Maltreatment-related childhood adversity is the leading preventable risk factor for mental
illness and substance abuse. Although the association between maltreatment and …

Research on defensive behaviour in mammals has in recent years focused on elicited
reactions; however, organisms also make active choices when responding to danger. We …

Emotional states of consciousness, or what are typically called emotional feelings, are
traditionally viewed as being innately programmed in subcortical areas of the brain, and are …

Escaping from imminent danger is an instinctive behaviour that is fundamental for survival,
and requires the classification of sensory stimuli as harmless or threatening. The absence of …

I propose a reconceptualization of key phenomena important in the study of emotion—those
phenomena that reflect functions and circuits related to survival, and that are shared by …

Research on avoidance conditioning began in the late 1930s as a way to use laboratory
experiments to better understand uncontrollable fear and anxiety. Avoidance was initially …

Anxiety disorders constitute a sizeable worldwide health burden with profound social and
economic consequences. The symptoms are wide-ranging; from hyperarousal to difficulties …

During early development, every human being is exposed to the relative impact of relational
trauma–disconfirmation of aspects of oneself as having legitimate existence in the world of …

Current knowledge on the architecture of exogenous attention (also called automatic, bottom-
up, or stimulus-driven attention, among other terms) has been mainly obtained from studies …

The rapid and efficient selection of emotionally salient or goal-relevant stimuli in the
environment is crucial for flexible and adaptive behaviors. Converging data from …