the model receiving the aversive treatment. Our results have implications for both healthy and dysfunctional socio-emotional learning.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}