Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Associative Learning01:27

Associative Learning

Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning.
Classical conditioning, also known...
Cognitive Learning01:21

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Purposive Learning01:22

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...
Association Areas of the Cortex01:21

Association Areas of the Cortex

Association areas are regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have a specific sensory or motor function. Instead, they integrate and interpret information from various sources to enable higher cognitive processes such as memory, learning, and decision-making. Some key association areas include the following:
Prefrontal Association Area: This area is located in the frontal lobe and is involved in planning, decision-making, and moderating social behavior. It connects with primary motor areas,...
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory01:26

Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory

Memory is one of the most vital higher mental functions of the brain. Memory is closely related to learning because it enables us to retain information and experiences from our past to use them in our present life. It also helps us to remember facts, events, and skills, such as riding a bike or swimming. There are two types of memory — declarative memory, which involves memorizing facts or events, and procedural memory, which enables us to remember how to do something like writing or playing an...
Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex01:14

Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex

The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Shared and specific associations of amygdala nuclei volumes with PTSD symptom domains and childhood trauma: An ENIGMA-PGC PTSD mega-analysis.

Molecular psychiatry·2026
Same author

Patterns of shared and differential neural activity in misophonia and non-misophonic clinical emotional dysregulation.

BMC psychiatry·2026
Same author

Robust but independent sex differences in human brain function, structure, and behavior.

Nature communications·2026
Same author

Sensory encoding of emotion conveyed by the face and visual context.

Social cognitive and affective neuroscience·2026
Same author

Impact of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder on the Behavioral and Multivariate Neural Correlates of Contextual Fear Learning.

Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging·2026
Same author

Augmenting extinction with counterconditioning strengthens and sustains neural safety representations in PTSD.

Translational psychiatry·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

Aversive learning modulates cortical representations of object categories.

Joseph E Dunsmoor1, Philip A Kragel1, Alex Martin2

  • 1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.

Cerebral Cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)
|May 28, 2013
PubMed
Summary

New research shows that learning to fear one object can generalize to other items within the same category. This study investigated how the brain processes category-level threat representations, impacting fear responses to related stimuli.

Keywords:
anxietycategories and conceptsfear conditioningfunctional magnetic resonance imaginggeneralization

More Related Videos

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings
07:08

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis
13:51

Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis

Published on: November 9, 2011

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 11, 2026

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning
14:38

Creating Objects and Object Categories for Studying Perception and Perceptual Learning

Published on: November 2, 2012

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings
07:08

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis
13:51

Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis

Published on: November 9, 2011

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Fear Conditioning

Background:

  • Fear acquisition typically studied with simple stimuli, showing amygdala and sensory cortex involvement.
  • Real-world fears often involve complex, category-level stimuli.
  • Aversive experiences with one item can generalize fear to related items within a category.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how category-level threat representations affect human brain activation.
  • To examine the generalization of fear responses to exemplars within a category following aversive learning.

Main Methods:

  • Used 2 superordinate categories (animals, tools) as conditioned stimuli in human participants.
  • Measured hemodynamic activity using fMRI and employed multivariate representational similarity analyses.
  • Assessed functional coupling between brain regions and co-variation of hippocampal activity with object typicality.

Main Results:

  • Amygdala and category-selective cortex activity modulated by reinforcement contingency, leading to generalized fear.
  • Representational similarity analysis showed increased similarity in amygdala and object-selective cortex for threat vs. safe categories.
  • Fear learning in animate objects enhanced amygdala-fusiform gyrus coupling; hippocampal activity correlated with object typicality and amygdala activation.

Conclusions:

  • Aversive learning can significantly modulate category-level object concept representations in the brain.
  • This modulation enables the generalization of fear responses to a range of related stimuli.
  • Findings provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying generalized fear and threat perception.