Dopamine is the brain’s motivational spark, driving us to chase what feels good and steer clear of what doesn’t. But scientists haven’t fully understood how dopamine helps us learn to avoid bad ...

Avoidance learning is part of an organism’s survival instinct, as it develops a response to evade a hostile stimulus before it happens. After experiencing an unpleasant stimulus, organisms start to ...

The ability to flexibly respond to environmental challenges is fundamental for maintaining or restoring homeostasis and ultimately ensures survival. Particularly impending bodily harm carries a high ...

Avoidance behavior is a prominent and impairing feature of anxiety disorders, trauma- and stressor-related disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. A transdiagnostic approach to identifying the ...