Fear, Defense, and Emotion: A Neuroethological Understanding of the Negative Valence Research Domain Criteria

We describe the close correspondence between predatory imminence continuum theory (PICT) and the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) for negative valence. RDoC's negative valence constructs relate aversively motivated behavioral reactions to various levels of threat. PICT divides defensive responses into distinct modes that vary along a continuum of the psychological closeness of predatory threat. While there is a close correspondence between PICT modes and negative valence threat constructs, based on PICT, we describe some potential elaborations of RDoC constructs. Both have consonant views of fear and anxiety and provide explicit distinctions between these emotional states, relating them to specific defensive behaviors and functions. We describe recent data that causally implicate human subjective emotional states with amygdala activity, which is also critical for defensive behavior. We conclude that attention to neuroethological views of defense can advance our understanding of the etiology and treatment of anxiety and stress disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).