Depression levels are associated with reduced capacity to learn to actively avoid aversive events in young adults.

Depression and anxiety are often characterized by altered reward-seeking and avoidance, respectively. Yet less is known about the relationship between depressive symptoms and specific avoidance behaviors. To address this gap, we conducted two studies.

Valence-dependent contribution by the basolateral amygdala to active but not inhibitory avoidance and reward-seeking.

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is integral for promoting instrumental actions to avoid aversive events, and also contributes to certain aspects of reward-seeking. However, this sometimes requires discriminating between stimuli to ascertain whether it is more appropriate to initiate or suppress actions to obtain these goals. The present study examined BLA involvement in different avoidance strategies in male and female rats well-trained on different lever-press avoidance and reward-seeking tasks.