Defensive freezing and its relation to approach-avoidance decision-making under threat

Klaassen, Felix H.; Held, Leslie; Figner, Bernd; O’Reilly, Jill X.; Klumpers, Floris; Voogd, Lycia D. de; Roelofs, Karin

doi:10.1101/2021.01.29.428809

Cited by 6 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…To date, relatively little research has investigated the influence of threat-anticipatory freezing and parasympathetic dominance on value-based decisions in threatening contexts, although recent work has specifically tested this link (Klaassen et al, 2021-discussed in the section "The Threat State/Value Integration Model: A New Theoretical Neural Framework of Anticipatory Freezing on Approach-Avoidance Decisions Under Threat"). There is some evidence, however, for an association between threat-induced sympathetic activation and subsequent decisionmaking.…”

Section: Threat-anticipatory Freezing Could Bias Value-based Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In situations where freezing allows action preparation, it may in fact be associated with reduced action cost and bias toward active responding. Based on recent insights from both animal and human literature, individual differences in active and passive biases may impact the direction of effects in this stage (Moscarello and LeDoux, 2013;Klaassen et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Threat State/value Integration Model: a New Theoretical mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a recent study from our group (Klaassen et al, 2021) we developed the Passive-active Approach-avoidance Task (PAT) in which participants performed active and passive approach-avoid decisions. Heart rate, body sway, and skin conductance were measured throughout.…”

Section: The Threat State/value Integration Model: a New Theoretical mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Approach-Avoidance Decisions Under Threat: The Role of Autonomic Psychophysiological States

et al. 2021

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Acutely challenging or threatening situations frequently require approach-avoidance decisions. Acute threat triggers fast autonomic changes that prepare the body to freeze, fight or flee. However, such autonomic changes may also influence subsequent instrumental approach-avoidance decisions. Since defensive bodily states are often not considered in value-based decision-making models, it remains unclear how they influence the decision-making process. Here, we aim to bridge this gap by discussing the existing literature on the potential role of threat-induced bodily states on decision making and provide a new neurocomputational framework explaining how these effects can facilitate or bias approach-avoid decisions under threat. Theoretical accounts have stated that threat-induced parasympathetic activity is involved in information gathering and decision making. Parasympathetic dominance over sympathetic activity is particularly seen during threat-anticipatory freezing, an evolutionarily conserved response to threat demonstrated across species and characterized by immobility and bradycardia. Although this state of freezing has been linked to altered information processing and action preparation, a full theoretical treatment of the interactions with value-based decision making has not yet been achieved. Our neural framework, which we term the Threat State/Value Integration (TSI) Model, will illustrate how threat-induced bodily states may impact valuation of competing incentives at three stages of the decision-making process, namely at threat evaluation, integration of rewards and threats, and action initiation. Additionally, because altered parasympathetic activity and decision biases have been shown in anxious populations, we will end with discussing how biases in this system can lead to characteristic patterns of avoidance seen in anxiety-related disorders, motivating future pre-clinical and clinical research.

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Section: Threat-anticipatory Freezing Could Bias Value-based Decisionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Threat State/value Integration Model: a New Theoretical mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Approach-Avoidance Decisions Under Threat: The Role of Autonomic Psychophysiological States

et al. 2021

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“…It would be relevant for future studies to leave room for more personalized choice patterns, because high and low intensity may not mean the same for each individual, other emotion regulation strategies may be preferred by some individuals, and preferences may change over time. Likewise, congruency effects during emotional action may not be the same for every individual, although this type of control appears to generalize to more symbolic responses mediating appetitive/aversive outcomes, such as those evoked through mannikins and button presses associated with various levels of risks and rewards 120,121 . It remains to be seen whether FECT can explain emotional control across those various behavioral and more symbolic and even linguistically mediated actions.…”

Section: Discussion and Outstanding Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Likewise, congruency effects during emotional action may not be the same for every individual, although this type of control appears to generalize to more symbolic responses mediating appetitive/aversive outcomes, such as those evoked through mannikins and button presses associated with various levels of risks and rewards. 120,121 It remains to be seen whether FECT can explain emotional control across those various behavioral and more symbolic and even linguistically mediated actions.…”

Section: Discussion and Outstanding Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A neurocognitive theory of flexible emotion control: The role of the lateral frontal pole in emotion regulation

Roelofs

Bramson

Toni

2023

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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Emotion regulation is essential to survive in a world full of challenges with rapidly changing contextual demands. The ability to flexibly shift between different emotional control strategies is critical to successfully deal with these demands. Recently, decision neuroscience has shown the importance of monitoring alternative control strategies.However, this insight has not been incorporated into current neurocognitive models of emotional control. Here, we integrate insights from decision and affective sciences into a novel viewpoint on emotion control, the Flexible Emotion Control Theory (FECT). This theory explains how an individual can flexibly change emotion-regulatory behavior to adapt to varying goals and contextual demands. Crucially, FECT proposes that rapid switching between alternative emotional control strategies requires concurrent evaluation of current as well as alternative (unchosen) options. The neural implementation of FECT relies on the involvement of distinct prefrontal structures, including the lateral frontal pole (FPl) and its connections with other cortical (prefrontal, parietal, motor) and subcortical systems. This novel account of emotion control integrates insights from decision sciences, clinical research, as well as meta-analytic evidence for the consistent FPl involvement during emotional control when monitoring of alternative emotional control strategies is required. Moreover, it provides novel, neurocognitively grounded starting points for interventions to improve emotion control in affective disorders, such as anxiety and aggression.

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The relevance of accounting for parasympathetic as well as sympathetic arousal in threat conditioning: methodological and clinical considerations

Jaswetz¹,

Voogd²,

Becker³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Alterations in associative threat learning have been thought to underlie the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Recent insights into the facilitatory role of parasympathetic arousal for threat coping have raised the question whether individual differences in parasympathetic versus sympathetic dominance during threat learning may explain the unstable relationship with anxiety vulnerability versus resilience. We applied an established threat-conditioning paradigm in 78 neurotypical individuals and assessed parasympathetic responses (relative bradycardia), as well as sympathetic response patterns (relative tachycardia and increased skin conductance responses -SCR). We observed threat-induced bradycardia as well as tachycardia during associative learning. Additionally, participants not showing conditioned SCR still exhibit significant conditioned threat responses expressed in parasympathetically driven threat bradycardia. Critically, tachycardia, rather than bradycardia, was linked to stronger initial conditioned SCRs and higher trait anxiety. These results suggest individual differences in sympathetic versus parasympathetic dominance may underlie anxiety vulnerability versus resilience.

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Defensive freezing and its relation to approach-avoidance decision-making under threat

Cited by 6 publications

References 77 publications

Approach-Avoidance Decisions Under Threat: The Role of Autonomic Psychophysiological States

Approach-Avoidance Decisions Under Threat: The Role of Autonomic Psychophysiological States

A neurocognitive theory of flexible emotion control: The role of the lateral frontal pole in emotion regulation

The relevance of accounting for parasympathetic as well as sympathetic arousal in threat conditioning: methodological and clinical considerations

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