The review rejects the original claim that passivity itself is learned. It instead describes passivity as the unlearned default response and learning control as the process that can overcome it.
The mechanism of learned helplessness is now very well-charted biologically and the original theory got it backwards. Passivity in response to shock is not learned. It is the default, unlearned response to prolonged aversive events and it is mediated by the serotonergic activity of the dorsal raphe nucleus, which in turn inhibits escape.
p. 349
The review rejects the original claim that passivity itself is learned. It instead describes passivity as the unlearned default response and learning control as the process that can overcome it. Bearing on the claim: contradicts. Verification note: This contradicts the original causal theory, not the existence of the behavioral phenomenon. Opened as the full author manuscript in PubMed Central.