Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals
Spatial navigation is a basic function for survival, and the ability to retrace a route has direct relevance for avoiding dangerous places. This study investigates the effects of aversive apprehensions on spatial navigation in a virtual urban environment. Healthy participants with varying degrees of...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1166594/full |
| _version_ | 1797828906140565504 |
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| author | Florian Bublatzky Florian Bublatzky Peter Allen Martin Riemer |
| author_facet | Florian Bublatzky Florian Bublatzky Peter Allen Martin Riemer |
| author_sort | Florian Bublatzky |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Spatial navigation is a basic function for survival, and the ability to retrace a route has direct relevance for avoiding dangerous places. This study investigates the effects of aversive apprehensions on spatial navigation in a virtual urban environment. Healthy participants with varying degrees of trait anxiety performed a route-repetition and a route-retracing task under threatening and safe context conditions. Results reveal an interaction between the effect of threatening/safe environments and trait anxiety: while threat impairs route-retracing in lower-anxious individuals, this navigational skill is boosted in higher-anxious individuals. According to attentional control theory, this finding can be explained by an attentional shift toward information relevant for intuitive coping strategies (i.e., running away), which should be more pronounced in higher-anxious individuals. On a broader scale, our results demonstrate an often-neglected advantage of trait anxiety, namely that it promotes the processing of environmental information relevant for coping strategies and thus prepares the organism for adequate flight responses. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T13:11:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-fcaf1af36a71402f806d215f607c1d92 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T13:11:54Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-fcaf1af36a71402f806d215f607c1d922023-05-12T06:44:09ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782023-05-011410.3389/fpsyg.2023.11665941166594Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individualsFlorian Bublatzky0Florian Bublatzky1Peter Allen2Martin Riemer3Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau, GermanyDepartment of Creative Technology, Bournemouth University, Dorset, United KingdomBiological Psychology and Neuroergonomics, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, GermanySpatial navigation is a basic function for survival, and the ability to retrace a route has direct relevance for avoiding dangerous places. This study investigates the effects of aversive apprehensions on spatial navigation in a virtual urban environment. Healthy participants with varying degrees of trait anxiety performed a route-repetition and a route-retracing task under threatening and safe context conditions. Results reveal an interaction between the effect of threatening/safe environments and trait anxiety: while threat impairs route-retracing in lower-anxious individuals, this navigational skill is boosted in higher-anxious individuals. According to attentional control theory, this finding can be explained by an attentional shift toward information relevant for intuitive coping strategies (i.e., running away), which should be more pronounced in higher-anxious individuals. On a broader scale, our results demonstrate an often-neglected advantage of trait anxiety, namely that it promotes the processing of environmental information relevant for coping strategies and thus prepares the organism for adequate flight responses.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1166594/fullspatial navigationroute retracingsocial learningthreat-of-shocktrait anxiety |
| spellingShingle | Florian Bublatzky Florian Bublatzky Peter Allen Martin Riemer Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals Frontiers in Psychology spatial navigation route retracing social learning threat-of-shock trait anxiety |
| title | Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals |
| title_full | Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals |
| title_fullStr | Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals |
| title_short | Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals |
| title_sort | spatial navigation under threat aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals |
| topic | spatial navigation route retracing social learning threat-of-shock trait anxiety |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1166594/full |
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