Aberrant fear learning processes are assumed to be a key factor in the pathogenesis of anxiety disorders. Thus, effective behavioral interventions to reduce dysfunctional fear responding are needed. Beyond passive extinction learning, instrumental control over threatening events is thought to diminish fear. However, the neural mechanisms underlying instrumental control—and to what extent these differ from extinction—are not well understood. We therefore contrasted the neural signatures of instrumental control and passive extinction using an aversive learning task, relative to a control condition. Participants (n = 64) could either learn to exert instrumental control over electric shocks, received a yoked number and sequence of shocks without instrumental control or did not receive any shocks. While both passive extinction and instrumental control reduced threat-related skin conductance responses (SCRs) relative to pre-extinction/control, instrumental control resulted in a significantly more pronounced decrease of SCRs. Instrumental control was further linked to decreased striatal activation and increased cross talk of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) with the amygdala, whereas passive extinction was associated with increased vmPFC activation. Our findings demonstrate that instrumental learning processes may shape Pavlovian fear responses and that the neural underpinnings of instrumental control are critically distinct from those of passive extinction learning.

中文翻译：

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被动灭绝的可分离神经签名和对威胁事件的仪器控制。

异常的恐惧学习过程被认为是焦虑症发病机理中的关键因素。因此，需要有效的行为干预以减少功能障碍性恐惧反应。除了被动灭绝学习之外，对威胁事件的工具控制被认为可以减少恐惧。但是，对于工具控制的神经机制以及这些机制与灭绝有多大的了解，目前尚不清楚。因此，相对于控制条件，我们对比了使用厌恶性学习任务对仪器控制和被动灭绝的神经特征。参加人数 = 64）可以学会对电击施加工具控制，在没有仪器控制的情况下收到轭铁的数量和顺序的电击或没有受到任何电击。相对于灭绝前/控制，被动消光和仪器控制都降低了与威胁相关的皮肤电导反应（SCR），而仪器控制导致SCR的下降更为明显。仪器控制还与纹状体激活减少和与杏仁核的腹侧前额叶皮层（vmPFC）的串扰增加有关，而被动消光与vmPFC激活增加有关。