-
Behaviour Research and Therapy Nov 2016Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience urging the individual to take action to restore the integrity of the body. The transition from a common episode of... (Review)
Review
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience urging the individual to take action to restore the integrity of the body. The transition from a common episode of acute pain to a state of intermittent or chronic pain has been a constant preoccupation of researchers and clinicians alike. In this review, we approach chronic pain from a modern learning perspective that incorporates cognitive, affective, behavioral and motivational aspects. We view pain as a biologically hard-wired signal of bodily harm that competes with other demands in the person's environment. The basic tenet is that pain urges people to interrupt ongoing activity, elicits protective responses that paradoxically increase interference with daily activities, and compromises the sense of self. Here we briefly summarize existing evidence showing how pain captures attention, and how attention for pain can be controlled. We also consider pain as a strong motivator for learning, and review the recent evidence on the acquisition and generalization of pain-related fear and avoidance behavior, which are likely to interfere with daily life activities. We highlight the paradoxical effects of pain avoidance behavior, and review treatment effects of exposure in vivo. A generally neglected area of research is the detrimental consequences of repeated interference by pain with daily activities on one's sense of "self". We end this review with a plea for the implementation of single-case experimental designs as a means to help customize and develop novel cognitive-behavioral treatments for individuals for chronic pain aimed at reducing the suffering of this large group of individuals.
Topics: Attention; Avoidance Learning; Chronic Pain; Ego; Extinction, Psychological; Fear; Humans; Implosive Therapy
PubMed: 27614948
DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2016.08.016 -
Learning & Memory (Cold Spring Harbor,... Jul 2020In signaled active avoidance (SigAA), rats learn to suppress Pavlovian freezing and emit actions to remove threats and prevent footshocks. SigAA is critical for...
In signaled active avoidance (SigAA), rats learn to suppress Pavlovian freezing and emit actions to remove threats and prevent footshocks. SigAA is critical for understanding aversively motivated instrumental behavior and anxiety-related active coping. However, with standard protocols ∼25% of rats exhibit high freezing and poor avoidance. This has dampened enthusiasm for the paradigm and stalled progress. We demonstrate that reducing shock imminence with long-duration warning signals leads to greater freezing suppression and perfect avoidance in all subjects. This suggests that instrumental SigAA mechanisms evolved to cope with distant harm and protocols that promote inflexible Pavlovian reactions are poorly designed to study avoidance.
Topics: Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; Avoidance Learning; Behavior, Animal; Conditioning, Classical; Conditioning, Operant; Female; Male; Psychomotor Performance; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Time Factors
PubMed: 32540916
DOI: 10.1101/lm.051557.120 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Oct 2016Engrained avoidance behavior is highly adaptive when it keeps away harmful events and can be highly maladaptive when individuals elude harmless situations in anxiety...
UNLABELLED
Engrained avoidance behavior is highly adaptive when it keeps away harmful events and can be highly maladaptive when individuals elude harmless situations in anxiety disorders, but the neural circuits that mediate avoidance are poorly understood. Using DREADDs and optogenetics in mice, we show that the output of the basal ganglia through the substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr) controls active avoidance. SNr excitation blocks avoidance to a conditioned sensory stimulus while preserving the ability to escape the harmful event. Conversely, SNr inhibition facilitates avoidance to the conditioned stimulus and suffices to drive avoidance without any conditioned sensory stimulus. The results highlight a midbrain circuit that gates avoidance responses, which can be targeted to ameliorate maladaptive avoidance in psychiatric disorders.
