Robust group- but limited individual-level (longitudinal) reliability and insights into cross-phases response prediction of conditioned fear

Abstract
Data availability
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Abstract

Here we follow the call to target measurement reliability as a key prerequisite for individual-level predictions in translational neuroscience by investigating i) longitudinal reliability at the individual and ii) group level, iii) internal consistency and iv) response predictability across experimental phases. 120 individuals performed a fear conditioning paradigm twice six months apart. Analyses of skin conductance responses, fear ratings and BOLD-fMRI with different data transformations and included numbers of trials were conducted. While longitudinal reliability was rather limited at the individual level, it was comparatively higher for acquisition but not extinction at the group-level. Internal consistency was satisfactory. Higher responding in preceding phases predicted higher responding in subsequent experimental phases at a weak to moderate level depending on data specifications. In sum, the results suggest that while individual-level predictions are meaningful for (very) short time frames, they also call for more attention to measurement properties in the field.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study and the R Markdown files that generate this manuscript are openly available in Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6359920.

The following data sets were generated

(2022) Robust group- but limited individual-level (longitudinal) reliability and insights into cross-phases response prediction of conditioned fear
10.5281/zenodo.6359920.

https://zenodo.org/record/5648047#.YkHLfjVCTIV

Article and author information

Author details

Maren Klingelhöfer-Jens

Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

For correspondence
m.klingelhoefer-jens@uke.de

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5393-7871
Mana R Ehlers

Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-1316-3787
Manuel Kuhn

Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, United States

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Vincent Keyaniyan

Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Tina B Lonsdorf

Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1501-4846

Funding

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (INST 211/633-2)

Manuel Kuhn

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (LO 1980/4-1)

Mana R Ehlers

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (LO 1980/7-1)

Vincent Keyaniyan

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Human subjects: All participants gave written informed consent to the protocol which was approved by the local ethics committee (PV 5157, Ethics Committee of the General Medical Council Hamburg). The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.