Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Translational Psychotherapy, Department of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Erlangen, Germany.
Biol Psychol. 2022 Feb;168:108249. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108249. Epub 2021 Dec 29.
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.
避免习得性恐惧可以防止对恐惧刺激的出现和随之而来的威胁。在与焦虑相关的障碍中，由于其在没有现实威胁的情况下的代价和持续存在，它变得病态化。本研究通过感觉条件反射范式，在健康个体（n=45）中检查了习得性恐惧的昂贵回避的获得。两个中性的预备刺激（PS）与两个中性的条件刺激（CS）配对。一个 CS 随后预测不愉快的结果，而另一个 CS 预测安全。在测试中，与与恐惧相关的 CS 相关联的 PS 相比，参与者在回避与恐惧相关的 CS 时表现出更强的回避反应，而与安全相关的 CS 相关联的 PS 则没有。值得注意的是，执行行为回避会导致错过竞争奖励，从而使回避变得昂贵。结果还提供了初步证据，表明威胁预期和效价的负面变化在驱动昂贵的习得性恐惧回避中起作用。未来的研究应该检查习得性恐惧的回避如何维持病理性焦虑。
