Table 2.

Four proposed areas for ongoing development, and corresponding key unanswered questions.

Areas for development	Key questions
Differentiating neurobehavioral alterations	1. Are the three neurobehavioral processes we have proposed independent routes to generating maladaptive avoidance behavior? 2. Which circuit dysfunctions underlie these different types of maladaptive avoidance?
Translating insights across species	1. Do the same neural substrates support instructed avoidance behavior (observable in humans only) and learned avoidance behavior?2. How do neural mechanisms in animal models compare with neural mechanisms in humans when paradigms are matched on behavior and/or autonomic physiology?
Testing paradigms in clinical populations	1. How do clinically anxious individuals differ from healthy controls in dynamics of learning, expression, and extinction of maladaptive avoidance behavior? 2. How does avoidance behavior and its neural substrates differ across anxiety disorders and related diagnoses?
Improving diagnosis and treatment	1. Which maladaptive avoidance paradigms reliably quantify individual differences in avoidance? 2. Which interventions most effectively decrease maladaptive avoidance behavior measured in such laboratory paradigms? 3. Can identifying the specific neurobehavioral process underlying avoidance in a patient help indicate which treatment will be effective for them?