Huge thanks to my collaborators at the Department of Neurology @MPI-CBS, and to everyone at Donders Institute for their support with study design and data collection.
Abstract
To protect from danger, individuals learn to recognise threats through aversive experiences, as described by Pavlovian threat conditioning. However, Pavlovian threat memory alone is insufficient to gauge danger when previously encountered threats are absent. Here, we show that, to infer risk, individuals rely on their pre-existing knowledge of environmental relations among multiple cues that were never experienced in an aversive context. We trained participants to associate pairs of novel images that together formed an abstract linear knowledge structure. The next day, the image anchored at one end of the structure acquired Pavlovian threat memory. When later exposed to the remaining images under the risk of a mild electric shock, participants showed defensive responses, both in self-reported and physiological measures, that scaled with the associative distance between the neutral and threatening cues. Our findings suggest that individuals prepare for anticipated harm according to a memory structure built from separate learning experiences.
TO BE RELEASED SOON – STAY TUNED
Acknowledgment
BMB was supported by the Max Planck Society, the International Max Planck Research School “NeuroCom”, University of Leipzig, and Leibniz Program of the Research Academy Leipzig.
License
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0.