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Behaviour Research and Therapy Sep 2017Avoidance behavior in clinical anxiety disorders is often a decision made in response to approach-avoidance conflict, resulting in a sacrifice of potential rewards to... (Review)
Review
Avoidance behavior in clinical anxiety disorders is often a decision made in response to approach-avoidance conflict, resulting in a sacrifice of potential rewards to avoid potential negative affective consequences. Animal research has a long history of relying on paradigms related to approach-avoidance conflict to model anxiety-relevant behavior. This approach includes punishment-based conflict, exploratory, and social interaction tasks. There has been a recent surge of interest in the translation of paradigms from animal to human, in efforts to increase generalization of findings and support the development of more effective mental health treatments. This article briefly reviews animal tests related to approach-avoidance conflict and results from lesion and pharmacologic studies utilizing these tests. We then provide a description of translational human paradigms that have been developed to tap into related constructs, summarizing behavioral and neuroimaging findings. Similarities and differences in findings from analogous animal and human paradigms are discussed. Lastly, we highlight opportunities for future research and paradigm development that will support the clinical utility of this translational work.
Topics: Animals; Anxiety Disorders; Avoidance Learning; Conflict, Psychological; Decision Making; Disease Models, Animal; Forecasting; Humans; Reward; Translational Research, Biomedical
PubMed: 28495358
DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2017.04.010 -
Journal of Behavior Therapy and... Mar 2016Conditioned fear may emerge in the absence of directly experienced conditioned stimulus (CS)--unconditioned stimulus (US) pairings. Here, we compared three pathways by...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Conditioned fear may emerge in the absence of directly experienced conditioned stimulus (CS)--unconditioned stimulus (US) pairings. Here, we compared three pathways by which avoidance of the US may be acquired both directly (i.e., through trial-and-error instrumental learning) and indirectly (i.e., via verbal instructions and social observation).
METHODS
Following fear conditioning in which CS+ was paired with shock and CS- was unpaired, three separate groups of participants learned by direct experience (Instrumental-learning), were instructed about (Instructed-learning), or observed (Observational-learning) a demonstrator performing an avoidance response that canceled upcoming US (shock) presentations. Groups were then tested in extinction with presentations of the directly experienced CS+ and CS-, and either a novel CS (Instrumental and observational groups) or an instructed CS (instructed-group).
RESULTS
Similar to instrumental learning, results demonstrate that avoidance may be acquired via instructions and social observation in the absence of directly learning that an avoidance response prevents the US. Retrospective US expectancy ratings were modulated by the assumed presence or absence of avoidance. Overall, these findings suggest that instrumental-, instructed-, and observational-learning pathways to avoidance in humans are similar.
LIMITATIONS
Alternative experimental designs would permit direct comparison between the pathways for stimuli with no prior experience of fear conditioning, and trial-by-trial US expectancy ratings would help track the modulation of fear by avoidance pathway.
CONCLUSIONS
Instrumental-, instructed-, and observational-learning pathways of avoidance are similar. Findings may have implications for understanding the etiology of clinical avoidance in anxiety.
Topics: Adult; Association Learning; Avoidance Learning; Conditioning, Operant; Extinction, Psychological; Fear; Female; Humans; Male; Young Adult
PubMed: 26143446
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.06.003 -
Neuropharmacology Dec 2020Neural circuit engagement within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell is implicated in the regulation of both negative and positive affect. Classically, the dynorphin/kappa...
Kappa-opioid receptor-dependent changes in dopamine and anxiety-like or approach-avoidance behavior occur differentially across the nucleus accumbens shell rostro-caudal axis.
Neural circuit engagement within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell is implicated in the regulation of both negative and positive affect. Classically, the dynorphin/kappa opioid receptor (KOR) system in the NAc was believed to promote aversion, while dopamine was viewed as interacting with reward behavior, and KOR activation was known to inhibit dopamine release. Recently, however, both the KOR and dopamine systems have, separately, been shown to have differential effects across the rostro-caudal axis of the NAc shell on hedonic responses. Whether or not this is due to interactions between KORs and dopamine, and if it extends to anxiety-like or approach-avoidance behaviors, remains to be determined. In this study, we examined in rats the relationship between the KOR and dopamine systems in both the rostral and caudal NAc shell using ex vivo fast scan cyclic voltammetry and the impact of KOR activation on affective behavior using exploration-based tasks. We report here that activation of KORs in the caudal NAc shell significantly inhibits dopamine release, stimulates rearing behavior in a novel environment, increases anxiety-like or avoidance behavior, and reduces locomotor activity. In contrast, activation of KORs in the rostral NAc shell inhibits dopamine release to a lesser extent and instead reduces anxiety-like behavior or increases approach behavior. Taken together, these results indicate that there is heterogeneity across the rostro-caudal axis of the NAc shell in the effects of KOR stimulation on affective behaviors, and they suggest that this might be due to differences in KOR control over dopamine release.
