Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task

Abstract Threat detection plays a vital role in adapting behavior to changing environments. A fundamental function to improve threat detection is learning to differentiate between stimuli predicting danger and safety. Accordingly, aversive learning should lead to enhanced sensory discrimination of d...

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Autores principales:	Yannik Stegmann, Marta Andreatta, Paul Pauli, Matthias J. Wieser
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/41434fb0bbcc4afdbe310b1fc673de5f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:41434fb0bbcc4afdbe310b1fc673de5f2021-12-02T17:06:25ZAssociative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task10.1038/s41598-021-95200-62045-2322https://doaj.org/article/41434fb0bbcc4afdbe310b1fc673de5f2021-08-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95200-6https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Threat detection plays a vital role in adapting behavior to changing environments. A fundamental function to improve threat detection is learning to differentiate between stimuli predicting danger and safety. Accordingly, aversive learning should lead to enhanced sensory discrimination of danger and safety cues. However, studies investigating the psychophysics of visual and auditory perception after aversive learning show divergent findings, and both enhanced and impaired discrimination after aversive learning have been reported. Therefore, the aim of this web-based study is to examine the impact of aversive learning on a continuous measure of visual discrimination. To this end, 205 participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm before and after completing a visual discrimination task using differently oriented grating stimuli. Participants saw either unpleasant or neutral pictures as unconditioned stimuli (US). Results demonstrated sharpened visual discrimination for the US-associated stimulus (CS+), but not for the unpaired conditioned stimuli (CS−). Importantly, this finding was irrespective of the US’s valence. These findings suggest that associative learning results in increased stimulus salience, which facilitates perceptual discrimination in order to prioritize attentional deployment.Yannik StegmannMarta AndreattaPaul PauliMatthias J. WieserNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Yannik Stegmann Marta Andreatta Paul Pauli Matthias J. Wieser Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task
description	Abstract Threat detection plays a vital role in adapting behavior to changing environments. A fundamental function to improve threat detection is learning to differentiate between stimuli predicting danger and safety. Accordingly, aversive learning should lead to enhanced sensory discrimination of danger and safety cues. However, studies investigating the psychophysics of visual and auditory perception after aversive learning show divergent findings, and both enhanced and impaired discrimination after aversive learning have been reported. Therefore, the aim of this web-based study is to examine the impact of aversive learning on a continuous measure of visual discrimination. To this end, 205 participants underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm before and after completing a visual discrimination task using differently oriented grating stimuli. Participants saw either unpleasant or neutral pictures as unconditioned stimuli (US). Results demonstrated sharpened visual discrimination for the US-associated stimulus (CS+), but not for the unpaired conditioned stimuli (CS−). Importantly, this finding was irrespective of the US’s valence. These findings suggest that associative learning results in increased stimulus salience, which facilitates perceptual discrimination in order to prioritize attentional deployment.
format	article
author	Yannik Stegmann Marta Andreatta Paul Pauli Matthias J. Wieser
author_facet	Yannik Stegmann Marta Andreatta Paul Pauli Matthias J. Wieser
author_sort	Yannik Stegmann
title	Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task
title_short	Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task
title_full	Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task
title_fullStr	Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task
title_full_unstemmed	Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task
title_sort	associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/41434fb0bbcc4afdbe310b1fc673de5f
work_keys_str_mv	AT yannikstegmann associativelearningshapesvisualdiscriminationinawebbasedclassicalconditioningtask AT martaandreatta associativelearningshapesvisualdiscriminationinawebbasedclassicalconditioningtask AT paulpauli associativelearningshapesvisualdiscriminationinawebbasedclassicalconditioningtask AT matthiasjwieser associativelearningshapesvisualdiscriminationinawebbasedclassicalconditioningtask
_version_	1718381607780352000

Associative learning shapes visual discrimination in a web-based classical conditioning task

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