Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-25T08:09:47.053Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is cultivating “biological blindness” a viable route to understanding behavioral phenomena?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Andreas Olsson  and
Ame Öhman
Andreas Olsson
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Psychology Section, Stockholm 17177, Sweden. andreas.olsson@ki.sehttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/phelpslab/pages/andreas.htmlArne.Ohman@ki.sehttp://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=15053&a=13512&l=sv
Ame Öhman
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Psychology Section, Stockholm 17177, Sweden. andreas.olsson@ki.sehttp://www.psych.nyu.edu/phelpslab/pages/andreas.htmlArne.Ohman@ki.sehttp://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=15053&a=13512&l=sv
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mitchell et al. propose that associative learning in humans and other animals requires the formation of propositions by means of conscious and controlled reasoning. This approach neglects important aspects of current thinking in evolutionary biology and neuroscience that support the claim that learning, here exemplified by fear learning, neither needs to be conscious nor controlled.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 220 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bechara, A., Tranel, D, Damasio, H., Adolphs, R., Rockland, C. & Damasio, A. R. (1995) Double dissociation of conditioning and declarative knowledge relative to the amygdala and hippocampus in humans. Science 269:1115–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R. E. & Squire, L. R. (1998) Classical conditioning and brain systems: The role of awareness. Science 280(5360):77–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Critchley, H. D., Mathias, C. J. & Dolan, R. J. (2002) Fear conditioning in humans: The influence of awareness and autonomic arousal on functional neuroanatomy. Neuron 33:653–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, M. (1992) The role of the amygdala in fear and anxiety. Annual Review Neuroscience 15:353–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, M. (2006) Neural systems involved in fear and anxiety measured with fear potential startle. American Psychologist 61:741–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fanselow, M. S. (1994) Neural organization of the defensive behavior system responsible for fear. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 1:429–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamm, A. O. & Vaitl, D. (1996) Affective learning: Awareness and aversion. Psychophysiology 33:698–710.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamm, A. O, Weike, A. I., Schupp, H. T., Treig, T., Dressel, A. & Kessler, C. (2003) Affective blindsight: Intact fear conditioning to a visual cue in a cortically blind patient. Brain 126:265–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Doux, J. E. (1996) The emotional brain. Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
LeDoux, J. E. (1996) The emotional brain. Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
MacLean, P. D. (1993) Cerebral evolution of emotion. In: Handbook of emotions, ed. Lewis, M. & Haviland, J. M.. Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Maren, S. & Quirk, G. J. (2004) Neuronal signalling of fear memory. Nature Reviews Neurosciences 5:844–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morris, J. S., Öhman, A. & Dolan, R. J. (1998) Modulation of human amygdala activity by emotional learning and conscious awareness. Nature 393:467–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Öhman, A. & Mineka, S. (2001) Fears, phobias and preparedness: Toward an evolved module of fear and fear learning. Psychological Review 108:483–522.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Öhman, A. & Soares, J. J. F. (1998) Emotional conditioning to masked stimuli: Expectancies for aversive outcomes following non-recognized fear-relevant stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 127:69–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsson, A. & Phelps, E. A. (2004) Learned fear of “unseen” faces after Pavlovian, observational, and instructed fear. Psychological Science 15:822–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Razran, G. (1971) Mind in evolution. An east-west synthesis of learned behavior and cognition. Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Weike, A. I., Hamm, A. O., Schupp, H. T., Runge, U., Schroeder, H. W. & Kessler, C. (2005) Fear conditioning following unilateral temporal lobectomy: Dissociation of conditioned startle potentiation and autonomic learning. Journal of Neuroscience 25:11117–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weike, A. I., Schupp, H. T. & Hamm, A. O. (2007) Fear acquisition requires awareness in trace but not delay conditioning. Psychophysiology 44(1):170–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar