Modeling Avoidance in Mood and Anxiety Disorders Using Reinforcement Learning.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Serious and debilitating symptoms of anxiety are the most common mental health problem worldwide, accounting for around 5% of all adult years lived with disability in the developed world. Avoidance behavior-avoiding social situations for fear of embarrassment, for instance-is a core feature of such anxiety. However, as for many other psychiatric symptoms the biological mechanisms underlying avoidance remain unclear.

Methods

Reinforcement learning models provide formal and testable characterizations of the mechanisms of decision making; here, we examine avoidance in these terms. A total of 101 healthy participants and individuals with mood and anxiety disorders completed an approach-avoidance go/no-go task under stress induced by threat of unpredictable shock.

R

SUBMITTER: Mkrtchian A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5598542 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature