# Value generalization in human avoidance learning

Article · Agnes Norbury, Trevor William Robbins, Ben Seymour

- Archive id: doi:10.7554/elife.34779
- Published: 2018-05-07
- Venue: eLife
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.34779
- PMID: 29735014
- Citations: 55
- Source URL: https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.34779
- Provenance: openalex

## Abstract

Generalization during aversive decision-making allows us to avoid a broad range of potential threats following experience with a limited set of exemplars. However, over-generalization, resulting in excessive and inappropriate avoidance, has been implicated in a variety of psychological disorders. Here, we use reinforcement learning modelling to dissect out different contributions to the generalization of instrumental avoidance in two groups of human volunteers (N = 26, N = 482). We found that generalization of avoidance could be parsed into perceptual and value-based processes, and further, that value-based generalization could be subdivided into that relating to aversive and neutral feedback − with corresponding circuits including primary sensory cortex, anterior insula, amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Further, generalization from aversive, but not neutral, feedback was associated with self-reported anxiety and intrusive thoughts. These results reveal a set of distinct mechanisms that mediate generalization in avoidance learning, and show how specific individual differences within them can yield anxiety.

_Abstract reproduced under CC-BY (publisher license, via OpenAlex)._

Topics: [AI Alignment & Safety](https://space-kitty.com/topics/alignment-safety)

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