Kimm Sunwhi, Kim Jeansok J, Choi June-Seek
School of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2023 Aug 2;17:1212884. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1212884. eCollection 2023.
Conflict situations elicit a diverse range of behaviors that extend beyond the simplistic approach or avoidance dichotomy. However, many conflict-related studies have primarily focused on approach suppression, neglecting the complexity of these behaviors. In our study, we exposed rats to a semi-naturalistic foraging task, presenting them with a trade-off between a food reward and a predatory threat posed by a robotic agent. We observed that rats displayed two conflict-like behaviors (CLBs)-diagonal approach and stretched posture-when facing a robotic predator guarding a food pellet. After electrolytic lesions to the central amygdala (CeA), both conflict behaviors were significantly reduced, accompanied by a decrease in avoidance behavior (hiding) and an increase in approach behavior (frequency of interactions with the robot). A significant negative correlation between avoidance and approach behaviors emerged after the CeA lesion; however, our data suggest that CLBs are not tightly coupled with either approach or avoidance behaviors, showing no significant correlation to those behaviors. Our findings indicate that the CeA plays a crucial role in modulating conflict behaviors, competing with approach suppression in risky situations.
冲突情境会引发各种各样的行为，这些行为远不止简单的趋近或回避二分法。然而，许多与冲突相关的研究主要集中在趋近抑制上，忽略了这些行为的复杂性。在我们的研究中，我们让大鼠接触一项半自然觅食任务，让它们在食物奖励和机器人代理带来的捕食威胁之间进行权衡。我们观察到，当面对守护食物颗粒的机器人捕食者时，大鼠表现出两种类似冲突的行为（CLB）——对角趋近和伸展姿势。在对中央杏仁核（CeA）进行电解损伤后，两种冲突行为均显著减少，同时回避行为（躲藏）减少，趋近行为（与机器人互动的频率）增加。CeA损伤后，回避和趋近行为之间出现了显著的负相关；然而，我们的数据表明，CLB与趋近或回避行为均没有紧密联系，与这些行为没有显著相关性。我们的研究结果表明，CeA在调节冲突行为中起关键作用，在危险情境中与趋近抑制相互竞争。
