Altered Associative Learning and Learned Helplessness in Major Depression

Diener, Carsten

doi:10.5772/51787

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 117 publications

(115 reference statements)

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“…Experimental animal models of depression have tended to focus on paradigms such as chronic stress and learned helplessness to induce depression-like behavior (Diener, 2013). The idea of learned helplessness is that exposure to inescapable aversive events leads to extinction of escape behavior that otherwise would be expected in the face of aversive stimulation (Seligman, 1974).…”

Section: Helplessness and Aversive Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The idea of learned helplessness is that exposure to inescapable aversive events leads to extinction of escape behavior that otherwise would be expected in the face of aversive stimulation (Seligman, 1974). While the core of instrumental or operant learning is that subjects learn that their behavior controls reinforcement, learned helplessness proposes that subjects learn that their behavior cannot control reinforcement (Diener, 2013). This mimics clinical phenomena observed in depression.…”

Section: Helplessness and Aversive Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A learning theory account of depression

Ramnerö

Folke

Kanter

2015

Scandinavian J Psychology

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Learning theory provides a foundation for understanding and deriving treatment principles for impacting a spectrum of functional processes relevant to the construct of depression. While behavioral interventions have been commonplace in the cognitive behavioral tradition, most often conceptualized within a cognitive theoretical framework, recent years have seen renewed interest in more purely behavioral models. These modern learning theory accounts of depression focus on the interchange between behavior and the environment, mainly in terms of lack of reinforcement, extinction of instrumental behavior, and excesses of aversive control, and include a conceptualization of relevant cognitive and emotional variables. These positions, drawn from extensive basic and applied research, cohere with biological theories on reduced reward learning and reward responsiveness and views of depression as a heterogeneous, complex set of disorders. Treatment techniques based on learning theory, often labeled Behavioral Activation (BA) focus on activating the individual in directions that increase contact with potential reinforcers, as defined ideographically with the client. BA is considered an empirically well-established treatment that generalizes well across diverse contexts and populations. The learning theory account is discussed in terms of being a parsimonious model and ground for treatments highly suitable for large scale dissemination.

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Section: Helplessness and Aversive Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Helplessness and Aversive Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

A learning theory account of depression

Ramnerö

Folke

Kanter

2015

Scandinavian J Psychology

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“…Learned helplessness (LH) is a characteristic behavioral response first described in rodents: After receiving uncontrollable painful shocks, animals showed motor passivity and compromised coping ability in aversive situations (Maier & Seligman, 2016;Maier & Seligman, 1976). The concept of LH has been linked to cognitive and affective symptoms of depression (Diener, 2013;Pryce et al, 2011). Originally, it was proposed that during LH induction ("yoking", an experimental protocol in which an animal receives identical shocks as a paired control, but without being able to control them), what animals learn is the non-contingency between their responses and stressful events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intermittent Absence of Control during Reinforcement Learning Interferes with Pavlovian Bias in Action Selection

Csifcsák

Melsæter

Mittner

2020

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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The ability to control the occurrence of rewarding and punishing events is crucial for our well-being. Two ways to optimize performance are to follow heuristics like Pavlovian biases to approach reward and avoid loss or to rely more on slowly accumulated stimulus–action associations. Although reduced control over outcomes has been linked to suboptimal decision-making in clinical conditions associated with learned helplessness, it is unclear how uncontrollability of the environment is related to the arbitration between different response strategies. This study directly tested whether a behavioral manipulation designed to induce learned helplessness in healthy adults (intermittent loss of control over feedback in a reinforcement learning task; “yoking”) would modulate the magnitude of Pavlovian bias and the neurophysiological signature of cognitive control (frontal midline theta power) in healthy adults. Using statistical analysis and computational modeling of behavioral data and electroencephalographic signals, we found stronger Pavlovian influences and alterations in frontal theta activity in the yoked group. However, these effects were not accompanied by reduced performance in experimental blocks with regained control, indicating that our behavioral manipulation was not potent enough for inducing helplessness and impaired coping ability with task demands. We conclude that the level of contingency between instrumental choices and rewards/punishments modulates Pavlovian bias during value-based decision-making, probably via interfering with the implementation of cognitive control. These findings might have implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying helplessness in various psychiatric conditions.

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“…Future studies could use an alternative operationalization of a depressive risk factor, such as a learned helplessness manipulation (see : Diener, 2013;Hooper & McHugh, 2013), to further investigate the validity of the ERLT. With methodological improvements and further investigations into its reliability and validity, the ERLT has potential not only to measure difficulty disengaging from NSP, but also to model the acquisition of NSP.…”

Section: Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%