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT
In many circumstances, subjects respond to fearful situations with avoidance. This is a useful coping strategy in situations in which there is impending danger. However, avoidance responses can also be maladaptive, as in anxiety disorders such as phobias (e.g., avoiding air transportation) and social anxiety (e.g., avoiding social situations). Despite the obvious clinical relevance, little is known about the neural circuits that mediate active avoidance. Using chemogenetics and optogenetics, we show that the output of the basal ganglia fully controls active avoidance behavior.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Basal Ganglia; Electrophysiological Phenomena; Fear; Male; Mice; Mice, Transgenic; Neural Pathways; Neurons; Optogenetics; Pars Reticulata; Proteomics
PubMed: 27707965
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1842-16.2016 -
The Journal of Neuroscience : the... Mar 2017Foraging animals balance the need to seek food and energy against the accompanying dangers of injury and predation. To do so, they rely on learning systems encoding...
Foraging animals balance the need to seek food and energy against the accompanying dangers of injury and predation. To do so, they rely on learning systems encoding reward and danger. Whereas much is known about these separate learning systems, little is known about how they interact to shape and guide behavior. Here we show a key role for the rat paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT), a nucleus of the dorsal midline thalamus, in this interaction. First, we show behavioral competition between reward and danger: the opportunity to seek food reward negatively modulates expression of species-typical defensive behavior. Then, using a chemogenetic approach expressing the inhibitory hM4Di designer receptor exclusively activated by a designer drug in PVT neurons, we show that the PVT is central to this behavioral competition. Chemogenetic PVT silencing biases behavior toward either defense or reward depending on the experimental conditions, but does not consistently favor expression of one over the other. This bias could not be attributed to changes in fear memory retrieval, learned safety, or memory interference. Rather, our results demonstrate that the PVT is essential for balancing conflicting behavioral tendencies toward danger and reward, enabling adaptive responding under this basic selection pressure. Among the most basic survival problems faced by animals is balancing the need to seek food and energy against the accompanying dangers of injury and predation. Although much is known about the brain mechanisms that underpin learning about reward and danger, little is known about how these interact to solve basic survival problems. Here we show competition between defensive (to avoid predatory detection) and approach (to obtain food) behavior. We show that the paraventricular thalamus, a nucleus of the dorsal midline thalamus, is integral to this behavioral competition. The paraventricular thalamus balances the competing behavioral demands of danger and reward, enabling adaptive responding under this selection pressure.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Decision Making; Defense Mechanisms; Male; Midline Thalamic Nuclei; Nerve Net; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Reward
PubMed: 28193686
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3320-16.2017 -
International Journal of Environmental... Feb 2023Nowadays, conditional automated driving vehicles still need drivers to take-over in the scenarios such as emergency hazard events or driving environments beyond the...
Nowadays, conditional automated driving vehicles still need drivers to take-over in the scenarios such as emergency hazard events or driving environments beyond the system's control. This study aimed to explore the changing trend of the drivers' takeover behavior under the influence of traffic density and take-over budget time for the entire take-over process in emergency obstacle avoidance scenarios. In the driving simulator, a 2 × 2 factorial design was adopted, including two traffic densities (high density and low density) and two kinds of take-over budget time (3 s and 5 s). A total of 40 drivers were recruited, and each driver was required to complete four simulation experiments. The driver's take-over process was divided into three phases, including the reaction phase, control phase, and recovery phase. Time parameters, dynamics parameters, and operation parameters were collected for each take-over phase in different obstacle avoidance scenarios. This study analyzed the variability of traffic density and take-over budget time with take-over time, lateral behavior, and longitudinal behavior. The results showed that in the reaction phase, the driver's reaction time became shorter as the scenario urgency increased. In the control phase, the steering wheel reversal rate, lateral deviation rate, braking rate, average speed, and takeover time were significantly different at different urgency levels. In the recovery phase, the average speed, accelerating rate, and take-over time differed significantly at different urgency levels. For the entire take-over process, the entire take-over time increased with the increase in urgency. The lateral take-over behavior tended to be aggressive first and then became defensive, and the longitudinal take-over behavior was defensive with the increase in urgency. The findings will provide theoretical and methodological support for the improvement of take-over behavior assistance in emergency take-over scenarios. It will also be helpful to optimize the human-machine interaction system.
Topics: Humans; Avoidance Learning; Reaction Time; Automobile Driving; Computer Simulation; Aggression; Accidents, Traffic
PubMed: 36833756
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20043069 -
Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) May 2017While avoidance is a core symptom of PTSD, little is known about whether individuals with PTSD show a general cognitive bias to acquire and express avoidance, in...
While avoidance is a core symptom of PTSD, little is known about whether individuals with PTSD show a general cognitive bias to acquire and express avoidance, in situations not related to trauma or fear. Here, we used a computer-based task to examine operant acquisition and extinction of avoidance in participants with and without severe self-reported PTSD symptoms. A total of 119 participants (77 male, 42 female; 74 veteran, 45 civilian) with symptoms (PTSS; n = 63) or with few/no symptoms (noPTSS; n = 56) performed a task, in which they controlled a spaceship and could shoot a target to gain points or hide in "safe areas" to escape or avoid on-screen aversive events. Results show that participants with PTSS exhibited more avoidance across trials than noPTSS participants, particularly due to more avoidance behavior in PTSS females compared to noPTSS females. Avoidance behavior decreased across extinction trials but interactions with PTSS and gender fell short of significance. Overall, PTSD symptoms were associated with propensity to acquire and express avoidance behavior, in both civilians and veterans, and even in a cognitive task that does not explicitly involve trauma or fear. This effect was more pronounced in females, highlighting the role of gender differences in PTSD symptomatology. Importantly, this study also demonstrates the potential of an objective assessment of avoidance behavior, which could be used to supplement the common but limited self-report tools.
Topics: Adult; Aged; Avoidance Learning; Cognition; Fear; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Sex Factors; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Veterans
PubMed: 28322068
DOI: 10.1080/10253890.2017.1309523 -
Pain Nov 2019Studies using rodent models of neuropathic pain use sham surgery control procedures that cause deep tissue damage. Sham surgeries would thus be expected to induce...
Studies using rodent models of neuropathic pain use sham surgery control procedures that cause deep tissue damage. Sham surgeries would thus be expected to induce potentially long-lasting postsurgical pain, but little evidence for such pain has been reported. Operant tests of voluntary behavior can reveal negative motivational and cognitive aspects of pain that may provide sensitive tools for detecting pain-related alterations. In a previously described operant mechanical conflict test involving lengthy familiarization and training, rodents freely choose to either escape from a brightly lit chamber by crossing sharp probes or refuse to cross. Here, we describe a brief (2-day) mechanical conflict protocol that exploits rats' innate exploratory response to a novel environment to detect persistently enhanced pain-avoidance behavior after sham surgeries for 2 neural injury models: thoracic spinal cord injury and chronic constriction injury of the sciatic nerve. Pitting the combined motivations to avoid the bright light and to explore the novel device against pain from crossing noxious probes disclosed a conflicting, hyperalgesia-related reluctance to repeatedly cross the probes after injury. Rats receiving standard sham surgeries demonstrated enhanced pain-like avoidance behavior compared with naive controls, and this behavior was similar to that of corresponding chronic constriction injury or spinal cord injury rats weeks or months after injury. In the case of sham surgery for spinal cord injury, video analysis of voluntary exploratory behavior directed at the probes revealed enhanced forepaw withdrawal responses. These findings have important implications for preclinical investigations into behavioral alterations and physiological mechanisms associated with postsurgical and neuropathic pain.
