Humans and animals live in social relationships shaped by actions of approach and avoidance. Both are crucial for normal physical and mental development, survival, and well-being. Active withdrawal from social interaction is often induced by the perception of threat or unpleasant social experience and relies on adaptive mechanisms within neuronal networks associated with social behavior. In case of confrontation with overly strong or persistent stressors and/or dispositions of the affected individual, maladaptive processes in the neuronal circuitries and its associated transmitters and modulators lead to pathological social avoidance. This review focuses on active, fear-driven social avoidance, affected circuits within the mesocorticolimbic system and associated regions and a selection of molecular modulators that promise translational potential. A comprehensive review of human research in this field is followed by a reflection on animal studies that offer a broader and often more detailed range of analytical methodologies. Finally, we take a critical look at challenges that could be addressed in future translational research on fear-driven social avoidance.

人与动物生活在由接近和回避行为所塑造的社会关系中。两者对于正常的身心发展，生存和福祉都至关重要。主动退出社交互动通常是由对威胁或不愉快的社交经验的感知引起的，并且依赖于与社交行为相关的神经元网络内的适应机制。如果面对过度强烈或持续的压力源和/或受影响个体的性格，神经回路及其相关的递质和调节剂的适应不良过程会导致病态的社会回避。这篇综述的重点是主动的，恐惧驱动的社会回避，中皮层皮质系统和相关区域内受影响的回路以及有望实现翻译潜力的分子调节剂的选择。在对该领域的人类研究进行了全面回顾之后，我们对动物研究进行了反思，动物研究提供了更广泛，通常更详细的分析方法。最后，我们批判性地研究了在恐惧驱动的社会回避的未来转化研究中可以解决的挑战。