The DOI matches its Crossref record; 39 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Temporal dynamics of relief in avoidance conditioning and fear extinction: Experimental validation and clinical relevance
Open accessAbstract
The learning principles that guide the acquisition and extinction of avoidance are not fully understood. We developed a novel paradigm to study the temporal dynamics of relief, a putative reinforcer of avoidance, and the recovery of fear and avoidance following extinction. During conditioning, the avoidance action canceled the aversive unconditional stimulus (US), without terminating the predictive conditional stimulus (CS). Relief pleasantness was rated after fixed CS offsets, when US omission occured. Avoidance was effective to one CS, but not to another, to track stimulus-specific avoidance learning. Fear was extinguished under response prevention in a separate context. Recovery tests took place 24 h later, in both contexts and with a monetary cost added to the avoidance action. We found that avoidance gradually became stimulus-specific during conditioning, but hardly recovered during delayed testing. Across all phases, initial omissions of the aversive US triggered relief that gradually declined over consecutive omissions, in line with a theoretical prediction error signal. Participants that scored low on distress tolerance, however, displayed sustained levels of relief over continuous omissions. We propose that such forms of sustained relief may produce over-reinforcement of foregoing avoidance actions and promote the development of pathological avoidance. The current paradigm represents an efficacious tool to study the temporal dynamics of relief across avoidance learning and fear extinction and to characterize relief dysregulations in relation to psychopathology.
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“the availability of an avoidance response following fear extinction has been shown to increase levels of fear”
From Relapse of anxiety-related fear and avoidance: Conceptual analysis of treatment with acceptance and commitment therapy (2020) · cites this paper as Vervliet, Lange, & Milad, 2017
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“Avoidance may persist even after fear has been extinguished”
From Relapse of anxiety-related fear and avoidance: Conceptual analysis of treatment with acceptance and commitment therapy (2020) · cites this paper as Vervliet, Lange, & Milad, 2017
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Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Williams, J. B. W., & First, M. B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.104 · Cited by 109,845
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
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Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.
Carter, M. J. (2014) · Therapeutic Recreation Journal · Cited by 15,154
The Distress Tolerance Scale: Development and Validation of a Self-Report Measure
Simons, J. S., & Gaher, R. M. (2005) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/s11031-005-7955-3 · Cited by 1,730
Fear Extinction as a Model for Translational Neuroscience: Ten Years of Progress
Milad, M. R., & Quirk, G. J. (2012) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131631 · Cited by 1,466
Self-citationMilad, M. R., Wright, C. I., Orr, S. P., Pitman, R. K., Quirk, G. J., & Rauch, S. L. (2007) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.10.011 · Cited by 1,197
Self-citationLeyro, T. M., Zvolensky, M. J., & Bernstein, A. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0019712 · Cited by 868
Duits, P., Cath, D. C., Lissek, S., Hox, J. J., Hamm, A. O., Engelhard, I. M., van den Hout, M. A., & Baas, J. M. P. (2015) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.22353 · Cited by 726
Fear Extinction and Relapse: State of the Art
Vervliet, B., Craske, M. G., & Hermans, D. (2013) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185542 · Cited by 671
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Items 101–118 of 118
Willems, A. L., Oudenhove, L. V., & Vervliet, B. (2023) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.91400.1.sa1
Willems, A. L., Oudenhove, L. V., & Vervliet, B. (2023) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.91400.1.sa0
Papalini, S., Beckers, T., Oudenhove, L. V., & Vervliet, B. (2024) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.92831
Self-citationPapalini, S., Beckers, T., Oudenhove, L. V., & Vervliet, B. (2024) · eLife · doi:10.7554/elife.92831.1.sa3
Self-citationThe road not taken: Selective sampling and persisting inaccurate impressionsPreprint
Vanlooy, E., Harris, C., & Ruud Custers, A. (2024) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/mx8ph
Trait-anxiety and belief updating: Exploring the role of negativity bias and contrast avoidance
Solovey, G., Usaj, A. R., Picco, S., Berón, J. C., Sued, M., Noste, M. E. S., Bavassi, L., Pedreira, M. E., & Fernández, R. S. (2025) · Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-025-01282-4 · Cited by 1
A Temporal Difference Approach To ReliefPreprint
Papalini, S., Krul, E., Haber, T., & Vervliet, B. (2025) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-6194403/v1
Self-citationLabrenz, F., Kalenbach, A., Elsenbruch, S., & Icenhour, A. (2025) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2025.06.25.661529
Costly pain avoidance and its impact on the modulation and extinction of visceral pain-related fear
Labrenz, F., Kalenbach, A., Elsenbruch, S., & Icenhour, A. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-10499-9 · Cited by 1
Exposure to images of post-bushfire disaster impacts fear learning and extinction
Franklin-Browne, L. J., Modecki, K. L., & Waters, A. M. (2025) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2025.104911
The role of relief in persistent avoidance of learnt fear
Wong, A. H. K., Wieser, M. J., & Andreatta, M. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.104976
The road not taken: selective sampling and persisting inaccurate impressions
Vanlooy, E., Harris, C., van de Vijver, I., & Custers, R. (2026) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/s11031-026-10205-w
Instrumental Avoidance Promotes Safety Learning Across Distributed Neural Circuits
Wen, Z., Cui, L., Badarnee, M., Zhang, K., Moallem, I., McManus, H., Atiyah, Z., Borrelli, J., Li, W., Hong, L. E., et al. (2026) · Biological Psychiatry Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging · doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2026.03.018
Self-citationTraxler, J., Vandael, K., Hulle, N. V., Gatzounis, R., Glogan, E., & Meulders, A. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.105120
Varieties of generalization inspired by Pavlov’s legacy
Urcelay, G. P., Fisher, C. T. L., & Alcalá, J. A. (2026) · Neurobiology of Learning and Memory · doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2026.108203
The role of positive linguistic sentiment in extinction learning through exposure therapy.
Barnes-Horowitz, N., Losiewicz, O. M., Sandman, C., Rosenberg, B. M., Treanor, M., Zbozinek, T., & Craske, M. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.105173
Take no risk!—Persistent avoidance after interoceptive fear conditioning
Leissner, S. R., Benke, C., & Melzig, C. A. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.105186
Metadata
- Authors
- Vervliet, B., Lange, I., & Milad, M. R.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Vervliet, Bram
- Venue
- Behaviour Research and Therapy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 96
- Pages
- 66-78
- ISSN
- 0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2605638819
- Cited by
- 118
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 3.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Lirias (KU Leuven) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- 7th European Community Framework Programme (PIOF-GA-2013-627743)
- University of Louisville (PF/10/005)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- relief, avoidance conditioning, fear extinction, response prevention, temporal dynamics, prediction error, distress tolerance, psychopathology
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Avoidance Learning, Conditioning, Classical, Conditioning, Operant, Extinction, Psychological, Fear, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Reaction Time, Young Adult
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