Maladaptive behavioral consequences of conditioned fear-generalization: A pronounced, yet sparsely studied, feature of anxiety pathology

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Highlights

  • A novel paradigm assessing Pavlovian and instrumental fear-generalization is validated.

  • Maladaptive behavioral consequences of Pavlovian fear-generalization are identified.

  • Increases in generalized fear-potentiated startle are associated with increased instrumental avoidance.

  • The presented paradigm represents a novel lab-based means to study maladaptive avoidance.

Abstract

Fear-conditioning experiments in the anxiety disorders focus almost exclusively on passive-emotional, Pavlovian conditioning, rather than active-behavioral, instrumental conditioning. Paradigms eliciting both types of conditioning are needed to study maladaptive, instrumental behaviors resulting from Pavlovian abnormalities found in clinical anxiety. One such Pavlovian abnormality is generalization of fear from a conditioned danger-cue (CS+) to resembling stimuli. Though lab-based findings repeatedly link overgeneralized Pavlovian-fear to clinical anxiety, no study assesses the degree to which Pavlovian overgeneralization corresponds with maladaptive, overgeneralized instrumental-avoidance. The current effort fills this gap by validating a novel fear-potentiated startle paradigm including Pavlovian and instrumental components. The paradigm is embedded in a computer game during which shapes appear on the screen. One shape paired with electric-shock serves as CS+, and other resembling shapes, presented in the absence of shock, serve as generalization stimuli (GSs). During the game, participants choose whether to behaviorally avoid shock at the cost of poorer performance. Avoidance during CS+ is considered adaptive because shock is a real possibility. By contrast, avoidance during GSs is considered maladaptive because shock is not a realistic prospect and thus unnecessarily compromises performance. Results indicate significant Pavlovian-instrumental relations, with greater generalization of Pavlovian fear associated with overgeneralization of maladaptive instrumental-avoidance.

Section snippets

Participants

Fifty healthy participants were recruited from the University of Minnesota research experience program and received course credit for their time. Prior to testing, participants gave written informed consent that had been approved by the University IRB. Inclusion criteria included: (1) no past or current Axis-I psychiatric disorder, (2) no major medical condition that interfered with the objectives of the study, and (3) no current use of medications altering central nervous system function.

Results

Descriptive statistics for startle and subjective responses across pre-acquisition and Pavlovian acquisition are displayed in Table 1.

Discussion

Current findings validate a novel experimental paradigm for assessing maladaptive behavioral correlates of Pavlovian generalization of conditioned fear. The applied ‘virtual farmer’ paradigm elicited both Pavlovian and instrumental generalization gradients with strongest fear-related responses (startle potentiation, perceived risk, behavioral avoidance) to the CS+, and curve-linear decreases in responding as presented stimuli differentiated from CS+. Central to the primary aim of the study,

Conclusion

Current findings validate a novel paradigm for assessing Pavlovian and instrumental generalization of conditioned fear and the relations among them. Higher levels of Pavlovian generalization were associated with stronger maladaptive avoidance of benign GSs with resemblance to CS+. The current paradigm offers the field a lab-based tool with which to probe the neurobiology, pharmacology, and therapeutic responsiveness of maladaptive, generalized avoidance—a key but understudied feature of

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    This work was supported by R00-MH080130 from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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