TY - JOUR
T1 - Avoiding a feared stimulus
T2 - Modelling costly avoidance of learnt fear in a sensory preconditioning paradigm
AU - Wong, Alex H.K.
AU - Pittig, Andre
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/2
Y1 - 2022/2
N2 - Avoidance of learnt fear prevents the onset of a feared stimulus and the threat that follows. In anxiety-related disorders, it turns pathological given its cost and persistence in the absence of realistic threat. The current study examined the acquisition of costly avoidance of learnt fear in healthy individuals (n = 45), via a sensory preconditioning paradigm. Two neutral preconditioning stimuli (PSs) were paired with two neutral conditioned stimuli (CSs). One CS then came to predict an aversive outcome whereas the other CS came to predict safety. In test, participants engaged in stronger avoidance to the PS associated with the fear-related CS than the PS associated with the safety-related CS. Of note, executing behavioral avoidance led to missing out a competing reward, thus rendering avoidance costly. The results also provide preliminary evidence that threat anticipation and a negative change in valence play a role in driving costly avoidance of learnt fear. Future studies should examine how avoidance of learnt fear maintains pathological anxiety.
AB - Avoidance of learnt fear prevents the onset of a feared stimulus and the threat that follows. In anxiety-related disorders, it turns pathological given its cost and persistence in the absence of realistic threat. The current study examined the acquisition of costly avoidance of learnt fear in healthy individuals (n = 45), via a sensory preconditioning paradigm. Two neutral preconditioning stimuli (PSs) were paired with two neutral conditioned stimuli (CSs). One CS then came to predict an aversive outcome whereas the other CS came to predict safety. In test, participants engaged in stronger avoidance to the PS associated with the fear-related CS than the PS associated with the safety-related CS. Of note, executing behavioral avoidance led to missing out a competing reward, thus rendering avoidance costly. The results also provide preliminary evidence that threat anticipation and a negative change in valence play a role in driving costly avoidance of learnt fear. Future studies should examine how avoidance of learnt fear maintains pathological anxiety.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123175519&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108249
DO - 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108249
M3 - Article
C2 - 34973369
AN - SCOPUS:85123175519
SN - 0301-0511
VL - 168
JO - Biological Psychology
JF - Biological Psychology
M1 - 108249
ER -