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Physiology learns
based on the learning configurations embedded in your choices. You don’t eat breakfast every morning for a
week, and next thing you know you aren’t hungry anymore in the mornings. Or, visa versa, you travel with friends who
eat breakfast, so you do also for social reasons; next thing you know you are
ravenous in the mornings. This is
classical conditioning at work, based on your decisions about when to eat and
when not to. Breathing behaviors are
acquired the same way. What your biology
learns, however, is not always positive and adaptive.
Vicious circle avoidance
learning
involves the interaction of classical conditioning, operant conditioning,
and cognitive learning. For example, fear
may be classically conditioned to the “waiting period” between breaths, which
may then provide the motivation for operant learning of “aborting the exhale”
and “rapid breathing.” The behaviors are
then short-term reinforced with fear reduction (negative reinforcement). The likely ensuing overbreathing may trigger
“shortness of breath,” a common symptom of hypocapnia, which may then confirm false
beliefs, cognitive learning about how “I can’t get my breath.” The solution, of course, is to reach for yet
more air, which may then result in a downward spiral leading to a crisis
episode, e.g., an asthma attack or panic attack. Adverse
physical conditions, e.g., injury or asthma, in fact, can set the ideal stage
for learning this kind self-sustaining vicious circle behavior.
Vicious circle behavior may develop, where the solution to a
problem, becomes the problem. Depleting bicarbonate
buffers through chronic (long-term) overbreathing, in predisposed individuals,
may mean that even during aerobic activities there are not adequate buffer
reserves to manage lactic acidosis.
Thus, even minimal effort, such a walking through a supermarket, may
result in lactic acidosis. Overbreathing,
a contributing cause to the problem, now also becomes its own short-term
solution. When bicarbonate reserve is
too low, pH can be adjusted toward normal by reducing carbon dioxide levels
through overbreathing. Click here to
learn more about
acid-base
balance.
Click here to learn
about
classical conditioning
and operant conditioning. Embedded in operant learning is simultaneous classical conditioning. The reinforcement of an operant behavior serves as a unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and elicits an unconditioned response (UCR). A version of the UCR becomes attached to the discriminative stimulus (SD) as a CR, by virtue of classical conditioning. Thus, one stimulus serves two roles: SD and CS. It triggers both the operantly and classically conditioned responses. The CS may then provide motivation for the operant behavior, e.g., fear for learning an avoidance response.
Sugar addiction
is a more formal example. “Feeling bad
about yourself,” an SD, triggers eating behavior (an operant) that
is reinforced with the taste of food. The
food (UCS) leads to secretion of insulin (UCR) for controlling blood sugar
levels. “Feeling bad about yourself,” now
associated with the food by virtue of your behavior, becomes a CS that triggers
insulin secretion (CR), and thus lowers blood sugar. Low blood sugar, hypoglycemia, results in hunger,
irritability, and anxiety. You feel
worse about yourself and the motivation for eating (hunger) increases.
Copyrighted by
Behavioral Physiology Institute, |