Stressful Events as Teaching Signals for the Brain

Trapp, Sabrina; O’Doherty, John P.; Schwabe, Lars

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2018.03.007

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This memory boost for stressful events may be highly adaptive to survival but may contribute to PTSD and anxiety disorders. Whereas traditional accounts of emotionalmemory enhancements emphasize the role of arousalrelated hormones and neurotransmitters ( Joëls et al, 2006;Schwabe et al, 2012), our recent account posits that the enhanced memory under stress may be driven by the expectancy violation evoked by stressful events (Trapp et al, 2018). Here, we tested a key assumption of this alternate account, namely, that a reduction of the expectancy violation associated with a stressful encounter would abolish the memory enhancement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Expectancy Violation Drives Memory Boost for Stressful Events

et al. 2020

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Stressful events are often vividly remembered. Although generally adaptive to survival, this emotional-memory enhancement may contribute to stress-related disorders. We tested here whether the enhanced memory for stressful events is due to the expectancy violation evoked by these events. Ninety-four men and women underwent a stressful or control episode. Critically, to manipulate the degree of expectancy violation, we gave participants either detailed or minimal information about the stressor. Although the subjective and hormonal stress responses were comparable in informed and uninformed participants, prior information about the stressor abolished the memory advantage for core features of the stressful event, tested 7 days later. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we further linked the expectancy violation and memory formation under stress to the inferior temporal cortex. These data are the first to show that detailed information about an upcoming stressor and, by implication, a reduced expectancy violation attenuates the memory for stressful events.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Expectancy Violation Drives Memory Boost for Stressful Events

et al. 2020

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“…This idea is consistent with active inference models, according to which the primary role of feedback pathways in the nervous system is to carry information about prediction errors, which can be used to update the brain's feedforward models (see Pezzulo et al 2015). It also dovetails with the recent hypothesis that acute stress triggered by unpredictability functions as a "teaching signal" for the brain-by boosting memory for the stressful event, enhancing bottom-up information processing (i.e., increasing the weight of feedback signals), and facilitating rapid learning through mechanisms such as dopamine release (Trapp et al 2018). In organisms without a nervous system or even single cells, simple forms of revision can take place at the molecular level.…”

Section: Stress As Control Failurementioning

confidence: 76%

What Is Stress? A Systems Perspective

Giudice

Buck

Chaby

et al. 2018

Integrative and Comparative Biology

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The term "stress" is used to capture important phenomena at multiple levels of biological organization, but finding a general and rigorous definition of the concept has proven challenging. Current models in the behavioral literature emphasize the cognitive aspects of stress, which is said to occur when threats to the organism are perceived as uncontrollable and/or unpredictable. Here we adopt the perspective of systems biology and take a step toward a general definition of stress by unpacking the concept in light of control theory. Our goal is to clarify the concept so as to facilitate integrative research and formal analysis. We argue that stress occurs when a biological control system detects a failure to control a fitness-critical variable, which may be either internal or external to the organism. Biological control systems typically include both feedback (reactive, compensatory) and feedforward (predictive, anticipatory) components; their interplay accounts for the complex phenomenology of stress in living organisms. The simple and abstract definition we propose applies to animals, plants, and single cells, highlighting connections across levels of organization. In the final section of the paper we explore some extensions of our approach and suggest directions for future research. Specifically, we discuss the classic concepts of conditioning and hormesis and review relevant work on cellular stress responses; show how control theory suggests the existence of fundamental trade-offs in the design of stress responses; and point to potential insights into the effects of novel environmental conditions, including those resulting from anthropogenic change.

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“…By constructing an ideal Bayesian observer of these traumatic events, we establish a baseline for what can be inferred from repeated events without association. We then turn to a recently developed reinforcement learning model (7, 34-36) to integrate non-associative learning (about the frequency of threat) with associative learning (about the associations of threat). Finally, we fit the reinforcement learning model to data derived from mice undergoing Stress-enhanced Fear Learning (SEFL), a rodent model of PTSD (30).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this section, we propose that a recently proposed RL momentum model (7, 34-36) can explain features of PTSD not explained by classical associative learning models. Traumatic events may come in clusters, so learning from trauma involves combining information from distinct experiences that occur close in time.…”

Section: Model 2 – Ptsd As Threat Momentummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We show that a natural consequence of this approach is that early life trauma has disproportionate impact on estimated risk even when controlling for the number of traumatic events. After describing the behavior of such an ideal Bayesian agent, we turn to a recently developed RL model (7, 34-36) in order to integrate associative and non-associative learning. Non-associative learning becomes more important as traumas occur in more different contexts and less distant times.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A computational model for learning from repeated trauma

Kaye

Kwan

Ressler

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Traumatic events can lead to lifelong inflexible adaptations in threat 9 perception and behavior which characterize posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This 10 process involves associations between sensory cues and internal states of threat and 11 then generalization of the threat responses to previously neutral cues. However, most 12 formulations neglect adaptations to threat that are not specific to those associations. In 13 order to incorporate non-associative responses to threat, we propose a computational 14 theory of PTSD based on adaptation to the frequency of traumatic events using a 15 reinforcement learning momentum model. Recent threat prediction errors generate 16 momentum that influences subsequent threat perception in novel contexts. This model 17 fits data acquired from a mouse model of PTSD, in which unpredictable footshocks in 18 one context accelerate threat learning in a novel context. The theory is also consistent 19 with epidemiological data showing that PTSD incidence increases with the number of 20 traumatic events, as well as the disproportionate impact of early life trauma. Since the 21 theory proposes that PTSD relates to the average of recent threat prediction errors 22

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Stressful Events as Teaching Signals for the Brain

Cited by 21 publications

References 14 publications

Expectancy Violation Drives Memory Boost for Stressful Events

Expectancy Violation Drives Memory Boost for Stressful Events

What Is Stress? A Systems Perspective

A computational model for learning from repeated trauma

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