Potentiation of the early visual response to learned danger signals in adults and adolescents.

ABSTRACT: The reinforcing effects of aversive outcomes on avoidance behaviour are well established. However, their influence on perceptual processes is less well explored, especially during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Using electroencephalography, we examined whether learning to actively or passively avoid harm can modulate early visual responses in adolescents and adults. The task included two avoidance conditions, active and passive, where two different warning stimuli predicted the imminent, but avoidable, presentation of an aversive tone. To avoid the aversive outcome, participants had to learn to emit an action (active avoidance) for one of the warning stimuli and omit an action for the other (passive avoidance). Both adults and adolescents performed the task with a high degre

SUBMITTER: Levita L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4321623 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature