Looking for trouble

A common threat‐detection mechanism underlying pain, fear, and anxiety

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21501801
AutoresLuca Barlassina (0000-0002-7282-9729, School of History, Philosophy, and Digital Humanities University of Sheffield Sheffield UK, autor de correspondencia)
Año2026
Fecha de publicación2026-07-07
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMind & Language (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0268-1064 • E-ISSN: 1468-0017
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/mila.70021
OpenAlexW7167716865
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas82

I put forward a novel cognitive architecture for pain, fear, and anxiety, according to which these three capacities are underpinned by a common threat‐detection mechanism . This mechanism takes information about potential threats as input, assesses whether the threat is actual and, if it deems it is, outputs a threat representation. If this is correct, pain, fear, and anxiety turn out to be different manifestations of the same cognitive mechanism. I defend my proposal by discussing a large swath of convergent evidence from different quarters of the sciences of the mind

Anxiety · Cognition · Cognitive architecture · Cognitive bias · Cognitive systems · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Herramientas

Abrir DOIOpen Access