LEARNING THERAPY Flashcards

Question

"**Q: What is vmPFC’s role in therapy

Answer 1

and how does it relate to safety learning? 🧠🛡️🛑😨✨**"

Answer 2

and how does it show up in stems? 🧠🧩🎛️📝✨**"

Answer 3

**A:** ACC supports **conflict/error monitoring** ⚖️🚦 and detecting mismatch between expectation and outcome 🎯❌; helps shift strategy 🔁 and implement control 🎛️. Stem cue 📝: “mismatch detection; error monitoring; conflict” → ACC ⚖️🧠.

Answer 4

**A:** Striatum mediates **reinforcement learning** 🏆 and **habit formation** 🔁. * Avoidance: immediate relief negatively reinforces avoidance → habit strengthens 😌➡️🏃‍♂️🔁💪 * Compulsions: distress reduced → behaviour reinforced → habitual loop 😖⬇️➡️✅➡️🔁 Therapy breaks old reinforcement loops and builds new ones through repeated practice and new outcomes 🔁🧠✨.

Answer 5

**A:** **Extinction** = repeated presentation of conditioned cue without the aversive outcome 🔔🚫😨 → fear response reduces 📉😨. **Inhibitory learning model** 🛡️: extinction creates a **new safety memory (cue → safe)** ✅🔔🛡️ that inhibits expression of the old fear memory (cue → danger) 🔔⚠️😨. The original fear trace can persist ⏳🧠; hence fear can return under certain conditions 🔁.

Answer 6

**A:** Because old fear memory may persist ⏳🧠; new learning is inhibitory and context-dependent 🛡️🗺️. * **Spontaneous recovery** (fear returns with time) ⏱️🔁😨 * **Renewal** (fear returns in a different context; hippocampus) 🗺️🔁😨 * **Reinstatement** (fear returns after stress/aversive event) ⚡😱🔁 Key concept: inhibitory learning competes with, rather than deletes, the original trace ⚖️🧠🛡️.

Answer 7

**A:** **Reconsolidation**: when a memory is reactivated 🔔🧠, it may become temporarily **labile** 🫧 and then must be **restabilised** 🧱; during this window it can be **updated** 🛠️ with new information/meaning 🧠➕. Therapy may exploit this by reactivating a memory/belief and introducing corrective meaning in a safe context 🛡️✅. Exam-safe wording 📝: a proposed mechanism contributing to change in some therapies ⚖️.

Answer 8

**A:** Prediction error occurs when expected threat/catastrophe does not occur (or coping is better than expected) 🎯😨❌➡️✅. This mismatch triggers strong updating 💥: * dopamine-linked teaching signals 🧠⚡🧪 * enhanced plasticity at relevant synapses/circuits 🔄🔗🧩 Therefore behavioural experiments/exposure are powerful when they produce clear “expected vs actual” mismatch 🎯➡️✅✨.

Answer 9

**A:** Commonly described findings include 🧠📌: * **Reduced amygdala reactivity** to threat cues (less alarm firing) 😨📉🚨 * **Increased prefrontal recruitment** during regulation tasks (dlPFC/ACC/vmPFC involvement) 🧠⬆️🎛️ * **Increased functional connectivity/coupling** between PFC and amygdala (better top-down regulation) 🔗🧠⬆️🛑😨 * Changes in patterns consistent with altered habit/reward circuitry (striatal changes) after behavioural change 🎯🔁🔄✨

Answer 10

**A:** Symptom: cue-triggered fear/avoidance 🔔😨🏃‍♂️ → System: threat learning ⚠️🧠 → Circuit: amygdala/insula (threat) 😨🫀 regulated by vmPFC + context via hippocampus 🛡️🗺️ → Transmitters: glutamate NMDA/AMPA plasticity 🧪🚪 + dopamine prediction error ⚡🎯 + GABA inhibition 🛑🛡️ → Learning outcome: new safety/inhibitory learning (cue → safe) ✅🔔🛡️, strengthened vmPFC inhibition of amygdala 💪🛑😨, reduced avoidance habits 📉🏃‍♂️🔁.

Answer 11

**A:** Symptom: distress from maladaptive appraisal 😣💭 → Circuit: dlPFC (working memory/attention) 🧠💾👀 + ACC (conflict/mismatch detection) ⚖️🎯 exert top-down control over limbic responses (amygdala/insula) 😨🫀 and safety valuation (vmPFC) 🛡️⭐ → Mechanism: repeated reappraisal practice strengthens control circuitry 🔁💪🧠 and reduces threat meaning ⬇️⚠️ → Outcome: reduced emotional reactivity 📉😨 and improved regulation 🧘🎛️✨.

Answer 12

**A:** Symptom: low activity, low reinforcement 🛋️⬇️🏆 → System: reinforcement learning deficits 🎯📉 → Circuit: striatum/basal ganglia action–outcome learning 🧠🎯 + PFC planning 🧠🗓️ → Mechanism: scheduled activities increase contact with reward 📅➡️🎁; repeated action–reward pairings generate prediction errors ⚡🎯 and reinforce approach behaviours 🟢➡️🏃‍♂️ → Outcome: rebuilt reward contingencies 🏆🔁 and new habits 🔄✨.

Answer 13

**A:** * Trap: therapy isn’t biological ❌🧠 → Correct: therapy is experience-driven learning causing neuroplasticity ✅🔄🧠 * Trap: NMDA mediates fast excitation ❌⚡ → Correct: AMPA is fast; NMDA gates plasticity via Ca²⁺ ✅🚪⚡🧲 * Trap: extinction erases fear ❌🧯 → Correct: extinction = new inhibitory safety learning; old trace can return ✅🛡️🔁 * Trap: dopamine = pleasure ❌😊 → Correct: dopamine = prediction error teaching signal ✅🎯⚡ * Trap: more arousal always better ❌🔥 → Correct: NA inverted-U; too much arousal impairs flexible learning ✅🎢⚖️ * Trap: GABA only sedation ❌😴 → Correct: inhibitory control/gating/stability ✅🛑🛡️

Answer 14

**A:** * “Expected catastrophe but didn’t happen” 🎯😱❌ → prediction error (dopamine) ⚡🧠 * “Exposure reduced fear but relapse in new context” ✅😨📉➡️🗺️😨 → inhibitory learning + hippocampus context (renewal) 🛡️🧠🗺️ * “Reappraisal/cognitive restructuring” 🗣️🔄 → dlPFC + ACC top-down control; vmPFC safety valuation 🧠🎛️⚖️🛡️ * “Panic + body sensations misread as danger” 😱🫀⚠️ → insula + amygdala threat circuit 🫀🧠😨 * “Avoidance maintained by immediate relief” 😌➡️🏃‍♂️🔁 → striatal negative reinforcement/habit loop 🧠🎯🔁 * “Overwhelmed/panic during learning task” 😱🔥 → NA too high (inverted-U problem) 🎢⬆️📉

Answer 15

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LEARNING THERAPY Flashcards

(40 cards)