title: Behaviourally inhibited temperament and female sex, two vulnerability factors for anxiety disorders, facilitate conditioned avoidance (also) in humans.
abstract: Acquisition and maintenance of avoidance behaviour is a key feature of all human anxiety disorders. Animal models have been useful in understanding how anxiety vulnerability could translate into avoidance learning. For example, behaviourally inhibited temperament and female sex, two vulnerability factors for clinical anxiety, are associated with faster acquisition of avoidance responses in rodents. However, to date, the translation of such empirical data to human populations has been limited since many features of animal avoidance paradigms are not typically captured in human research. Here, using a computer-based task that captures many features of rodent escape-avoidance learning paradigms, we investigated whether avoidance learning would be faster in humans with inhibited temperament and/or female sex and, if so, whether this facilitation would take the same form. Results showed that, as in rats, both vulnerability factors were associated with facilitated acquisition of avoidance behaviour in humans. Specifically, inhibited temperament was associated with higher rate of avoidance responding, while female sex was associated with longer avoidance duration. These findings strengthen the direct link between animal avoidance work and human anxiety vulnerability, further motivating the study of animal models while also providing a simple testbed for a direct human testing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA; Joint Biomedical Engineering Program, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA; Stress & Motivated Behavior Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA. Electronic address: jony.sheynin@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Jony
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sheynin
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA; Joint Biomedical Engineering Program, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA; Stress & Motivated Behavior Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA. Electronic address: Kevin.Beck@va.gov.
authors.forename: Kevin D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA; Joint Biomedical Engineering Program, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA; Stress & Motivated Behavior Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA. Electronic address: Kevin.Pang@va.gov.
authors.forename: Kevin C H
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA; Joint Biomedical Engineering Program, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA; Stress & Motivated Behavior Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA. Electronic address: richard.servatius@va.gov.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Servatius
authors.affiliation: Honors College, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA. Electronic address: sshikari52@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Saima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shikari
authors.affiliation: Honors College, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA. Electronic address: jjostovich@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ostovich
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA; Stress & Motivated Behavior Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA; Department of Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA. Electronic address: Catherine.Myers2@va.gov.
authors.forename: Catherine E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Myers
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology*; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Anxiety disorders; Associative learning; Avoidance learning; Behavioural inhibition; Female sex; Inbred Wistar–Kyoto rats; Translational research