Topics: 3,4-Dichloro-N-methyl-N-(2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-cyclohexyl)-benzeneacetamide, (trans)-Isomer; Affect; Animals; Anxiety; Avoidance Learning; Behavior, Animal; Brain; Dopamine; Dynorphins; Exploratory Behavior; Female; Male; Motor Activity; Nucleus Accumbens; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Receptors, Opioid, kappa; Reward
PubMed: 33011200
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2020.108341 -
Physiological Research 2013Spatial navigation comprises a widely-studied complex of animal behaviors. Its study offers many methodological advantages over other approaches, enabling assessment of... (Review)
Review
Spatial navigation comprises a widely-studied complex of animal behaviors. Its study offers many methodological advantages over other approaches, enabling assessment of a variety of experimental questions and the possibility to compare the results across different species. Spatial navigation in laboratory animals is often considered a model of higher human cognitive functions including declarative memory. Almost fifteen years ago, a novel dry-arena task for rodents was designed in our laboratory, originally named the place avoidance task, and later a modification of this approach was established and called active place avoidance task. It employs a continuously rotating arena, upon which animals are trained to avoid a stable sector defined according to room-frame coordinates. This review describes the development of the place avoidance tasks, evaluates the cognitive processes associated with performance and explores the application of place avoidance in the testing of spatial learning after neuropharmacological, lesion and other experimental manipulations.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Behavior, Animal; Behavioral Research; Cognition; Memory; Models, Animal; Neurosciences; Space Perception; Spatial Behavior; Species Specificity
PubMed: 24329689
DOI: 10.33549/physiolres.932635 -
Current Protocols in Neuroscience Oct 2018In contrast to their analgesic properties, excessive use of either opioids or alcohol produces a paradoxical emergence of heightened pain sensitivity to noxious stimuli,...
In contrast to their analgesic properties, excessive use of either opioids or alcohol produces a paradoxical emergence of heightened pain sensitivity to noxious stimuli, termed hyperalgesia, which may promote increased use of opioids or alcohol drinking to manage worsening pain symptoms. Hyperalgesia has traditionally been measured in rodents via reflex-based assays, including the von Frey method. To better model the motivational and affective dimensions of pain in a state of opioid/alcohol dependence and withdrawal, this unit describes the use of a non-reflex-based method for measuring pain avoidance-like behavior in dependent rats. In the mechanical conflict-avoidance task, rats run across probes of varying heights to avoid a bright aversive light and to reach a dark goal chamber. A longer latency to exit onto the nociceptive probes reflects increased pain avoidance-like behavior during withdrawal. Mechanical conflict-avoidance testing can be repeated to provide both baseline assessment of pain avoidance behavior and pain avoidance measures after the induction of dependence.© 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Behavior, Animal; Hyperalgesia; Male; Motivation; Pain; Pain Measurement; Pain Threshold; Rats, Wistar
PubMed: 30248240
DOI: 10.1002/cpns.53 -
Behavioural Brain Research Apr 2015Exaggerated avoidance behavior is a predominant symptom in all anxiety disorders and its degree often parallels the development and persistence of these conditions. Both...
Exaggerated avoidance behavior is a predominant symptom in all anxiety disorders and its degree often parallels the development and persistence of these conditions. Both human and non-human animal studies suggest that individual differences as well as various contextual cues may impact avoidance behavior. Specifically, we have recently shown that female sex and inhibited temperament, two anxiety vulnerability factors, are associated with greater duration and rate of the avoidance behavior, as demonstrated on a computer-based task closely related to common rodent avoidance paradigms. We have also demonstrated that avoidance is attenuated by the administration of explicit visual signals during "non-threat" periods (i.e., safety signals). Here, we use a reinforcement-learning network model to investigate the underlying mechanisms of these empirical findings, with a special focus on distinct reward and punishment sensitivities. Model simulations suggest that sex and inhibited temperament are associated with specific aspects of these sensitivities. Specifically, differences in relative sensitivity to reward and punishment might underlie the longer avoidance duration demonstrated by females, whereas higher sensitivity to punishment might underlie the higher avoidance rate demonstrated by inhibited individuals. Simulations also suggest that safety signals attenuate avoidance behavior by strengthening the competing approach response. Lastly, several predictions generated by the model suggest that extinction-based cognitive-behavioral therapies might benefit from the use of safety signals, especially if given to individuals with high reward sensitivity and during longer safe periods. Overall, this study is the first to suggest cognitive mechanisms underlying the greater avoidance behavior observed in healthy individuals with different anxiety vulnerabilities.
Topics: Avoidance Learning; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Computer Simulation; Extinction, Psychological; Female; Humans; Male; Models, Psychological; Punishment; Reward; Sex Characteristics; Temperament
PubMed: 25639540
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2015.01.033 -
Neuropsychologia Feb 2019Cognitive effort is typically aversive, evident in people's tendency to avoid cognitively demanding tasks. The 'cost of control' hypothesis suggests that engagement of...
