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Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) Nov 2020(1) : The purpose of this work is to determine the association of fear-avoidance attitudes with sickness absence status, its duration and disability in a work accident...
(1) : The purpose of this work is to determine the association of fear-avoidance attitudes with sickness absence status, its duration and disability in a work accident context. (2) This is a descriptive observational design, conducting the study in two occupational insurance provider clinics with patients with nonspecific low back and neck pain during the study period. Clinical variables were the Fear Avoidance Questionnaire, Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire, Neck Disability Index, Numerical Pain Scale; sociodemographic variables were sex, age, occupational, educational level, sickness absence status, and duration in days of absence from work. Multiple logistic and linear regressions were used to explore the association between variables. (3) Fear-avoidance behavior is related to sickness absence status (OR = 1.048, 0.007), and the physical activity dimension (OR = 1.098, = 0.013) is more relevant than the work dimension (OR = 1.056, 0.028). The duration of sickness absence is related to higher values on the fear-avoidance behavior scale in its global dimension (b = 0.84, = 0.003, r = 0.327), and the results of the physical activity dimension (B = 1.37, = 0.035, r = 0.236) were more relevant than the work dimension (B = 1.21, = 0.003, r = 0.324). Fear-avoidance behavior is related to disability in both dimensions (B = 0.912, ˂ 0.001, r = 0.505). (4) : Fear-avoidance behaviors may influence the typification of sickness absence status, its duration both in its physical activity and work dimension, and its disability reported with higher values than in other healthcare contexts.
Topics: Avoidance Learning; Disability Evaluation; Disabled Persons; Fear; Humans; Low Back Pain; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 33255875
DOI: 10.3390/medicina56120646 -
PeerJ 2022During adolescence, gonadal hormones influence brain maturation and behavior. The impact of 17β-estradiol and testosterone on reinforcement learning was previously...
During adolescence, gonadal hormones influence brain maturation and behavior. The impact of 17β-estradiol and testosterone on reinforcement learning was previously investigated in adults, but studies with adolescents are rare. We tested 89 German male and female adolescents (mean age ± sd = 14.7 ± 1.9 years) to determine the extent 17β-estradiol and testosterone influenced reinforcement learning capacity in a response time adjustment task. Our data showed, that 17β-estradiol correlated with an enhanced ability to speed up responses for reward in both sexes, while the ability to wait for higher reward correlated with testosterone primary in males. This suggests that individual differences in reinforcement learning may be associated with variations in these hormones during adolescence, which may shift the balance between a more reward- and an avoidance-oriented learning style.
Topics: Adolescent; Female; Humans; Male; Avoidance Learning; Estradiol; Reinforcement, Psychology; Reward; Testosterone; Child
PubMed: 35186450
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.12653 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Jun 2020Flexible initiation or suppression of actions to avoid aversive events is crucial for survival. The prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) regions of the medial prefrontal...
Flexible initiation or suppression of actions to avoid aversive events is crucial for survival. The prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) regions of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) have been implicated in different aspects of avoidance and reward-seeking, but their respective contribution in instigating versus suppressing actions in aversive contexts remains to be clarified. We examined mPFC involvement in different forms of avoidance in rats well trained on different cued lever-press avoidance tasks. Active/inhibitory avoidance required flexible discrimination between auditory cues signaling foot-shock could be avoided by making or withholding instrumental responses. On a simpler active avoidance task, a single cue signaled when a lever press would avoid shock. PL inactivation disrupted active but not inhibitory avoidance on the discriminative task while having no effect on single-cued avoidance. In comparison, IL inactivation broadly impaired active and inhibitory avoidance. Conversely, on a cued appetitive go/no-go task, both IL and PL inactivation impaired inhibitory but not active reward-seeking, the latter effect being diametrically opposite to that observed on the avoidance task. These findings highlight the complex manner in which different mPFC regions aid in initiating or inhibiting actions in the service of avoiding aversive outcomes or obtaining rewarding ones. IL facilitates active avoidance but suppress inappropriate actions in appetitive and aversive contexts. In contrast, contextual valence plays a critical role in how the PL is recruited in initiating or suppressing actions, which may relate to the degree of cognitive control required to flexibly negotiate response or motivational conflicts and override prepotent behaviors. Choosing to make or withhold actions in a context-appropriate manner to avoid aversive events or obtain other goals is a critical survival skill. Different medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) regions have been implicated in certain aspects of avoidance, but their contributions to instigating or suppressing actions remains to be clarified. Here, we show that the dorsal, prelimbic (PL) region of the medial PFC aids active avoidance in situations requiring flexible mitigation of response conflicts, but also aids in withholding responses to obtain rewards. In comparison the ventral infralimbic (IL) cortex plays a broader role in active and inhibitory avoidance as well as suppressing actions to obtain rewards. These findings provide insight into mechanisms underlying normal and maladaptive avoidance behaviors and response inhibition.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Cognition; Conditioning, Operant; Cues; Extinction, Psychological; Male; Prefrontal Cortex; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Reward
PubMed: 32393535
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0414-20.2020 -
Neuron Apr 2023Parental behaviors secure the well-being of newborns and concomitantly limit negative affective states in adults, which emerge when coping with neonatal distress becomes...
