Neural Representation of Threat Features and Behavior in a Human Approach-Avoidance Conflict Anxiety Task

Abstract

Decisions under threat are crucial to survival and require integration of distinct situational features such as threat probability and magnitude. Recent evidence from human lesion and neuroimaging studies implicated anterior hippocampus (aHC) and amygdala in approach/avoidance decisions under predation and linked their integrity to cautious behavior. Here we sought to elucidate how threat dimensions and behavior are represented in these structures.