b'LEARNED HELPLESSNESSThe Biology Behind the ConditionLogically, it makes sense that people or animals would learn theres no point in trying when every effort always fails to stop the pain, says Natalie Waran, PhD, of the Eastern Institute of Technology, in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. But its not just a mental or emotional response. The brain undergoes physiological changes when learned helplessness occurs.Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that scientists have linked to feel-A study done on dogs receivingings of reward and motivation. Dopamine electric shocks while confined tosurges in different areas of the brain a shuttlebox first confirmed theoccur along with relief or pleasure, like theory of learned helplessness. the kind that goes along with making the right choice and getting rewarded for it. Stress also causes a dopamine release in certain areas of the brain, motivating the While Je Men Fiche herself might notthat they were helpless, that there wasindividual to find solutions to relieve that have experienced learned helplessness ornothing they could do to improve theirstress, says Waran, citing many studies, negative training techniques, her namesituations, Hall says.most led by Simona Cabib, PhD, of Sapi-raises an important message for horseSeligman and Overmeier coined theenza University of Rome, in Italy. trainers worldwide: Make sure you careterm learned helplessness (LH) in theirWhen an animal has discovered it what happens to us.research discussion. Learned helpless- cannot predict or control a situation, ness might well result from receivinglearned helplessness can occur, stopping Dogs: The First Victims of Learnedaversive stimuli in a situation in whichthe release of stress-induced, problem-Helplessness all instrumental responses or attemptssolving dopamine, she explains. Whereas Controversial scientific research per- to respond occur in the presence of thedopamine can flood three or four lobe formed on dogs in the 1960s first shoneaversive stimuli and are of no avail inareas in a healthy individual, the brain of a light on the theory of learned helpless- eliminating or reducing the severity of theone experiencing learned helplessness es-ness, says Carol Hall, PhD, senior visitingtrauma, they wrote. sentially suffers a dopamine drought. research fellow at Nottingham Trent University, in the U.K. The LH horse is essentially Scientists strapped laboratory dogsturned off. He seems to into hammocks and gave them up to 640be uninterested in most 550-volt electric shocks without warningthings, unmotivated, and or any way to avoid it. Later, they putgenerally apathetic.these same dogs, as well as other dogs that hadnt received the shocks, in a two-part shuttlebox divided by a barrier they could jump over. The scientists would warn the dogs of an upcoming shock in one part of the box by dimming the light. The dogs that hadnt had previous shock treatments quickly learned to jump out of the part of the box that would shock them when they saw the dimming light, wrote Martin Seligman, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Bruce Overmeier, PhD, of the University of Minnesota, in a 1967 published report. But those that had been subjected to PAULA DA SILVA/ARND.NLrelentless shocking didnt even try. In fact, many would sit through up to 60 seconds of shocking without trying to jump away.After failing to escape the voltage in the first part of the study, they had learned 18October 2019The Horse | TheHorse.com'