About this Research Topic
Physiologically, personality temperaments of approach and avoidance are viewed as instigators of propensity. They produce immediate affective, cognitive and behavioral inclinations in response to stimuli and orient individuals across domains and situations in a consistent fashion. Although the action undoubtedly emerges directly from these temperamental proclivities, ultimate behavioral outcomes are often a function of the integration among goal pursuit, self-regulation, and temperament trait.
Defective coping strategies to aversive or rewarding stimuli characterize the patho-physiology of anxiety- and stress-related disorders or compulsive and addiction behaviors, respectively. Individuals with neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression, suicidal behavior, bipolar mania, schizophrenia, substance use disorders, pathological gambling and anxiety disorders have scores which fall at the extreme tails of the normal distribution for a specific temperamental trait.
It is proposed a Research Topic on the individual differences in emotional and motivational processing, emphasizing the link between neuronal pattern and behavioral expression. The Topic could include experimental and clinical researches addressing the individual differences related to approach and avoidance and their behavioral characterization, structural and neurochemical profiles, synaptic connections, and receptor expressions. Studies could be organized in a framework that emphasizes the phenotypic expression and neurobiological patterns characterizing the individual differences, by using a translational approach. Neuroimaging studies on macro- and micro-structural variations of brain regions will be welcome, since they may explain the biological variance associated with personality phenotype. Great importance could be give to researches facing the identification of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of diseases associated with inappropriate responses to aversive (post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain) or rewarding (drug addiction, pathological gambling) situations. In fact, in the western society these pathological situations have crucial importance because of their consequences in terms of emotional and affective impairment and reduced psychosocial and work functionality.
Considered as a whole, the Research Topic will call attention on individual differences related to approach and avoidance behaviors as resilience or risk factors to disease and inefficient coping strategies, in response to environmental challenges.
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