Topics: Animals; Avoidance Learning; Behavior, Animal; Disease Models, Animal; Male; Neuralgia; Peripheral Nerve Injuries; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Sciatic Nerve; Spinal Cord; Spinal Cord Injuries
PubMed: 31323014
DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001642 -
The Journal of Pain Jan 2009Escape and avoidance of the onset of pain and exacerbations of pain can be difficult to distinguish in certain circumstances. This investigation compared measures of... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
UNLABELLED
Escape and avoidance of the onset of pain and exacerbations of pain can be difficult to distinguish in certain circumstances. This investigation compared measures of participants' (N = 61, 50.8% women) escape and avoidance behavior during an ischemic pain task. Instructions for the ischemic task were manipulated so that one group stopped the task whenever they wanted (eg, before the onset of pain) and another group endured the ischemic pain to tolerance. Delay time before beginning the task and willingness to complete the task were not related to self-reported escape/avoidance (r = -.21, P = .10; r = -.14, P = .30). Also, they were not predicted by fear, anxiety, or catastrophizing. Task duration with the unrestricted stop rule was not related to self-reported escape/avoidance (r = -.13, P = .50) and was not predicted by fear, anxiety, or catastrophizing. However, task duration with the tolerance stop rule was associated with self-reported escape/avoidance (r = -.40, P = .02) and was predicted by catastrophizing (t(29) = -2.92, P < .01). Thus, evidence for the validity of task duration with a tolerance stop rule as a measure of escape from pain or avoidance of pain exacerbation was found.
PERSPECTIVE
Measures of avoidance of pain onset were not supported. However, task duration was a valid measure of escape from pain or avoidance of pain exacerbation with tolerance stop rules. Other measures of escape/avoidance behavior and participants' perceptions of stable or increasing pain level throughout a pain task should be examined.
Topics: Adolescent; Anxiety; Avoidance Learning; Behavior Control; Escape Reaction; Fear; Female; Humans; Male; Pain; Pain Measurement; Pain Threshold; Surveys and Questionnaires; Task Performance and Analysis; Time Factors; Young Adult
PubMed: 18774344
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2008.07.007 -
PeerJ 2023Paranoid thinking, that others are hostile, can be seen even in the general population. Paranoia is considered the expectation that others are competitors who aim to...
Paranoid thinking, that others are hostile, can be seen even in the general population. Paranoia is considered the expectation that others are competitors who aim to maximize the differences in payoffs rather than maximize their own payoffs. This study examined whether paranoia reflects the irrational belief that others have a competitive intention and is associated with avoiding perceived competition. We recruited 884 US residents the Internet and conducted a modified Dictator Game, in which monetary allocation was carried out between the Dictator and the Recipient. The Dictator chooses either fair or competitive allocation while selecting the competitive allocation is irrelevant to increasing the Dictator's payoffs. The Recipient decides whether to accept the Dictator's decision or receive sure but low rewards. We found that Recipients with high-level paranoid thinking expected their opponent to select competitive allocation more than those with low levels, even when selecting it was costly for Dictators. Paranoid thinking was not associated with selecting sure rewards or competitive allocations. The results suggest that paranoia reflects the belief that others have a competitive intention but is not related to avoidance behavior against perceived threats and unilateral attacks.
Topics: Humans; Intention; Paranoid Disorders; Hostility; Avoidance Learning
PubMed: 36923500
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15003 -
Neuroscience Research Jun 2023Physiological stress represents a drastic change of internal state and can drive avoidance behavior, but the neural circuits are incompletely defined. Here, we...
Physiological stress represents a drastic change of internal state and can drive avoidance behavior, but the neural circuits are incompletely defined. Here, we characterize a sensory-interneuron circuit for mitochondrial stress-induced avoidance behavior in C. elegans. The olfactory sensory neurons and the AIY interneuron are essential, with the olfactory neurons acting upstream of AIY. Unlike pathogen avoidance, stress-induced avoidance does not require AIB, AIZ or RIA interneurons. Ablation or inhibition of the head motor neurons SMDD/V alters the worm's locomotion and reduces avoidance. These findings substantiate our understanding of the circuit mechanisms that underlie learned avoidance behavior triggered by mitochondrial stress.
Topics: Animals; Caenorhabditis elegans; Avoidance Learning; Interneurons; Smell; Motor Neurons; Caenorhabditis elegans Proteins
PubMed: 36565857
DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2022.12.012