scholarly journals A virtual burrow assay for head–fixed mice measures habituation, discrimination, exploration and avoidance without training

eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew JP Fink ◽  
Richard Axel ◽  
Carl E Schoonover
Keyword(s):  
Neuronal Activity ◽  
Optical Methods ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors

We have designed an assay that measures approach and avoidance behaviors in head-fixed mice at millisecond timescale, is compatible with standard electrophysiological and optical methods for measuring neuronal activity, and requires no training. The Virtual Burrow Assay simulates a scenario in which a mouse, poised at the threshold of its burrow, evaluates whether to exit the enclosure or to retreat inside. The assay provides a sensitive readout of habituation, discrimination and exploration, as well as avoidance of both conditioned and innately aversive cues.

Learning Where to Look for Danger: Integrating Affective and Spatial Information

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Elizabeth Crawford ◽  
John T. Cacioppo
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Spatial Cognition ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Activation Functions ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Affective Information ◽  
Do So

Although not previously addressed by researchers of spatial cognition or affect, the combination of spatial and affective information is essential for many approach and avoidance behaviors, and thus for survival. We provide the first evidence that through incidental experience, people form representations that capture correlations between affective and spatial information. Participants were able to do so even when the correlation was weak, they were not told to look for the correlation, and the stimuli varied on multiple other dimensions besides valence. In addition, people were more sensitive to the presented correlation when stimuli were negative than when they were positive. This asymmetry in representation may stem from underlying differences in the activation functions for positive and negative hedonic information processing.

Factors Predicting Youth Anxiety Severity: Preliminary Support for a Standardized Behavioral Assessment of Parental and Youth Avoidance Behaviors

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie M. Kuckertz ◽  
Arturo R. Carmona ◽  
Susanna Chang ◽  
John Piacentini ◽  
Nader Amir
Keyword(s):  
Poor Response ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Response To Treatment ◽  
Avoidance Task ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Youth Anxiety ◽  
Behavioral Tendencies ◽  
Related Approach ◽  
Anxious Youth

Anxiety severity in youth is associated with a host of negative outcomes including poor response to treatment. Thus, a better understanding of factors that contribute to anxiety severity is needed. Such factors may include parental anxiety as well as anxiety-related approach and avoidance behaviors in both children and parents. In this study, we examined automatic behavioral tendencies as a method of quantifying anxiety-related approach and avoidance behaviors in children and their parents. Clinically anxious youth (N = 19) with mixed anxiety diagnoses and their parents completed an approach-avoidance task (AAT) comprising different emotional expressions. Our results suggest that in addition to parent report of youth anxiety, both youth and parent automatic avoidance biases predict clinician-rated youth anxiety severity accounting for 62% of the variance in clinician-rated youth anxiety. These results suggest that the AAT may be a useful measure of automatic behavioral tendencies in clinically anxious youth and their parents and that these factors may be relevant to youth anxiety severity.

scholarly journals A neural circuit for competing approach and avoidance underlying prey capture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Rossier ◽  
Violetta La Franca ◽  
Taddeo Salemi ◽  
Cornelius T. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Lateral Hypothalamus ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Prey Capture ◽  
Gabaergic Neurons ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Periaqueductal Grey ◽  
Defensive Responses ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Avoidance Responses

AbstractPredators must frequently balance competing approach and avoidance behaviors elicited by a moving and potentially dangerous prey. Several brain circuits supporting predation have recently been localized. However, the mechanisms by which these circuits balance the conflict between approach and avoidance responses remain unknown. Laboratory mice initially show alternating approach and avoidance responses toward cockroaches, a natural prey, but with repeated exposure become avid hunters. Here we used in vivo neural activity recording and cell-type specific manipulations in hunting mice to identify neurons in the lateral hypothalamus and periaqueductal grey that encode and control predatory approach and avoidance. We found a subset of GABAergic neurons in lateral hypothalamus that specifically encoded hunting behaviors and whose stimulation triggered predation, but not feeding. This population projects to the periaqueductal grey and stimulation of these projections promoted predation. Neurons in periaqueductal grey encoded both approach and avoidance behaviors, but only initially when the mouse showed high levels of fear of the prey. Our findings allow us to propose that GABAergic neurons in lateral hypothalamus facilitate predation in part by suppressing defensive responses to prey encoded in the periaqueductal grey. Our findings reveal a neural circuit mechanism for controlling the balance between conflicting approach and avoidance behaviors elicited by the same stimulus.

scholarly journals Neural systems underlying approach and avoidance in anxiety disorders

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-531 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Orbitofrontal Cortex ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Cognition And Emotion ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Approach Avoidance

Approach-avoidance conflict is an important psychological concept that has been used extensively to better understand cognition and emotion. This review focuses on neural systems involved in approach, avoidance, and conflict decision making, and how these systems overlap with implicated neural substrates of anxiety disorders. In particular, the role of amygdala, insula, ventral striatal, and prefrontal regions are discussed with respect to approach and avoidance behaviors. Three specific hypotheses underlying the dysfunction in anxiety disorders are proposed, including: (i) over-representation of avoidance valuation related to limbic overactivation; (ii) under- or over-representation of approach valuation related to attenuated or exaggerated striatal activation respectively; and (iii) insufficient integration and arbitration of approach and avoidance valuations related to attenuated orbitofrontal cortex activation. These dysfunctions can be examined experimentally using versions of existing decision-making paradigms, but may also require new translational and innovative approaches to probe approach-avoidance conflict and related neural systems in anxiety disorders.

Gender-congruent ambient scent influences on approach and avoidance behaviors in a retail store

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (12) ◽  
pp. 1281-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Spangenberg ◽  
David E. Sprott ◽  
Bianca Grohmann ◽  
Daniel L. Tracy
Keyword(s):  
Retail Store ◽  
Approach And Avoidance ◽  
Avoidance Behaviors ◽  
Ambient Scent
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