题目：Fear Learning and Fear Generalization as Behavioral Biomarkers: Promise, Problems, and the Path Forward.

报告人：Jonas Zaman 教授

时间：2026年11月17日（周二）上午10:00

地点：明德楼5楼501报告厅

摘要：Fear learning and fear generalization paradigms are increasingly considered potential sources of behavioral biomarkers for understanding individual differences in vulnerability, symptom development, and treatment response. Yet translating robust experimental phenomena into meaningful individual-level behavioral markers is far from straightforward. In the first part of this talk, I will use fear conditioning to illustrate how commonly used behavioral summary measures can provide a misleading picture of the underlying learning process. Their reliability can be strongly shaped by features of the experimental design and data reduction, while apparently reliable measures may capture stable characteristics of responding rather than the learning mechanism they are intended to index. This challenges the assumption that test–retest reliability alone establishes the usefulness of a behavioral biomarker and highlights the potential—and limitations—of computational approaches. In the second part, I will turn to fear generalization and discuss how the behavioral patterns we observe can be shaped by multiple underlying processes. Differences in how people learn, perceive, and remember threat-related information can strongly influence subsequent generalization behavior and, in turn, the biomarkers derived from it. This raises important questions about what conventional measures of fear generalization actually capture and how confidently they can be interpreted as markers of underlying mechanisms.  Together, these findings suggest that the path toward useful behavioral biomarkers requires moving beyond descriptive task scores toward approaches that explicitly model how latent mechanisms, measurement processes, and task design jointly generate behavior.

报告人简介：

Jonas Zaman 教授，比利时哈瑟尔特大学（Hasselt University）康复研究中心（REVAL）教授。2010年获布鲁塞尔自由大学神经心理学学士学位，2012年获荷兰马斯特里赫特大学临床与认知神经科学研究型硕士学位，期间曾赴英国牛津大学开展为期一年的研究工作。2016年于比利时鲁汶大学（KU Leuven）获得心理学博士学位，随后从事疼痛学习、恐惧泛化及慢性疼痛心理机制研究。2018年起获得比利时佛兰德斯科学研究基金会（FWO）博士后研究资助，2024年加入哈瑟尔特大学担任教授。在心理学相关的Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , Pain, Behavior Research Methods等期刊上发表论文90余篇。主要研究方向包括恐惧学习与泛化、疼痛感知、焦虑障碍及儿童心理健康等。其研究结合实验心理学范式、计算建模与真实情境研究，重点探讨主观经验如何影响个体的学习、行为决策、知觉及情绪体验，致力于揭示跨诊断的认知与行为机制，并为个体化心理健康评估与干预提供理论依据和研究工具。

编辑：脑与心理科学研究院