Assessing the aversive nature of pain with an operant approach/avoidance paradigm

Stimuli are often presumed to be either negative or positive. However, animals’ judgement of their negativity or positivity cannot generally be assumed. A possibility to assess emotional states in animals elicited by stimuli is to investigate animal preferences and their motivation to gain access to these stimuli. This study’s aim was to assess the valence of social stimuli in sheep. We used silent videos of varying intensity of dogs as negative versus conspecifics as positive stimuli in three approaches: (1) an approach–avoidance paradigm; (2) operant conditioning using the video stimuli as reinforcers; and (3) an attention test. In the latter, we assessed differential attention of sheep to simultaneous projections by automatically tracking sheep head and ear postures and recording brain activity. With these approaches, it was difficult to support that the sheep’s reactions varied according to the stimuli’s presumed valence and intensity. The approach–avoidance paradigm and attention test did not support the assumption that dog videos were more negative than sheep videos, though sheep reacted to the stimuli presented. Results from the operant conditioning indicated that sheep were more prone to avoid videos of moving dogs. Overall, we found that standard video images may not be ideal to represent valence characteristics of stimuli to sheep.

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The approach-avoidance paradigm as a model for the analysis of school anxiety.

Journal of Educational Psychology ◽

10.1037/h0026487 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 59 (6, Pt.1) ◽

pp. 388-394 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

James A. Dunn

Keyword(s):

School Anxiety ◽

Avoidance Paradigm ◽

Approach Avoidance

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A distinct parabrachial–to–lateral hypothalamus circuit for motivational suppression of feeding by nociception

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.abe4323 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (19) ◽

pp. eabe4323

Author(s):

Siew Cheng Phua ◽

Yu Lin Tan ◽

Alison Maun Yeng Kok ◽

Esra Senol ◽

Christine Jin Hui Chiam ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Lateral Hypothalamus ◽

Food Reward ◽

Parabrachial Nucleus ◽

Eating Frequency ◽

Feeding Regulation ◽

Avoidance Paradigm ◽

Escape Responses ◽

Approach Avoidance ◽

New Perspective ◽

External Stimuli

The motivation to eat is not only shaped by nutrition but also competed by external stimuli including pain. How the mouse hypothalamus, the feeding regulation center, integrates nociceptive inputs to modulate feeding is unclear. Within the key nociception relay center parabrachial nucleus (PBN), we demonstrated that neurons projecting to the lateral hypothalamus (LHPBN) are nociceptive yet distinct from danger-encoding central amygdala–projecting (CeAPBN) neurons. Activation of LHPBN strongly suppressed feeding by limiting eating frequency and also reduced motivation to work for food reward. Refined approach-avoidance paradigm revealed that suppression of LHPBN, but not CeAPBN, sustained motivation to obtain food. The effect of LHPBN neurons on feeding was reversed by suppressing downstream LHVGluT2 neurons. Thus, distinct from a circuit for fear and escape responses, LHPBN neurons channel nociceptive signals to LHVGluT2 neurons to suppress motivational drive for feeding. Our study provides a new perspective in understanding feeding regulation by external competing stimuli.

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Oral Approach Avoidance

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000458 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 66 (5) ◽

pp. 355-360 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sandra Godinho ◽

Margarida V. Garrido ◽

Oleksandr V. Horchak

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Writing System ◽

Oral Movements ◽

Motivational States ◽

Oral Approach ◽

Approach Avoidance ◽

Abstract Words ◽

European Family

Abstract. Words whose articulation resembles ingestion movements are preferred to words mimicking expectoration movements. This so-called in-out effect, suggesting that the oral movements caused by consonantal articulation automatically activate concordant motivational states, was already replicated in languages belonging to Germanic (e.g., German and English) and Italic (e.g., Portuguese) branches of the Indo-European family. However, it remains unknown whether such preference extends to the Indo-European branches whose writing system is based on the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet (e.g., Ukrainian), or whether it occurs in languages not belonging to the Indo-European family (e.g., Turkish). We replicated the in-out effect in two high-powered experiments ( N = 274), with Ukrainian and Turkish native speakers, further supporting an embodied explanation for this intriguing preference.

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Instruction-Based Approach-Avoidance Effects

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000282 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 62 (3) ◽

pp. 161-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Pieter Van Dessel ◽

Jan De Houwer ◽

Anne Gast ◽

Colin Tucker Smith

Keyword(s):

Implicit Association Test ◽

Avoidance Training ◽

Social Groups ◽

Implicit Association ◽

Approach And Avoidance ◽

Evaluative Priming ◽

Blacks And Whites ◽

Approach Avoidance ◽

Implicit And Explicit ◽

Explicit Measures

Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a certain stimulus changes the liking of this stimulus. We investigated whether these effects of approach and avoidance training occur also when participants do not perform these actions but are merely instructed about the stimulus-action contingencies. Stimulus evaluations were registered using both implicit (Implicit Association Test and evaluative priming) and explicit measures (valence ratings). Instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were observed for relatively neutral fictitious social groups (i.e., Niffites and Luupites), but not for clearly valenced well-known social groups (i.e., Blacks and Whites). We conclude that instructions to approach or avoid stimuli can provide sufficient bases for establishing both implicit and explicit evaluations of novel stimuli and discuss several possible reasons for why similar instruction-based approach-avoidance effects were not found for valenced well-known stimuli.

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