TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Absence makes the mind grow fonder: reconceptualizing studies of safety learning in translational research on anxiety
JO  - Cognitive, affective and behavioral neuroscience
A1  - Dennis-Tiwary, Tracy A.
A1  - Likhtik, Ekaterina
A1  - Cho, Hyein
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Overgeneralized fear (OGF), or indiscriminate fear responses to signals of threat and nonthreat, is a well-studied cognitive mechanism in human anxiety. Anxiety-related OGF has been studied primarily through fear-learning paradigms and  conceptualized as overly exaggerated learning of cues signaling imminent threat. However, the role of safety learning in OGF has not only received much less  empirical attention but has been fundamentally conceptualized as learning about the  absence of threat rather than the presence of safety. As a result, the relative  contributions of exaggerated fear learning and weakened safety learning to  anxiety-related OGF remain poorly understood, as do the potentially unique  biological and behavioral underpinnings of safety learning. The present review  outlines these gaps by, first, summarizing animal and human research on safety  learning related to anxiety and OGF. Second, we outline innovations in methods to  tease apart unique biological and behavioral contributions of safety learning to  OGF. Lastly, we describe clinical and treatment implications of this framework for  translational research relevant to human anxiety.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1530-7026
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00855-9
ID  - ref1
ER  -