The bidirectional relation between threat (un)controllability and stress reactivity.

The high prevalence of anxiety disorders remains a mental health concern worldwide. Thus, there has been substantial progress in investigating mechanisms contributing to the development, maintenance and treatment of anxiety disorders. Specifically, the discoveries from the ‘learning/conditioning’ approach provided new insights into understanding anxiety disorders. Within this perspective, three processes have been identified as essential learning mechanisms in the transition from adaptive fear to anxiety disorder. Namely, impaired extinction (E) of fear towards stimuli that are no longer harmful, excessive avoidance (A) of feared stimuli, and overgeneralization (G) of conditioned fear to safe or at least ambiguous stimuli. To date, research has mainly assessed EAG processes separately. What is not yet clear is how EAG processes correlate, interact, and predict the development and treatment of emotional disorders. The current project will focus on the causal influences between EAG processes. Investigating the causal interplay between these processes will provide a deeper understanding of the acquisition and maintenance of fear behaviour and its transition to pathological anxiety.