Fear generalization-the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening due to
perceptual similarity to a learned threat–is an adaptive process. Overgeneralization,
however, is maladaptive and has been implicated in a number of anxiety disorders.
Neuroimaging research has indicated several regions sensitive to effects of generalization,
including regions involved in fear excitation (eg, amygdala, insula) and inhibition (eg,
ventromedial prefrontal cortex). Research has suggested several other small brain regions …