The new study shows that people diagnosed with anxiety are less able to distinguish between a neutral, "safe" stimulus (in this case, the sound of a tone) and one that was earlier associated with the threat of money loss or gain. They aren't simply making the choice to 'play it safe.' In other words, when it comes to emotional experiences, they show a behavioral phenomenon known as over-generalization. The findings might help to explain why some people are more prone to anxiety than others, although the underlying brain plasticity that leads to anxiety isn't in itself "bad." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160303132951.htm Paper: http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)00073-7