Parental behaviors secure the well-being of newborns and concomitantly limit negative affective states in adults, which emerge when coping with neonatal distress becomes challenging. Whether negative-affect-related neuronal circuits orchestrate parental actions is unknown. Here, we identify parental signatures in lateral habenula neurons receiving bed nucleus of stria terminalis innervation (LHb). We find that LHb neurons of virgin female mice increase their activity following pup distress vocalization and are necessary for pup-call-driven aversive behaviors. LHb activity rises during pup retrieval, a behavior worsened by LHb inactivation. Intersectional cell identification and transcriptional profiling associate LHb cells to parenting and outline a gene expression in female virgins similar to that in mothers but different from that in non-parental virgin male mice. Finally, tracking and manipulating LHb cell activity demonstrates their specificity for encoding negative affect and pup retrieval. Thus, a negative affect neural circuit processes newborn distress signals and may limit them by guiding female parenting.
Topics: Mice; Animals; Male; Female; Neurons; Avoidance Learning; Affect; Habenula
PubMed: 36731469
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.01.003 -
Physical Therapy Apr 2021Some children with chronic pain struggle with fear of pain, avoidance behaviors, and associated disability; however, movement adaptations in the context of chronic pain...
OBJECTIVE
Some children with chronic pain struggle with fear of pain, avoidance behaviors, and associated disability; however, movement adaptations in the context of chronic pain in childhood is virtually unknown. Variability in adaptive movement responses previously observed between individuals might be largely explained by the presence of problematic psychological drivers (eg, fear, avoidance). The goals of this study were to quantify the variability of gait and examine relationships among pain, fear, avoidance, function (perceived and objective), and gait variability.
METHODS
This study used a cross-sectional design. Eligible patients were between 8 and 17 years of age and had musculoskeletal, neuropathic, or headache pain that was not due to acute trauma (eg, active sprain) or any specific or systemic disease. Participants completed the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FOPQ), Functional Disability Inventory, and 6-Minute Walk Test and received kinematic gait analysis. Relationships were analyzed among these measures, and the self-report and functional measures were examined to determine whether they predicted gait variability (GaitSD).
RESULTS
The 16 participants who were evaluated (13.8 [SD = 2.2] years of age; 13 female) had high Numeric Pain Rating Scale scores (6.2 [SD = 2.1]), FOPQ-Fear scores (25.9 [SD = 12.1]), FOPQ-Avoidance scores (22.8 [SD = 10.2]), and Functional Disability Inventory scores (28.6 [SD = 9.4]) and low 6-Minute Walk Test distance (437.1 m [SD = 144.6]). Participants had greater GaitSD than age-predicted norms. Fear was related to self-selected GaitSD, and avoidance was related to both self-selected and standardized GaitSD. Avoidance predicted 43% and 47% of the variability in self-selected and standardized GaitSD, respectively.
CONCLUSION
GaitSD was significantly related to both fear of pain and avoidance behaviors, suggesting the interplay of these psychological drivers with movement. FOPQ-Avoidance was robust in accounting for GaitSD.
