Threat of shock and aversive inhibition: induced anxiety modulates Pavlovian-instrumental interactions

Anxiety can be an adaptive response to potentially threatening situations. However, if experienced in inappropriate contexts, it can also lead to pathological and maladaptive anxiety disorders. Experimentally, anxiety can be induced in healthy individuals using the threat of shock paradigm. Accumulating work with this paradigm suggests that anxiety promotes harm-avoidant mechanisms through enhanced inhibitory control. However, the specific cognitive mechanisms underlying anxiety-linked inhibitory control are unclear. Critically, behavioural inhibition can arise from at least two interacting valuation systems: instrumental (a goal-directed system) and Pavlovian (a ‘hardwired’ reflexive system). The present study replicated a general measure of improved response inhibition under threat of shock in healthy participants (N=62), and additionally examined the impact of threat of shock on aversive and appetitive Pavlovian-instrumental interactions in a reinforced go/no-go task.