Anxiety involves altered planning

Trends Cogn Sci. 2024 Nov 27:S1364-6613(24)00292-4. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2024.11.001. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

Clinicians have suggested but not shown how anxiety involves altered planning. Here, I synthesize and extend computational models of planning in a framework that can be used to explain planning biases in anxiety. To spur its development, I spotlight two of its promising areas: task construal and meta-control.

Keywords: anxiety; planning; reinforcement learning.