Enhanced avoidance learning in behaviorally inhibited young men and women

Abstract

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperamental tendency to avoid or withdraw from novel social and nonsocial situations and has been shown to predispose individuals to anxiety disorders. However, adequate means to assess individual differences in avoidance learning in humans are presently limited. Here, we tested whether individuals with high self-reported BI show faster associative learning on a purely cognitive task, and whether such inhibited individuals are more prone to avoid aversive outcomes. In Experiment 1, we tested 74 healthy undergraduate students (mean age 19.5 years; 55.4% female) on a computer-based probabilistic classification task, where participants were asked to classify four distinct visual stimuli into two categories. Two stimuli were associated with reward (point gain) and two were associated with punishment (point loss). In Experiment 2, 79 participants from the same population (mean age 19.8 years; 62% female) were tested on a novel modification of the same task, where they also had the option to opt out of responding on each trial and thus, avoid any chance of being punished (or rewarded) on that trial. Results show that inhibited participants demonstrated better associative learning in Experiment 1, while exhibiting a greater tendency to opt out in Experiment 2 (repeated-measures ANOVAs, main effects of BI, both p<0.05). These results suggest that the facilitated classically-conditioned learning previously observed in inhibited individuals can be extended to a cognitive task, and also highlight a specific preference in inhibited individuals for withdrawal (“opting-out”) as a response strategy, when multiple strategies are available to avoid punishment.

Facilitated acquisition of standard but not long delay classical eyeblink conditioning in behaviorally inhibited adolescents

“…Previous research indicates the hippocampus may be involved in risk for anxiety in terms of structure [48], function [49], and behavior [19]. Reduced hippocampal activity in the high AMBI group could enhance learning in standard delay (500-ms) conditioning.…”

“…One possibility is that anxious individuals are more sensitive to the cues and contingencies in their environments, resulting in faster learning and better performance on avoidance tasks. This theory is supported by the observation of individual differences in learning in both operant and classical conditioning avoidance paradigms [4][5][6]18,19]. Although operant paradigms may seem more suited to the high cognitive processes typically associated with avoidance, eyeblink classical conditioning is an established and reliable model for understanding human learning.…”

Individual differences in resting-state functional connectivity with the executive network: support for a cerebellar role in anxiety vulnerability

“…For example, hippocampal differences have been related to the development of PTSD (Gilbertson et al 2006). Furthermore, behaviorally inhibited individuals show enhanced avoidance in a hippocampal dependent avoidance task (Sheynin et al 2013). It is possible that increased reliance on cerebro-cerebellar circuitry may be the result of hippocampal dysfunction.…”

“…As such, recent research studies have reported increased resting-state connectivity of the amygdala and insula in Veterans with PTSD, implicating the salience network (Sripada et al 2012). However, given previous research in cerebellarmediated eyeblink conditioning (Caulfield et al 2013(Caulfield et al , 2015, avoidance learning (Sheynin et al 2013), and taskbased fMRI (Blackford et al 2009), we hypothesized that regions in the cerebellum will significantly correlate with executive network resting-state fluctuations, with inhibited individuals demonstrating greater cerebellar connectivity with the executive network.…”

“…It remains unclear why those with behaviorally inhibited temperament demonstrate individual differences in eyeblink conditioning (Caulfield et al 2013;Caulfield et al 2015), as well as enhanced avoidance learning (Sheynin et al 2013). Reciprocal connectivity between the cerebellum and cortical regions places it in a position to modulate higher cognitive processes via connections with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC).…”