IMPACT
This study offers preliminary evidence in understanding movement adaptations associated with adolescents with chronic pain. They may lend to more directed interventions.
Topics: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; Avoidance Learning; Child; Chronic Pain; Cross-Sectional Studies; Disability Evaluation; Fear; Female; Gait; Humans; Male; Pain Measurement; Psychology, Adolescent; Surveys and Questionnaires; Walk Test
PubMed: 33482005
DOI: 10.1093/ptj/pzab012 -
Journal of Neurogenetics 2020Microbes are ubiquitous in the natural environment of . Bacteria serve as a food source for but may also cause infection in the nematode host. The sensory nervous... (Review)
Review
Microbes are ubiquitous in the natural environment of . Bacteria serve as a food source for but may also cause infection in the nematode host. The sensory nervous system of detects diverse microbial molecules, ranging from metabolites produced by broad classes of bacteria to molecules synthesized by specific strains of bacteria. Innate recognition through chemosensation of bacterial metabolites or mechanosensation of bacteria can induce immediate behavioral responses. The ingestion of nutritive or pathogenic bacteria can modulate internal states that underlie long-lasting behavioral changes. Ingestion of nutritive bacteria leads to learned attraction and exploitation of the bacterial food source. Infection, which is accompanied by activation of innate immunity, stress responses, and host damage, leads to the development of aversive behavior. The integration of a multitude of microbial sensory cues in the environment is shaped by experience and context. Genetic, chemical, and neuronal studies of behavior in the presence of bacteria have defined neural circuits and neuromodulatory systems that shape innate and learned behavioral responses to microbial cues. These studies have revealed the profound influence that host-microbe interactions have in governing the behavior of this simple animal host.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Bacteria; Caenorhabditis elegans; Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins; Carbon Dioxide; Cues; Escherichia coli; Feeding Behavior; Host Microbial Interactions; Neural Pathways; Oxygen; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Serotonin
PubMed: 32781873
DOI: 10.1080/01677063.2020.1802724 -
Journal of Visualized Experiments : JoVE Oct 2021This protocol describes a new paradigm for analyzing aversive associative learning in adult flies (Drosophila melanogaster). The paradigm is analogous to passive...
This protocol describes a new paradigm for analyzing aversive associative learning in adult flies (Drosophila melanogaster). The paradigm is analogous to passive avoidance behavior in laboratory rodents in which animals learn to avoid a compartment where they have previously received an electric shock. The assay takes advantage of negative geotaxis in flies, which manifests as an urge to climb up when they are placed on a vertical surface. The setup consists of vertically oriented upper and lower compartments. On the first trial, a fly is placed into a lower compartment from where it usually exits within 3-15 s, and steps into the upper compartment where it receives an electric shock. During the second trial, 24 h later, the latency is significantly increased. At the same time, the number of shocks is decreased compared to the first trial, indicating that flies formed long-term memory about the upper compartment. The recordings of latencies and number of shocks could be performed with a tally counter and a stopwatch or with an Arduino-based simple device. To illustrate how the assay can be used, the passive avoidance behavior of D. melanogaster and D. simulans male and female were characterized here. Comparison of latencies and number of shocks revealed that both D. melanogaster and D. simulans flies efficiently learned the passive avoidance behavior. No statistical differences were observed between male and female flies. However, males were a little faster while entering the upper compartment on the first trial, while females received a slightly higher number of shocks in every retention trial. The Western diet (WD) significantly impaired learning and memory in male flies while flight exercise counterbalanced this effect. Taken together, the passive avoidance behavior in flies offers a simple and reproducible assay that could be used for studying basic mechanisms of learning and memory.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Conditioning, Classical; Drosophila; Drosophila melanogaster; Female; Male
PubMed: 34723949
DOI: 10.3791/63163 -
Nature Communications Jul 2023Locomotor activities can enhance learning, but the underlying circuit and synaptic mechanisms are largely unknown. Here we show that locomotion facilitates aversive...
