Humans use directed and random exploration to solve the explore–exploit dilemma.

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

“…In this study, we adopted behavioral, self-reported, and computational measures to investigate the processes underlying healthy and pathological information-seeking. Our results showed that in contrast to previous bandit studies, which found HCs to accord value to general information 4 5 , our careful analyses indicate that HCs have a specific novelty bonus, and little to no effect of general information-seeking. Moreover, we found that HCs and PGs adopt distinct information-seeking modes.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Distinct motivations to seek out information in healthy and addicted individuals

Dezza

¹

,

Noël

²

,

Cleeremans

³

et al. 2020

Preprint

3

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

“…Consistent with earlier studies [ 6 ], we found a clear increase of exploratory behaviour in the long horizon condition (t-test on the difference between information parameters in long versus short horizon, Experiment 1: t(149) = 9.492248, p<.001, BF10 = 1.071e+14; Experiment 2: t(99) = 7.47, p<0.001, BF10 = 2.782e+08, t-test on the choice temperature difference quantifying random exploration, Experiment 1: t(149) = 7.77164, p = p<.001, BF10 = 6.225e+09, Experiment 2: t(99) = 6.22, p<0.001, BF10 = 9.401e+05; Figs 2 and 3 ). The 3-way ANOVA on confidence judgements revealed a significant effect of choosing a lower value option (Experiment 1: F = 181.36, p<0.001; Experiment 2: F = 126.61, p = p<0.001) and choosing an uncertain option (Experiment 1: F = 101.72, p<0.001; Experiment 2: F = 71.442, p<0.001).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 94%

Multifaceted confidence in exploratory choice

Solopchuk

¹

,

Dayan

²

2025

PLoS ONE

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.

“…Consistent with earlier studies [6], we found a clear increase of exploratory behaviour in the long horizon condition (t-test on the difference between information parameters in long versus short horizon, Experiment 1: t(149) = 9.492248, p < .001, BF10 = 1.071e+14; Experiment 2: t(99) = 7.47, p < 0.001, BF10 = 2.782e+08, t-test on the choice temperature difference quantifying random exploration, Experiment 1: t(149) = 7.77164, p = p < .001, BF10 = 6.225e+09, Experiment 2: t(99) = 6.22, p < 0.001, BF10 = 9.401e+05; Fig 2, 3). The 3-way ANOVA on confidence judgements revealed a significant effect of choosing a lower value option (Experiment 1: F = 181.36, p < 0.001; Experiment 2: F = 126.61, p = p < 0.001) and choosing an uncertain option (Experiment 1: F = 101.72, p < 0.001; Experiment 2: F = 71.442, p < 0.001).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 94%

Multifaceted confidence in exploratory choice

Solopchuk

¹

,

Dayan

²

2024

Preprint

Exaggerated anticipatory anxiety is common in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Neuroimaging studies have revealed altered neural activity in response to social stimuli in SAD, but fewer studies have examined neural activity during anticipation of feared social stimuli in SAD. The current study examined the time course and magnitude of activity in threat processing brain regions during speech anticipation in socially anxious individuals and healthy controls (HC). Method Participants (SAD n = 58; HC n = 16) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they completed a 90s control anticipation task and 90s speech anticipation task.