Human defensive behaviors to threat scenarios show parallels to fear- and anxiety-related defense patterns of non-human mammals

Blanchard, D. Caroline; Hynd, April L; Minke, Karl A.; Minemoto, Tiffanie; Blanchard, Robert J.

doi:10.1016/s0149-7634(01)00056-2

Cited by 268 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…An escapable threat of greater distance more likely elicits withdrawal/avoidance behaviors, whereas an inescapable threat in close distance more likely elicits approach-oriented responses [32]. Thus, it is possible that high MA students rely on different strategies to deal with their negative emotions in different learning situations: they invest more effort in math learning to avoid the immediate negative consequences associated with poor math performance, but they choose to disengage from math learning when it yields no immediate negative outcome.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxiety is not enough to drive me away: A latent profile analysis on math anxiety and math motivation

et al. 2018

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Mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics motivation (MM) are important multi-dimensional non-cognitive factors in mathematics learning. While the negative relation between global MA and MM is well replicated, the relations between specific dimensions of MA and MM are largely unexplored. The present study utilized latent profile analysis to explore profiles of various aspects of MA (including learning MA and exam MA) and MM (including importance, self-perceived ability, and interest), to provide a more holistic understanding of the math-specific emotion and motivation experiences. In a sample of 927 high school students (13–21 years old), we found 8 distinct profiles characterized by various combinations of dimensions of MA and MM, revealing the complexity in the math-specific emotion-motivation relation beyond a single negative correlation. Further, these profiles differed on mathematics learning behaviors and mathematics achievement. For example, the highest achieving students reported modest exam MA and high MM, whereas the most engaged students were characterized by a combination of high exam MA and high MM. These results call for the need to move beyond linear relations among global constructs to address the complexity in the emotion-motivation-cognition interplay in mathematics learning, and highlight the importance of customized intervention for these heterogeneous groups.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anxiety is not enough to drive me away: A latent profile analysis on math anxiety and math motivation

et al. 2018

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“…Bob Blanchard used the VBS and the Mouse Defense Test Battery to show how behavioral systems like defense are dependent upon context and behavioral elements unique to the individual [28, 47, 59]. Similarly, individual behavior and context make dramatic differences with respect to escape and submission in the SAM.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The differentiation of defensive behaviors made originally in the VBS and subsequently documented in a more focused system, the Mouse Defense Test Battery [59] has since been applied to human responses to threat, in the form of a scenario study [28] indicating that people may show much the same pattern as rodents of defenses to similar contexts. This has been replicated in Wales [60] and in Brazil [61–63] suggesting that culture is a relatively minor factor in the relationship between context and specific defenses, and further emphasizing the possibility that these relationships between context and behavior are features of the brain systems controlling defense patterns.…”

Section: Visible Burrow Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuance and behavioral cogency: How the Visible Burrow System inspired the Stress-Alternatives Model and conceptualization of the continuum of anxiety

Robertson

Prince

Achua

et al. 2015

Physiology & Behavior

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By creating the Visible Burrow System (VBS) Bob Blanchard found a way to study the interaction of genetics, physiology, environment, and adaptive significance in a model with broad validity. The VBS changed the way we think about anxiety and affective disorders by allowing the mechanisms which control them to be observed in a dynamic setting. Critically, Blanchard used the VBS and other models to show how behavioral systems like defense are dependent upon context and behavioral elements unique to the individual. Inspired by the VBS, we developed a Stress Alternatives Model (SAM) to further explore the multifaceted dynamics of the stress response with a dichotomous choice condition. Like the VBS, the SAM is a naturalistic model built upon risk-assessment and defensive behavior, but with a choice of response: escape or submission to a large conspecific aggressor. The anxiety of novelty during the first escape must be weighed against fear of the aggressor, and a decision must be made. Both outcomes are adaptively significant, evidenced by a 50/50 split in outcome across several study systems. By manipulating the variables of the SAM, we show that a gradient of anxiety exists that spans the contextual settings of escaping an open field, escaping from aggression, and submitting to aggression. These findings correspond with increasing levels of corticosterone and increasing levels of NPS and BDNF in the central amygdala as the context changes. Whereas some anxiolytics were able to reduce the latency to escape for some animals, only with the potent anxiolytic drug antalarmin (CRF1R-blocker) and the anxiogenic drug yohimbine (α2 antagonist) were we able to reverse the outcome for a substantial proportion of individuals. Our findings promote a novel method for modeling anxiety, offering a distinction between low-and-high levels, and accounting for individual variability. The translational value of the VBS is immeasurable, and it guided us and many other researchers to seek potential clinical solutions through a deeper understanding of regional neurochemistry and gene expression in concert with an ecological behavioral model.

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“…Threat initiates defensive behaviors that are analogous across human and non-human animals (Blanchard et al, 2001a,b; Shuhama et al, 2007). Defensive behaviors are speculated to be perturbed in those with anxiety disorder, and accordingly are modified by anxiolytics (Archer, 1979; Griebel et al, 1995a,b; Marks, 1977; Treit et al, 1986; Treit et al, 1981).…”

Section: Effects Of Wheel Running On Anxiety-like Behavior and Feamentioning

confidence: 99%

Exercise offers anxiolytic potential: A role for stress and brain noradrenergic-galaninergic mechanisms

Sciolino

Holmes

2012

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

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Although physical activity reduces anxiety in humans, the neural basis for this response is unclear. Rodent models are essential to understand the mechanisms that underlie the benefits of exercise. However, it is controversial whether exercise exerts anxiolytic-like potential in rodents. Evidence is reviewed to evaluate the effects of wheel running, an experimental mode of exercise in rodents, on behavior in tests of anxiety and on norepinephrine and galanin systems in neural circuits that regulate stress. Stress is proposed to account for mixed behavioral findings in this literature. Indeed, running promotes an adaptive response to stress and alters anxiety-like behaviors in a manner dependent on stress. Running amplifies galanin expression in noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) and suppresses stress-induced activity of the LC and norepinephrine output in LC-target regions. Thus, enhanced galanin-mediated suppression of brain norepinephrine in runners is supported by current literature as a mechanism that may contribute to the stress-protective effects of exercise. These data support the use of rodents to study the emotional and neurobiological consequences of exercise.

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Human defensive behaviors to threat scenarios show parallels to fear- and anxiety-related defense patterns of non-human mammals

Cited by 268 publications

References 26 publications

Anxiety is not enough to drive me away: A latent profile analysis on math anxiety and math motivation

Anxiety is not enough to drive me away: A latent profile analysis on math anxiety and math motivation

Nuance and behavioral cogency: How the Visible Burrow System inspired the Stress-Alternatives Model and conceptualization of the continuum of anxiety

Exercise offers anxiolytic potential: A role for stress and brain noradrenergic-galaninergic mechanisms

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