Contextualizing Abstraction

By: Will, Graduate Intern

​During a lecture given by Michelle Craske on inhibitor learning, she states, “extinction is really the inhibition of one threat expectancy association with another new association that’s not involving threat.” The primary mechanisms involved in inhibitory learning are the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. State of the art research concludes that fear extinction is a result of the prefrontal cortex successfully inhibiting the amygdala. Anxiety is correlated with the inability of the prefrontal cortex to successfully inhibit the amygdalae. Improving ways in which individuals train and acquire inhibitory learning skills remains ongoing.

Intentional behavior characterized by motivation in alignment with individual values (as opposed to somatic dictates) evidences the functionality and engagement of the prefrontal cortices which serve to contextualize (and perhaps thus extinguish) primal fears within abstracted frameworks. Many clients regard growth as a value and element of health, although abstractions like “growth” are difficult to measure. The model of consciousness proposed by Dr. Michio Kaku could serve as a template for understanding how conscious states ranging between spikes and inhibition diverge and exchange.

Dr. Kaku’s model of consciousness distinguishes between three neurological systems (reptilian, mammalian, and human) that process sensory data at different levels of abstraction and complexity. The “reptilian” brain corresponds to OCD research into the amygdala and limbic system. Further analysis and research into how the prefrontal cortex processes information could potentially advance our understanding of how creative regions in the brain inhibit more automatic ones. The culmination of this research could potentially help illuminate how the prefrontal cortex inhibits the limbic system through CBT and ERP treatment. That research suggests the development of the prefrontal cortex as relevant to how clients learn to override and extinguish fear-based inputs (i.e. inhibitory learning) makes sense. Effectively treating OCD may involve the engagement of abstract processing which contextualize exposures and distinguish various thought patterns.