Non-FAU Project
Acronym: DCA
Start date : 01.05.2018
Persistent dysfunctional avoidance behavior is a key factor of all anxiety disorders, central to their maintenance, and thus the principal target of exposure-based interventions. Avoidance is, however, not an inevitable consequence of fear; while some individuals avoid, others may choose to face their fear. Despite considerable insights into the mechanisms of fear and avoidance learning, the role of motivationalvolitional factors (decision making) and their clinical relevance for pathological avoidance in real-life have not yet been sufficiently understood. The project thus aims to provide unique insights into when and how individuals decide to avoid versus to face fear. Laboratory projects will investigate how fear and avoidance are altered by the interaction of behavioral choice and competing rewards. To this end, novel experimental designs will model a decision conflict between avoiding fear at the costs of alternative rewards versus approaching rewards by confronting fear. In this approach-avoidance framework, decision processes and the costs of avoidance will be addressed to disentangle adaptive human behavior and psychopathology linked to anxiety and related disorders. Clinical projects will transfer laboratory findings to treatment-seeking patients with anxiety disorders to answer how laboratory concepts relate to clinical approach-avoidance conflicts and inform persistence and modification of dysfunctional avoidance in real-life. In sum, the project will provide comprehensive insights into the underlying mechanisms of approach-avoidance decision conflicts and their clinical relevance for anxiety disorders.