Fear regulation: from passive extinction to active avoidance

It is adaptive to start fearing stimuli that signal imminent danger and to stop fearing these signals when they are no longer followed by danger. The topic of extinction research is to investigate the mechanisms of fear reduction when passively observing such change in contingency. However, we can also actively intervene and change contingencies by executing actions that prevent the signaled danger. Such avoidance behavior is an active form of fear regulation that is adaptive when it serves to protect against imminent danger, but becomes maladaptive when it is not appropriate to the actual level of threat. I will review different theories of the learning and maintenance of avoidance behaviors and present evidence that suggests that similar fear regulation mechanisms are at play in avoidance as in extinction. I will further show how this similarity can provide new hypotheses regarding the mechanism that pushes adaptive avoidance into maladaptive avoidance. Finally, I will discuss strategies to extinguish avoidance behaviors.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Memories of 100 years of human fear conditioning research and expectations for its future

This special issue celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Little Albert study, published in February 1920, which marked the birth of human fear conditioning research. The collection of papers in this special issue provides a snapshot of the thriving state of this field today. In this Editorial, we first trace the historical roots of the field and then provide a conceptual analysis of the many ways in which human fear conditioning is currently used in theory and treatment development, with special reference to the contributions in this special issue. Ivan P. Pavlov allegedly claimed that "If you want new ideas, read old books". We could not agree more; it is our conviction that tracing the roots of our field illuminates current trends and will contribute to shaping new directions for the next 100 years of research

The role of aversiveness in the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and inflexible avoidance

The study of avoidance behaviour is considered relevant to improve our understanding of anxiety disorders, which are commonly characterized by the presence of undue avoidance behaviours. Flores et al. (2018) found evidence that Prospective Intolerance of Uncertainty (P-IU) is associated with inflexible avoidance behaviour. Specifically, healthy participants learned in a free-operant discriminative task to avoid an aversive sound, and were tested in extinction to measure the sensitivity of avoidance responses to the devaluation of the sound aversiveness. The results showed that an increase in P-IU was positively associated with insensitivity to outcome devaluation. This association was still significant even when trait anxiety was controlled for. These results suggested that PIU may be a vulnerability factor for inflexible avoidance. However, in a recent replication, we found that the relationship between P-IU and inflexible avoidance was moderated by the participants ratings of outcome aversiveness. Specifically, the significant association between PIU and insensitivity to outcome devaluation was found to be conditional upon high aversiveness ratings.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, proyecto I+D+i PSI2014-56061. Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the 7th European Community Framework Programme. Plan Propio de Investigación de la Universidad de Málaga, Programa de Fortalecimiento de las Capacidades en I+D+I en las Universidades 2014-20150, Fondos FEDER

Studying habit acquisition with an avoidance learning task

Afiliaciones: Universidad de Málaga and Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), Spain Universidad de Málaga, Spain University of Leuven, BelgiumThe study of habit acquisition and expression is considered relevant to improve our understanding of mental disorders characterised by the presence of compulsive or incontrollable behaviours. Most studies on habit learning, both in animals and in humans, are based on positive reinforcement paradigms. However, the compulsions and habits involved in some mental disorders may be better understood as avoidance behaviours, which involve some peculiarities such as anxiety states that have been shown to promote habitual responses. Consequently, we studied habit acquisition by using a free-operant discriminated avoidance procedure. Participants learned to avoid an aversive noise presented either to the right or to the left ear by pressing two different keys. After a devaluation phase where participants could reduce the volume of the noise presented to one of the ears, participants went through a test phase identical to the avoidance learning phase except for the fact that the noise was never administered. Habit acquisition was inferred by comparing the rate of responses to the stimulus signalling the devalued reinforcer and to the stimulus signalling the non-devalued reinforcer. Habitual responses would entail the absence of differences between the referred conditions. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and clinical implications of the results obtained.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Living in fear: Low-cost avoidance maintains low-level threat

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Excessive avoidance of potential threat is a hallmark of anxiety and is thought to maintain fear by preserving the perceived high-threat value of avoided situations. Previous research has shown that the availability of avoidance maintains low-level threat. Here, we investigated whether an opportunity to engage in avoidance in the presence of a low-threat value safety cue would maintain its perceived threat value when avoidance was unavailable. METHODS: In a threat conditioning procedure, one conditional danger stimulus (CS+; A+) was followed by an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US; electric shock), and two safety stimuli (CS-; B- and C-) were never followed by the US. Next, clicking a button present during A+ avoided the scheduled US. Avoidance was then made available during C- for participants in the Experimental group but not in the Control group. In the test, all stimuli were presented without the opportunity to avoid. Threat expectancy, eyeblink startle electromyography (EMG), and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured. RESULTS: Findings showed an increase in threat expectancy for only C- in the Experimental group during the test phase following avoidance learning to similar levels as during threat conditioning. Compared to the Control group, threat expectancy for both B- and C- remained higher in Experimental group. SCR and startle EMG data did not corroborate these findings. LIMITATIONS: Further research is needed to test the commonly held clinical assumption that avoidance can increase threat value. CONCLUSIONS: Low-cost avoidance maintains low-threat value of safety cues.status: publishe

Avoidance Learning as Predictor of Posttraumatic Stress in Firefighters

BACKGROUND: Avoidance is a well-established maintenance factor in anxiety-related psychopathology. Individuals prone to anxiety show more maladaptive avoidance responses in conditioning paradigms aimed at avoidance learning, which indicates impairments in safety learning. To what extent avoidance learning is associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is still unclear, despite the logical relevance to the symptomatology. In this prospective study, we investigate avoidance learning responses in first responders, a population at high risk for traumatic exposure and thus PTSD development, and studied whether avoidance learning was associated with concurrent and future PTSD symptoms. METHOD: Firefighters (N = 502) performed an avoidance learning task at baseline assessment in which they first learned that two conditioned stimuli (CS+) were followed by an aversive stimulus (US) and one conditioned stimulus (CS-) was not. After that, they could learn to which CS avoidance of the US was effective, ineffective or unnecessary. Self-reported PTSD symptoms were assessed at baseline, and at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. RESULTS: Participants exhibited comparable avoidance patterns to low anxiety individuals from previous studies. Avoidance learning responses were not associated with PTSD symptoms at baseline nor at follow-up. DISCUSSION: Our study found no evidence that avoidance learning was related to PTSD symptom severity in a high-risk, yet low symptomatic population, nor did it predict the development of PTSD symptoms at a later point in time. Future research should focus on studying avoidance learning in a clinical or high symptomatic sample to further clarify the role of avoidance learning in PTSD development

Generalization versus contextualization in automatic evaluation revisited: a meta-analysis of successful and failed replications

To account for disparate findings in the literature on automatic evaluation, Gawronski, Rydell, Vervliet, and De Houwer (2010) proposed a representational theory that specifies the contextual conditions under which automatic evaluations reflect initially acquired attitudinal information or subsequently acquired counterattitudinal information. The theory predicts that automatic evaluations should reflect the valence of expectancy-violating counterattitudinal information only in the context in which this information had been learned. In contrast, automatic evaluations should reflect the valence of initial attitudinal information in any other context, be it the context in which the initial attitudinal information had been acquired (ABA renewal) or a novel context in which the target object had not been encountered before (ABC renewal). The current article presents a meta-analysis of all published and unpublished studies from the authors' research groups regardless of whether they produced the predicted pattern of results. Results revealed average effect sizes of d = 0.249 for ABA renewal (30 studies, N = 3,142) and d = 0.174 for ABC renewal (27 studies, N = 2,930), both of which were significantly different from zero. Effect sizes were moderated by attention to context during learning, order of positive and negative information, context-valence contingencies during learning, and sample country. Although some of the obtained moderator effects are consistent with the representational theory, others require theoretical refinements and future research to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms underlying contextual renewal

Transitions from avoidance: Reinforcing competing behaviours reduces generalised avoidance in new contexts.

Generalised avoidance behaviours are a common diagnostic feature of anxiety-related disorders and a barrier to affecting changes in anxiety during therapy. However, strategies to mitigate generalised avoidance are under-investigated. Even less attention is given to reducing the category-based generalisation of avoidance. We therefore investigated the potential of an operant-based approach. Specifically, it was examined whether reinforcing competing (non-avoidance) behaviours to threat-predictive cues would interfere with the expression of generalised avoidance. Using a matching-to-sample task, artificial stimulus categories were established using physically dissimilar nonsense shapes. A member of one category (conditioned stimulus; CS1) was then associated with an aversive outcome in an Acquisition context, unless an avoidance response was made. Next, competing behaviours were reinforced in response to the CS1 in new contexts. Finally, we tested for the generalisation of avoidance to another member of the stimulus category (generalisation stimulus; GS1) in both a Novel context and the Acquisition context. The selective generalisation of avoidance to GS1 was observed, but only in the Acquisition context. In the Novel context, the generalisation of avoidance to GSs was significantly reduced. A comparison group (Experiment 2), which did not learn any competing behaviours, avoided GS1 in both contexts. These findings suggest that reinforcing competing behavioural responses to threat-predictive cues can lead to reductions in generalised avoidance. This study is among the first study to demonstrate sustained reductions in generalised avoidance resulting from operant-based protocols, and the clinical and research implications are discussed

Transitions from avoidance: Reinforcing competing behaviours reduces generalised avoidance in new contexts.

Generalised avoidance behaviours are a common diagnostic feature of anxiety-related disorders and a barrier to affecting changes in anxiety during therapy. However, strategies to mitigate generalised avoidance are under-investigated. Even less attention is given to reducing the category-based generalisation of avoidance. We therefore investigated the potential of an operant-based approach. Specifically, it was examined whether reinforcing competing (non-avoidance) behaviours to threat-predictive cues would interfere with the expression of generalised avoidance. Using a matching-to-sample task, artificial stimulus categories were established using physically dissimilar nonsense shapes. A member of one category (conditioned stimulus; CS1) was then associated with an aversive outcome in an Acquisition context, unless an avoidance response was made. Next, competing behaviours were reinforced in response to the CS1 in new contexts. Finally, we tested for the generalisation of avoidance to another member of the stimulus category (generalisation stimulus; GS1) in both a Novel context and the Acquisition context. The selective generalisation of avoidance to GS1 was observed, but only in the Acquisition context. In the Novel context, the generalisation of avoidance to GSs was significantly reduced. A comparison group (Experiment 2), which did not learn any competing behaviours, avoided GS1 in both contexts. These findings suggest that reinforcing competing behavioural responses to threat-predictive cues can lead to reductions in generalised avoidance. This study is among the first study to demonstrate sustained reductions in generalised avoidance resulting from operant-based protocols, and the clinical and research implications are discussed