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Objectives

Trauma exposure in childhood is prevalent and associated with elevated risk for psychopathology. Understanding threat and safety learning and related neural mechanisms is essential for the development of novel interventions and the identification of mechanisms linking trauma exposure and psychopathology. Here, we examined safety signal learning (SSL), which is a process based on conditioned inhibition of fear in the presence of safety and has been shown to reduce fear via an anterior hippocampal-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) pathway.

Methods

This fMRI study examined SSL in youth with and without trauma exposure (ages 10-18 years; n= 102). The SSL task included stimuli representing threat, safety, a safety compound (paired CS+ and CS-), and a novel compound (paired CS+ and novel CS). Trauma exposure was determined using multiple measures (eg, PTSD Reaction Index). A …