Kathryn J. Lester

The heritability of reinforcement learning parameters and their association with anxiety

The paper examines the heritability of reinforcement learning parameters related to anxiety, finding extinction learning rates correlate with anxiety severity but show no heritability, while safety learning rates have modest heritability but no genetic overlap with anxiety.

Computational modelling reveals slower safety learning and threat extinction are associated with higher anxiety severity in remote fear conditioning

The paper uses computational modeling to show that higher anxiety severity is linked to slower safety learning and threat extinction in fear conditioning tasks.

Evidence for distinct genetic and environmental influences on fear acquisition and extinction

This study uses twin data to show that fear acquisition and extinction have genetic and environmental influences, with moderate genetic overlap.