Evidence of Altered Fear Extinction Learning in Individuals with High Vaccine Hesitancy During Covid-19 Pandemic

Carmelo M Vicario; Stergios Makris; Laura Culicetto; Chiara Lucifora; Alessandra Falzone; Gabriella Martino; Francesca Ferraioli; Michael A Nitsche; Alessio Avenanti; Giuseppe Craparo

doi:10.36131/cnfioritieditore20230417

Evidence of Altered Fear Extinction Learning in Individuals with High Vaccine Hesitancy During Covid-19 Pandemic

Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2023 Aug;20(4):364-369. doi: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20230417.

Affiliations

¹ Dipartimento di Scienze Cognitive, Psicologiche, Pedagogiche e degli studi culturali, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy.
² Department of Psychology, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Liverpool, UK.
³ Institute of Technologies and Cognitive Sciences (ISTC-CNR), 00185, Rome, Italy and Department of Philosophy and Communication, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
⁴ Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy.
⁵ Department of Psychology and Neurosciences, Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, 44139, Dortmund, Germany; Bielefeld University, University Hospital OWL, Protestant Hospital of Bethel Foundation, University Clinic of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy and University Clinic of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 33617, Bielefeld, Germany.
⁶ Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology "Renzo Canestrari", Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Cesena Campus, 47521 Cesena, Italy; Neuropsicology and Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center (CINPSI Neurocog), Universidad Católica Del Maule, 3460000 Talca, Chile.
⁷ Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, UKE-Kore University of Enna, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy.

Abstract

Objective: A relevance of fear and concerns about vaccine development and its side effects are suggested to explain COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. However, evidence supporting the phobic origin hypothesis of hesitancy for COVID-19 and other vaccinations remains indirect and elusive.

Method: We addressed this issue by investigating the existence of a relationship between fear conditioning, extinction, and the respective vaccination hesitancy and anxiety scores in a group of 25 individuals.

Results: Overall, we show that the general mechanism of fear extinction learning is impaired in individuals with high vaccine hesitancy. State and trait anxiety scores do not account for this result.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that attitudes against vaccination could be linked to an altered inhibitory learning process.

Keywords: anxiety; fear extinction learning; inhibitory learning process; pavlovian fear conditioning; vaccine hesitancy.