Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential Evaluation
Anxiety disorders are characterized by a range of aberrations in the processing of and response to threat, but there is little clarity what core pathogenesis might underlie these symptoms. Here we propose that a particular set of unrealistically pessimistic assumptions can distort an agent’s behavio...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ubiquity Press
2020-03-01
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| Series: | Computational Psychiatry |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cpsyjournal.org/articles/51 |
| _version_ | 1798031928925880320 |
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| author | Samuel Zorowitz Ida Momennejad Nathaniel D. Daw |
| author_facet | Samuel Zorowitz Ida Momennejad Nathaniel D. Daw |
| author_sort | Samuel Zorowitz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Anxiety disorders are characterized by a range of aberrations in the processing of and response to threat, but there is little clarity what core pathogenesis might underlie these symptoms. Here we propose that a particular set of unrealistically pessimistic assumptions can distort an agent’s behavior and underlie a host of seemingly disparate anxiety symptoms. We formalize this hypothesis in a decision-theoretic analysis of maladaptive avoidance and a reinforcement learning model, which shows how a localized bias in beliefs can formally explain a range of phenomena related to anxiety. The core observation, implicit in standard decision-theoretic accounts of sequential evaluation, is that the potential for avoidance should be protective: If danger can be avoided later, it poses less threat now. We show how a violation of this assumption—via a pessimistic, false belief that later avoidance will be unsuccessful—leads to a characteristic, excessive propagation of fear and avoidance to situations far antecedent of threat. This single deviation can explain a range of features of anxious behavior, including exaggerated threat appraisals, fear generalization, and persistent avoidance. Simulations of the model reproduce laboratory demonstrations of abnormal decision-making in anxiety, including in situations of approach–avoid conflict and planning to avoid losses. The model also ties together a number of other seemingly disjoint phenomena in anxious disorders. For instance, learning under the pessimistic bias captures a hypothesis about the role of anxiety in the later development of depression. The bias itself offers a new formalization of classic insights from the psychiatric literature about the central role of maladaptive beliefs about control and self-efficacy in anxiety. This perspective also extends previous computational accounts of beliefs about control in mood disorders, which neglected the sequential aspects of choice. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T20:05:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-39ed2d75981448e7b14b206f83194445 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2379-6227 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T20:05:41Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | Ubiquity Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Computational Psychiatry |
| spelling | doaj.art-39ed2d75981448e7b14b206f831944452022-12-22T04:05:20ZengUbiquity PressComputational Psychiatry2379-62272020-03-01411710.1162/CPSY_a_0002649Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential EvaluationSamuel Zorowitz0Ida Momennejad1Nathaniel D. Daw2Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New JerseyDepartment of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New YorkPrinceton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New JerseyAnxiety disorders are characterized by a range of aberrations in the processing of and response to threat, but there is little clarity what core pathogenesis might underlie these symptoms. Here we propose that a particular set of unrealistically pessimistic assumptions can distort an agent’s behavior and underlie a host of seemingly disparate anxiety symptoms. We formalize this hypothesis in a decision-theoretic analysis of maladaptive avoidance and a reinforcement learning model, which shows how a localized bias in beliefs can formally explain a range of phenomena related to anxiety. The core observation, implicit in standard decision-theoretic accounts of sequential evaluation, is that the potential for avoidance should be protective: If danger can be avoided later, it poses less threat now. We show how a violation of this assumption—via a pessimistic, false belief that later avoidance will be unsuccessful—leads to a characteristic, excessive propagation of fear and avoidance to situations far antecedent of threat. This single deviation can explain a range of features of anxious behavior, including exaggerated threat appraisals, fear generalization, and persistent avoidance. Simulations of the model reproduce laboratory demonstrations of abnormal decision-making in anxiety, including in situations of approach–avoid conflict and planning to avoid losses. The model also ties together a number of other seemingly disjoint phenomena in anxious disorders. For instance, learning under the pessimistic bias captures a hypothesis about the role of anxiety in the later development of depression. The bias itself offers a new formalization of classic insights from the psychiatric literature about the central role of maladaptive beliefs about control and self-efficacy in anxiety. This perspective also extends previous computational accounts of beliefs about control in mood disorders, which neglected the sequential aspects of choice.https://cpsyjournal.org/articles/51anxietyavoidancefear generalizationdecision theory |
| spellingShingle | Samuel Zorowitz Ida Momennejad Nathaniel D. Daw Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential Evaluation Computational Psychiatry anxiety avoidance fear generalization decision theory |
| title | Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential Evaluation |
| title_full | Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential Evaluation |
| title_fullStr | Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential Evaluation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential Evaluation |
| title_short | Anxiety, Avoidance, and Sequential Evaluation |
| title_sort | anxiety avoidance and sequential evaluation |
| topic | anxiety avoidance fear generalization decision theory |
| url | https://cpsyjournal.org/articles/51 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT samuelzorowitz anxietyavoidanceandsequentialevaluation AT idamomennejad anxietyavoidanceandsequentialevaluation AT nathanielddaw anxietyavoidanceandsequentialevaluation |