Locomotor activities can enhance learning, but the underlying circuit and synaptic mechanisms are largely unknown. Here we show that locomotion facilitates aversive olfactory learning in C. elegans by activating mechanoreceptors in motor neurons, and transmitting the proprioceptive information thus generated to locomotion interneurons through antidromic-rectifying gap junctions. The proprioceptive information serves to regulate experience-dependent activities and functional coupling of interneurons that process olfactory sensory information to produce the learning behavior. Genetic destruction of either the mechanoreceptors in motor neurons, the rectifying gap junctions between the motor neurons and locomotion interneurons, or specific inhibitory synapses among the interneurons impairs the aversive olfactory learning. We have thus uncovered an unexpected role of proprioception in a specific learning behavior as well as the circuit, synaptic, and gene bases for this function.
Topics: Animals; Caenorhabditis elegans; Gap Junctions; Interneurons; Proprioception; Avoidance Learning; Locomotion
PubMed: 37500635
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40286-x -
Translational Psychiatry May 2022Avoidance and heightened responses to perceived threats are key features of anxiety disorders. These disorders are characterised by inflexibility in dynamically updating...
Avoidance and heightened responses to perceived threats are key features of anxiety disorders. These disorders are characterised by inflexibility in dynamically updating behavioural and physiological responses to aversively conditioned cues or environmental contexts which are no longer objectively threatening, often manifesting in perseverative avoidance. However, less is known about how anxiety disorders might differ in adjusting to threat and safety shifts in the environment or how idiosyncratic avoidance responses are learned and persist. Twenty-eight patients with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), without DSM co-morbidities, and 27 matched healthy controls were administered two previously established paradigms: Pavlovian threat reversal and shock avoidance habits through overtraining (assessed following devaluation with measures of perseverative responding). For both tasks we used subjective report scales and skin conductance responses (SCR). In the Pavlovian threat reversal task, patients with GAD showed a significantly overall higher SCR as well as a reduced differential SCR response compared to controls in the early but not late reversal phase. During the test of habitual avoidance responding, GAD patients did not differ from controls in task performance, habitual active avoidance responses during devaluation, or corresponding SCR during trials, but showed a trend toward more abstract confirmatory subjective justifications for continued avoidance following the task. GAD patients exhibited significantly greater skin conductance responses to signals of threat than controls, but did not exhibit the major deficits in reversal and safety signal learning shown previously by patients with OCD. Moreover, this patient group, again unlike OCD patients, did not show evidence of altered active avoidance learning or enhanced instrumental avoidance habits. Overall, these findings indicate no deficits in instrumental active avoidance or persistent avoidance habits, despite enhanced responses to Pavlovian threat cues in GAD. They suggest that GAD is characterised by passive, and not excessively rigid, avoidance styles.
Topics: Anxiety Disorders; Avoidance Learning; Cues; Habits; Humans; Reversal Learning
PubMed: 35641488
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-01981-3 -
BMC Biology May 2022Mosquitoes locate a human host by integrating various sensory cues including odor, thermo, and vision. However, their innate light preference and its genetic basis that...
BACKGROUND
Mosquitoes locate a human host by integrating various sensory cues including odor, thermo, and vision. However, their innate light preference and its genetic basis that may predict the spatial distribution of mosquitoes, a prerequisite to encounter a potential host and initiate host-seeking behaviors, remains elusive.
RESULTS
Here, we first studied mosquito visual features and surprisingly uncovered that both diurnal (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus) and nocturnal (Culex quinquefasciatus) mosquitoes significantly avoided stronger light when given choices. With consistent results from multiple assays, we found that such negative phototaxis maintained throughout development to adult stages. Notably, female mosquitoes significantly preferred to bite hosts in a shaded versus illuminated area. Furthermore, silencing Opsin1, a G protein-coupled receptor that is most enriched in compound eyes, abolished light-evoked avoidance behavior of Aedes albopictus and attenuated photonegative behavior in Aedes aegypti. Finally, we found that field-collected Aedes albopictus also prefers darker area in an Opsin1-dependent manner.
CONCLUSIONS
This study reveals that mosquitoes consistently prefer darker environment and identifies the first example of a visual molecule that modulates mosquito photobehavior.
Topics: Aedes; Animals; Avoidance Learning; Culex; Feeding Behavior; Female; Humans
PubMed: 35549721
DOI: 10.1186/s12915-022-01308-0