Why do some individuals develop persistent anxiety in the absence of prior negative experiences? Why might a seemingly harmless situation trigger excessive fear while a more threatening one does not? These are key questions in my project, focused on unraveling the mechanisms that sustain unwarranted fear and anxiety.

While it is well-established that fear of a neutral stimulus develops after its repeated pairing with a negative event, the challenge lies in comprehending its occurrence when there is no identifiable conditioning history. Recognizing the importance of ambiguity and incomplete information in everyday learning, my research adopts a reinforcement learning perspective on fear. In this framework, information depends on decisions, and decisions hinge on expectations, introducing path dependency. This approach accommodates the propagation of unfounded negative beliefs arising from a misinterpretation of past experiences or from interpersonal and cultural transmission. Essentially, the objective is to map out the mechanisms that prevent correction of such inaccurate expectations, in order to gain more insight into the self-reinforcing cycle of anxiety and avoidance.