Cognitive effort is typically aversive, evident in people's tendency to avoid cognitively demanding tasks. The 'cost of control' hypothesis suggests that engagement of cognitive control systems of the brain makes a task costly and the currency of that cost is a reduction in anticipated rewards. However, prior studies have relied on binary hard versus easy task subtractions to manipulate cognitive effort and so have not tested this hypothesis in "dose-response" fashion. In a sample of 50 participants, we parametrically manipulated the level of effort during fMRI scanning by systematically increasing cognitive control demands during a demand-selection paradigm over six levels. As expected, frontoparietal control network (FPN) activity increased, and reward network activity decreased, as control demands increased across tasks. However, avoidance behavior was not attributable to the change in FPN activity, lending only partial support to the cost of control hypothesis. By contrast, we unexpectedly observed that the de-activation of a task-negative brain network corresponding to the Default Mode Network (DMN) across levels of the cognitive control manipulation predicted the change in avoidance. In summary, we find partial support for the cost of control hypothesis, while highlighting the role of task-negative brain networks in modulating effort avoidance behavior.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Avoidance Learning; Brain; Brain Mapping; Choice Behavior; Cognition; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Reward; Young Adult
PubMed: 29944865
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.06.016 -
PloS One 2017Theories of anxiety disorders and phobias have ascribed a critical role to avoidance behavior in explaining the persistence of fear and anxiety, but knowledge about the...
Theories of anxiety disorders and phobias have ascribed a critical role to avoidance behavior in explaining the persistence of fear and anxiety, but knowledge about the role of avoidance behavior in the maintenance of anxiety in social anxiety disorder relative to specific phobia is lacking. This study examined the extent to which avoidance behavior moderates the relationship between general anxiety at baseline and 18 months later in women with a diagnosed social anxiety disorder (n = 91) and women with a diagnosed specific phobia (n = 130) at baseline. Circumscribed avoidance of social and specific situations were clinician-rated using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule-Lifetime (ADIS-IV-L), and general anxiety was measured using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Moderated regression analyses revealed that (a) general anxiety at baseline predicted general anxiety at follow-up in both women with a specific phobia and women with a social anxiety disorder and (b) avoidance behavior moderated this relationship in women with a specific phobia but not in women with a social anxiety disorder. Specifically, high avoidance behavior was found to amplify the effect between general anxiety at baseline and follow-up in specific phobia. Reasons for the absence of a similar moderating effect of avoidance behavior within social anxiety disorder are discussed.
Topics: Adult; Anxiety Disorders; Avoidance Learning; Female; Humans; Male; Phobia, Social
PubMed: 28671977
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180298 -
Neuropharmacology Apr 2020Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by avoidance of trauma-associated stimuli and amygdala hyperreactivity, and is highly co-morbid with alcohol use...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by avoidance of trauma-associated stimuli and amygdala hyperreactivity, and is highly co-morbid with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Our lab uses a predator odor (bobcat urine) stress model that produces conditioned avoidance of an odor-paired context in a subset of rats, mirroring avoidance symptoms that manifest in some but not all humans exposed to trauma. We previously showed that after predator odor stress, Avoiders exhibit escalated operant alcohol self-administration (SA), higher aversion-resistant operant alcohol responding, hyperalgesia, and greater anxiety-like behavior compared to unstressed Controls. We also showed previously that systemic antagonism of corticotropin-releasing factor-1 receptors (CRFR1) reduced escalation of operant alcohol SA in rats not indexed for avoidance, that corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) infusions into the central amygdala (CeA) produced conditioned place avoidance in stress-naïve rats, and that intra-CeA infusion of a CRFR1 antagonist reduced hyperalgesia in Avoiders. Here, we show that avoidance behavior is persistent after repeated predator odor exposure. In addition, Avoiders showed lower weight gain than Controls after predator odor re-exposure. In the brain, higher avoidance was correlated with higher number of c-Fos + cells and CRF immunoreactivity in the CeA. Finally, we show that intra-CeA CRFR1 antagonism reversed post-stress escalation of alcohol SA and reduced avoidance behavior in Avoiders. Collectively, these findings suggest that elucidation of the mechanisms by which CRFR1-gated CeA circuits regulate avoidance behavior and alcohol SA may lead to better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying co-morbid PTSD and AUD.
Topics: Alcohol Drinking; Animals; Avoidance Learning; Central Amygdaloid Nucleus; Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone; Lynx; Male; Odorants; Predatory Behavior; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Stress, Psychological
PubMed: 32028150
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2020.107979 -
Pain Nov 2023
Topics: Humans; Avoidance Learning; Pain; Fear; Generalization, Psychological
PubMed: 37498749
DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002990