Background. The ability to adaptively transfer acquired fear to novel situations is fundamental for survival in ever-changing environments and may contribute to the emergence and persistence of anxiety disorders. Consequently, research has focused on the assessment of fear generalization profiles to predict individual differences in anxiety. However, substantial heterogeneity in the operationalization of generalization hampers comparisons across studies and poses a risk to the replicability of findings. Methods. To address these issues, we reviewed the literature to identify commonly used methods for characterizing perceptual fear generalization profiles. Then, we conducted simulation analyses to examine correlations between indices and probe their robustness against measurement noise. Finally, we used 2 large empirical datasets (N = 1175 and N = 256 healthy humans) to examine the reliability of these indices and their validity in predicting anxiety-related traits. Results. All identified indices were substantially correlated but highly sensitive to measurement noise, with only minimal differences between methods. Reliabilities were moderate for subjective ratings but poor for skin conductance responses. All indices of fear generalization were unrelated to anxiety-related traits. Conclusions. Overall, a more comprehensive discussion of conceptual and methodological issues is needed to enable informed decisions about how to reliably and validly estimate fear generalization and its relationship with anxiety-related traits or clinical symptoms.
Here, we test how the opportunity for active avoidance of threats influence defense behavior at a neurophysiological level
Social attention refers to a perceptual prioritization of social information and a tendency to quickly direct attention toward social stimuli. However, the extent to which social attention follows reflexive mechanisms rather than reflecting top-down control remains elusive. Here we examined the robustness of social orienting when challenged by competing top-down modulations of attention induced by motivationally relevant operant conditioning. We conducted two consecutive experiments (both N = 52) with data for Experiment 1 being collected in December 2023 and January 2024 and data for Experiment 2 from April to May 2024. Using a gaze-contingent paradigm, we explored whether humans could learn to suppress directing their overt visual attention toward specific stimuli when such behavior is associated with a negative outcome, such as an aversive electric shock (Experiment 1) or a loss of points (Experiment 2). We observed reflexive social attention characterized by faster and more frequent saccades only for positively conditioned faces but neither for stimuli that required avoidance nor for novel stimuli. Overall, these results suggest that bottom-up attentional mechanisms such as social prioritization or a novelty bias are less automatic and reflexive than previously assumed and can be suppressed through executive control to support goal-directed behavior.
Here, we study how visual discrimination accuracy changes after learning to differentiate between threat- and safety-related stimuli.
How does aversive learning shape sensory mechanisms to adapt to changing environments?
In this project, we delineate fear and anxiety from a biopsychological perspective and test their potential interactions.