ArticleCurrent opinion in behavioral sciences2019
Avoidance Problems Reconsidered.
Article in Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Dopamine D2 receptors bypass canonical signaling to directly tune NMDA receptor function and aversive learning.Science advances · 2026Article
- A synaptic mechanism for encoding the learned value of action-derived safety.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The behavioral and neural architecture of observational active avoidance is shaped by demonstrator experience and observer sex.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Devaluation of response-produced safety signals reveals circuits for goal-directed versus habitual avoidance in dorsal striatum.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Depression Levels Are Associated with Reduced Capacity to Learn to Actively Avoid Aversive Events in Young Adults.eNeuro · 2025Article
- Intersect between brain mechanisms of conditioned threat, active avoidance, and reward.Communications psychology · 2025Review
- Social context modulates active avoidance: Contributions of the anterior cingulate cortex in male and female rats.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- Diminished reward circuit response underlies pain avoidance learning deficits in problem drinkers.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2025Article
- Neuronal circuit mechanisms of competitive interaction between action-based and coincidence learning.Science advances · 2024Article
- Social threat avoidance depends on action-outcome predictability.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- Behavioral outputs and overlapping circuits between conditional fear and active avoidance.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2024Review
- A rat model of operant negative reinforcement in opioid-dependent males and females.Psychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Acute stress promotes effort mobilization for safety-related goals.Communications psychology · 2024Article
- A history of avoidance does not impact extinction learning in male rats.NPJ science of learning · 2024Article
- Retrosplenial cortex and aversive conditioning.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Review
- Reframing dopamine: A controlled controller at the limbic-motor interface.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Stress, associative learning, and decision-making.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2023Review
- Understanding anxiety symptoms as aberrant defensive responding along the threat imminence continuum.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- From aversive associations to defensive programs: experience-dependent synaptic modifications in the central amygdala.Trends in neurosciences · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Active avoidance is the prototypical paradigm for studying aversively-motivated instrumental behavior. However, avoidance research stalled amid heated theoretical debates and the hypothesis that active avoidance is essentially Pavlovian flight. Here I reconsider key "avoidance problems" and review neurobehavioral data collected with modern tools. Although the picture remains incomplete, these studies strongly suggest that avoidance has an instrumental component and is mediated by brain circuits that resemble appetitive instrumental actions more than Pavlovian fear reactions. Rapid progress may be possible if investigators consider important factors like safety signals, response-competition, goal-directed vs. habitual control and threat imminence in avoidance study design. Since avoidance responses likely contribute to active coping, this research has important implications for understanding human resilience and disorders of control.
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Registered trials
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