A history of avoidance does not impact extinction learning in male rats

Pervasive avoidance is one of the central symptoms of all anxiety-related disorders. In treatment, avoidance behaviors are typically discouraged because they are assumed to maintain anxiety. Yet, it is not clear that engaging in avoidance is always detrimental. In this study, we used a platform-mediated avoidance task to investigate the influence of avoidance history on extinction learning in male rats. Our results show that having the opportunity to avoid during fear acquisition training has no marked effect on the extinction of auditory cued fear in a platform-mediated avoidance procedure that constitutes a realistic approach/avoidance conflict in male rats, regardless of whether avoidance was possible during extinction or not. This suggests that imposing a realistic cost on avoidance behavior prevents the adverse effects that avoidance has been claimed to have on extinction, but even then, avoidance does not appear to have clear positive effects on extinction learning nor on retention either.