title: Avoidance behavior: a free-operant lever-press avoidance task for the assessment of the effects of safety signals.
abstract: This protocol details a free-operant avoidance paradigm that has been developed to evaluate the relative contribution of different sources of reinforcement of avoidance behavior that may play an important role in the development and maintenance of human anxiety disorders. The task enables the assessment of the effects of safety cues that signal a period free from danger on lever-press avoidance behavior. Avoidance behavior trained using this protocol has been shown to be sensitive to both behavioral and pharmacological manipulations and has been optimized so that it takes approximately 1 month for rats to perform at high levels of stable avoidance responding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.|Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Anushka B P
authors.initials: ABP
authors.lastname: Fernando
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.|Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Adam C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Mar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.|Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Gonzalo P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Urcelay
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.|Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.|Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Trevor W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Robbins
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D051381:Rats; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012449:Safety
keywords: avoidance; habits; revaluation; rodents