Abstract #3384

Sensation Seeking and Aversive Stimulation - A Functional MRI Study at 3 Tesla

Harald Kugel¹, Christina Sehlmeyer^2,3, Sonja Schoening^2,3, Maike Kleemeyer³, Kristin Herper³, Rauch Astrid^2,3, Hagen Schiffbauer¹, Bettina Pfleiderer¹, Volker Arolt², Pienie Zwitserlood⁴, Walter Heindel¹, Carsten Konrad^2,3

¹Dept. of Clinical Radiology, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; ²Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; ³Research Group 4, Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research (IZKF), University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; ⁴Dept of Psychology, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany

Sensation Seeking (SENS) is a personality trait characterized by the need for threatening stimuli even at the cost of personal risk. Low sensation seekers avoid intense and dangerous sensory stimulations. We examine the association between Sensation Seeking and the neurobiological mechanisms of fear processing with fMRI. It is suggested that the personality trait SENS correlates with neuronal responses to fear-stimuli.