title: Perceptual discrimination in fear generalization: Mechanistic and clinical implications.
abstract: For almost a century, Pavlovian conditioning is the imperative experimental paradigm to investigate the development and generalization of fear. However, despite the rich research tradition, the conceptualization of fear generalization has remained somewhat ambiguous. In this selective review, we focus explicitly on some challenges with the current operationalization of fear generalization and their impact on the ability to make inferences on its clinical potential and underlying processes. The main conclusion is that, despite the strong evidence that learning influences perception, current research has largely neglected the role of perceptual discriminability and its plasticity in fear generalization. We propose an alternative operationalization of generalization, where the essence is that Pavlovian conditioning itself influences the breadth of fear generalization via learning-related changes in perceptual discriminability. Hence a conceptualization of fear generalization is incomplete without an in-depth analysis of processes of perceptual discriminability. Furthermore, this highlights perceptual learning and discriminability as important future targets for pre-clinical and clinical research.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3712, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Struyf
authors.affiliation: Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3726, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: jonas.zaman@ppw.kuleuven.be.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zaman
authors.affiliation: Center for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3712, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Bram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vervliet
authors.affiliation: Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3726, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Van Diest
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Conditioning; Fear generalization; Perceptual discrimination