A "Primate-Approach" To Studying Approach-Avoidance Conflict In Humans

Approach-avoidance conflict (AAC) arises from decisions where approaching leads to both reward and punishment and avoiding leads to neither. One prominent symptom of affective disorders is exaggerated avoidance, leading to sustained and/or exacerbated symptoms. While the neural characterization of AAC behavior could provide promising biomarkers for clinical intervention, the complexity of existing task designs limits our current understanding. Therefore, we have created and validated a novel task fashioned after primate studies and utilizing innately evocative outcomes.