Anxious individuals have difficulty learning the causal statistics of aversive environments

Abstract

Statistical regularities in the causal structure of the environment enable us to predict the probable outcomes of our actions. Environments differ in the extent to which action-outcome contingencies are stable or volatile. Difficulty in being able to use this information to optimally update outcome predictions might contribute to the decision-making difficulties seen in anxiety. We tested this using an aversive learning task manipulating environmental volatility. Low trait anxious human participants matched updating of their outcome predictions to the volatility of the current environment, as predicted by a Bayesian model. High trait anxious individuals showed less ability to adjust updating of outcome expectancies between stable and volatile environments. This was linked to reduced sensitivity of the pupil dilatory response to volatility, potentially indicative of altered norepinephrinergic responsivity to changes in this aspect of environmental information.

The effect of single-dose methylphenidate on the rate of error-driven learning in healthy males: a randomized controlled trial

“…Recent evidence indicates that individuals with high trait anxiety have difficulty adjusting learning rate depending on environmental volatility (Browning et al 2015). This difficulty was associated with a lack of modulation of pupil diameter based on environmental volatility, suggesting that it results from underlying LC dysfunction.…”

“…Furthermore, learning rate or unexpected uncertainty is associated with NE signaling measured by pupil diameter (Browning et al 2015; Nassar et al 2012; Nassar et al 2010) and by fMRI imaging of the locus coeruleus (LC), the principal location of NE neurons in the brain (Payzan-LeNestour et al 2013). Environmental volatility is also associated with activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) (Behrens et al 2007).…”

“…Such differences may have important implications for psychopathology, as individuals with high trait anxiety display a blunted ability to adjust learning rate based on volatility, a deficit linked to altered NE responses (Browning et al 2015). …”

Extrastriatal dopamine D2-receptor availability in social anxiety disorder

“…Importantly, expectation updating and responses to aversive stimuli are dependent on prediction error signals stemming from midbrain DA neurons (Matsumoto and Hikosaka, 2009;Bromberg-Martin et al, 2010). It may thus be speculated that the inability of anxiety patients to match expectations and actual input when facing fearful situations (Browning et al, 2015) is related to elevated levels of D2-R availability in OFC and DLPFC. This hypothesis should be tested, e.g.…”

Performance and belief-based emotion regulation capacity and tendency: Mapping links with cognitive flexibility and perceived stress

“…Though executive functions are broadly seen as being integral to ensuring wellbeing (e.g., Diamond, 2013;Insel, Morrow, Brewew, & Figueredo, 2006;Jacobson, Williford, & Pianta, 2011;Pennington & Ozonoff, 1996), cognitive flexibility appears to be more robustly related to markers of wellbeing than working memory is. (Alexander, Hillier, Smith, Tivarus, & Beversdorf, 2007;Browning, Behrens, Jocham, O'Reilly, & Bishop, 2015) For these reasons, a central focus of our study was determining whether cognitive flexibility accounted for the relationship with reappraisal and wellbeing, over and above working memory. We extended prior research by examining whether cognitive flexibility plays a privileged role in supporting associations between capacity and tendency, and wellbeing, over and above working memory.…”