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From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience

“Learned helplessness” refers to debilitating outcomes, such as passivity and increased fear, that follow an uncontrollable adverse event, but do not when that event is controllable. The original explanation argued that when events are uncontrollable the animal learns that outcomes are independent o...

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Autores principales: Baratta, Michael V., Seligman, Martin E. P., Maier, Steven F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10205144/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37229393
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1170417
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author Baratta, Michael V.
Seligman, Martin E. P.
Maier, Steven F.
author_facet Baratta, Michael V.
Seligman, Martin E. P.
Maier, Steven F.
author_sort Baratta, Michael V.
collection PubMed
description “Learned helplessness” refers to debilitating outcomes, such as passivity and increased fear, that follow an uncontrollable adverse event, but do not when that event is controllable. The original explanation argued that when events are uncontrollable the animal learns that outcomes are independent of its behavior, and that this is the active ingredient in producing the effects. Controllable adverse events, in contrast, fail to produce these outcomes because they lack the active uncontrollability element. Recent work on the neural basis of helplessness, however, takes the opposite view. Prolonged exposure to aversive stimulation per se produces the debilitation by potent activation of serotonergic neurons in the brainstem dorsal raphe nucleus. Debilitation is prevented with an instrumental controlling response, which activates prefrontal circuitry detecting control and subsequently blunting the dorsal raphe nucleus response. Furthermore, learning control alters the prefrontal response to future adverse events, thereby preventing debilitation and producing long-term resiliency. The general implications of these neuroscience findings may apply to psychological therapy and prevention, in particular by suggesting the importance of cognitions and control, rather than habits of control.
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spelling pubmed-102051442023-05-24 From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience Baratta, Michael V. Seligman, Martin E. P. Maier, Steven F. Front Psychiatry Psychiatry “Learned helplessness” refers to debilitating outcomes, such as passivity and increased fear, that follow an uncontrollable adverse event, but do not when that event is controllable. The original explanation argued that when events are uncontrollable the animal learns that outcomes are independent of its behavior, and that this is the active ingredient in producing the effects. Controllable adverse events, in contrast, fail to produce these outcomes because they lack the active uncontrollability element. Recent work on the neural basis of helplessness, however, takes the opposite view. Prolonged exposure to aversive stimulation per se produces the debilitation by potent activation of serotonergic neurons in the brainstem dorsal raphe nucleus. Debilitation is prevented with an instrumental controlling response, which activates prefrontal circuitry detecting control and subsequently blunting the dorsal raphe nucleus response. Furthermore, learning control alters the prefrontal response to future adverse events, thereby preventing debilitation and producing long-term resiliency. The general implications of these neuroscience findings may apply to psychological therapy and prevention, in particular by suggesting the importance of cognitions and control, rather than habits of control. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-05-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10205144/ /pubmed/37229393 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1170417 Text en Copyright © 2023 Baratta, Seligman and Maier. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Baratta, Michael V.
Seligman, Martin E. P.
Maier, Steven F.
From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience
title From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience
title_full From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience
title_fullStr From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience
title_full_unstemmed From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience
title_short From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience
title_sort from helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10205144/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37229393
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1170417
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