Training successfully reduces the strength of Pavlovian biases

Abstract

Pavlovian biases are fixed patterns of responses that include approaching stimuli associated with reward and avoiding those associated with punishment. These prepotent behavioural responses can sometimes conflict with those produced by other behavioural action selection systems, giving rise to suboptimal behaviour. This is particularly important in the context of affective disorders like anxiety and depression, in which Pavlovian biases are enhanced (Mkrtchian et al., 2017; Nord et al., 2018), and are thought to contribute to the induction and maintenance of symptoms (Dayan & Huys, 2008). In this study we investigated whether participants could be trained to exert more control over these biases. This would present a potential new opportunity for treating anxiety and depression. In addition, it would be the first direct, behavioural demonstration that Pavlovian biases are modifiable. We conducted a double-blind, sham-controlled study (N=800) and found that the active training intervention was indeed effective: after selectively practicing the conflict trials of the Orthogonal Go/No-Go task (Guitart-Masip et al., 2011), which require high control, participants were more accurate and showed less influence of Pavlovian biases (especially avoidance bias) when tested on the full task. We discuss what this means for understanding Pavlovian biases, and suggest that future studies should now be aimed at facilitating transfer of these effects to other aspects of anxiety and depression symptoms