No joy - why bother? Higher anhedonia relates to reduced pleasure from and motivation for threat avoidance

Leng, Lu; Beckers, Tom; Vervliet, Bram

doi:10.1016/j.brat.2022.104227

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Self-reported pleasantness ratings and SCRs were also similar within each magnitude for reward and relief experiences. Although anhedonia has been found to attenuate self-reported pleasantness for shock-omission-induced relief (Leng et al, 2022) as well as monetary gains (Pizzagalli et al, 2009), this effect is not always observed (Yan et al, 2016). In the current study, we did not observe any effect of anhedonia or depression on these response processes, which might be due to various reasons.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When facing a threat, anxious people feel stronger relief after successful avoidance and at the same time, execute excessive and persistent active avoidance behaviors (De Kleine et al, 2023; San Martín et al, 2020; Vervliet et al, 2017). In contrast, people with anhedonia symptoms report blunted relief at threat omissions and exhibit reduced active avoidance (Leng et al, 2022). These findings suggest that threat-omission-induced relief functions like a reward, by reinforcing the preceding action (in this case, the avoidance behavior).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Relief is a positive emotion triggered by the absence of an expected threat (Deutsch et al, 2015). Recent research indicates that the relief experienced after successfully avoiding a threat may be rewarding and serve to encourage future engagement in active avoidance (Leng et al, 2022; Papalini, Ashoori, et al, 2021; Papalini, Beckers, et al, 2021; Papalini, Neefs, et al, 2021; San Martín et al, 2020; Vervliet et al, 2017). When facing a threat, anxious people feel stronger relief after successful avoidance and at the same time, execute excessive and persistent active avoidance behaviors (De Kleine et al, 2023; San Martín et al, 2020; Vervliet et al, 2017).…”

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confidence: 99%

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What a relief! The pleasure of threat avoidance.

Leng,

Beckers,

Vervliet

2024

Emotion

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Relief, a pleasurable experience, is often triggered by successful threat avoidance. Although relief is regarded as the positive reinforcer for avoidance behavior, its rewarding nature remains to be demonstrated. In our study, 50 participants responded to cues associated with different magnitudes of monetary values or electrical stimuli. Successful responses to those cues resulted in monetary gains (i.e., rewards) or omissions of electrical stimulation (i.e., relief), followed by a pleasantness rating scale. We also measured physiological arousal via skin conductance. As expected, we found that for reward and relief similarly, higher magnitudes elicited more successful responses, higher pleasantness ratings, and higher skin conductance responses. Moreover, differential reward/relief response patterns predicted later choices between reward and relief cues. These findings indicate that relief induced by threat omissions is functionally equivalent to receiving a reward, confirming that relief is a positive reinforcer for threat avoidance behaviors, which provides a new theoretical perspective on the learning process of active threat avoidance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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What a relief! The pleasure of threat avoidance.

Leng,

Beckers,

Vervliet

2024

Emotion

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“…The positive affective outcomes of safety learning remain an understudied component of Pavlovian safety , but could provide a useful affective measurement to complement traditional physiological and cognitive assessments. Several behavioral studies indicate that measurements of relief following the successful prevention of shock could provide reliable cognitive indexes of a prediction error process during Pavlovian or instrumental safety learning (Leng et al, 2022;Papalini et al, 2021;San Martín et al, 2020;Vervliet et al, 2017). Further work could include carefully designed subjective ratings to capture these aspects of the safety learning process.…”

Section: Methodological Challenges Of Safety Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pavlovian safety learning: an integrative theoretical review

Laing,

Vervliet,

Dunsmoor

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Safety learning involves associating stimuli with the absence of threats, enabling the inhibition of fear and anxiety. Despite growing interest in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience research, safety learning lacks a formal consensus definition, leading to inconsistent methodologies and varied results. Conceptualized as a form of inhibitory learning (conditioned inhibition), safety learning can be understood through formal learning theories, such as the Rescorla-Wagner and Pearce-Hall models. This review aims to establish a principled conceptualization of ‘Pavlovian safety learning’, identifying cognitive mechanisms that generate it safety, and boundary conditions that constrain it. Based on these observations, we define Pavlovian safety learning as an active associative process, where surprising threat- omission (safety prediction error) acts as a salient reinforcing event. Instead of producing neutral or non-aversive states, the safety learning process endows stimuli with positive association to ‘safety’. The resulting stimulus-safety memories counteract the influence of fear memories, promoting fear regulation, positive affect, and relief. We critically analyze traditional criteria of conditioned inhibition for their relevance to safety and propose areas for future innovation. A principled concept of Pavlovian safety learning may reduce methodological inconsistencies, stimulate translational research, and facilitate a comprehensive understanding of an indispensable psychological construct.

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“…On the other hand, anhedonia could also contribute to diminished fear extinction, which is a core component of anxiety. Correspondingly, during fear extinction, heightened activity in several brain regions, including threat-related neural circuitry, (i.e., the AMG, anterior INS and dorsal ACC), has been associated with anhedonia in young healthy adults (Rosenberg et al, 2021;Young et al, 2021), possibly due to a reduced sense of relief/reward when the threat is no longer present (Leng et al, 2022;Young et al, 2021). Considering the importance of fear extinction in exposure therapy for anxiety disorders, it has been suggested that therapeutic interventions aimed at raising reward sensitivity (for a review see before exposure therapy may benefit individuals with low positive affect or anhedonia (Craske et al, 2022).…”

Section: From Action Tendencies To Action Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How emotional expressions motivate action

Mennella¹,

Grèzes²

2023

Preprint

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Emotional coordination constitutes one of the crucial building blocks for social adaptation. Humans, like other primate species, are able to rapidly and accurately respond to others' non-verbal emotional signals by preparing and executing adaptive motor responses. In this chapter, we present a general overview of how emotional expressions emitted by others promote, in the observer’s brain, fast processing and elaboration of multiple possibilities for action of different levels of complexity, from stimulus-driven reactions to goal-directed actions, via different communicating subcortical and cortical pathways, that compete to flexibly orchestrate our social behavior.

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No joy - why bother? Higher anhedonia relates to reduced pleasure from and motivation for threat avoidance

Cited by 11 publications

References 43 publications

What a relief! The pleasure of threat avoidance.

What a relief! The pleasure of threat avoidance.

Pavlovian safety learning: an integrative theoretical review

How emotional expressions motivate action

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