Taylor Shelley E, Eisenberger Naomi I, Saxbe Darby, Lehman Barbara J, Lieberman Matthew D
Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Aug 1;60(3):296-301. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.09.027. Epub 2006 Feb 7.
An early family environment marked by harsh parenting has been related to risk for multiple mental disorders in adulthood, risks that may be mediated, in part, by deficits in emotion regulation skills. This study examined neural mechanisms underlying these consequences of "risky" families (RF) by exploring neural activity to tasks involving responses to emotional stimuli.
Participants completed an assessment of RF and participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation that examined 1) amygdala reactivity to observation of fearful/angry faces; 2) amygdala and right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC) reactivity to labeling emotions displayed in these faces; and 3) the relation between RVLPFC and amygdala activity during the labeling task.
Offspring from nonrisky families showed expected amygdala reactivity to observing fearful/angry faces and expected activation of RVLPFC while labeling the emotions, which was significantly negatively correlated (-.44) with amygdala activation. Offspring from risky families showed little amygdala activation during the observation task and a strong positive correlation (+.66) between RVLPFC and amygdala activation in the labeling task, suggesting a possible dysregulation in the neural systems involved in responses to emotional stimuli.
Offspring from risky families exhibit atypical responses to emotional stimuli that are evident at the neural level.
以严厉教养为特征的早期家庭环境与成年期多种精神障碍的风险相关，这些风险可能部分由情绪调节技能缺陷介导。本研究通过探索对涉及情绪刺激反应任务的神经活动，研究了“风险”家庭（RF）这些后果背后的神经机制。
参与者完成了对RF的评估，并参与了一项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究，该研究考察了：1）杏仁核对观察恐惧/愤怒面孔的反应性；2）杏仁核和右侧腹外侧前额叶皮层（RVLPFC）对这些面孔所显示情绪进行标注时的反应性；3）在标注任务期间RVLPFC与杏仁核活动之间的关系。
来自无风险家庭的后代在观察恐惧/愤怒面孔时杏仁核表现出预期的反应性，在标注情绪时RVLPFC表现出预期的激活，且与杏仁核激活呈显著负相关（-.44）。来自风险家庭的后代在观察任务期间杏仁核激活很少，在标注任务中RVLPFC与杏仁核激活之间呈强正相关（+.66），这表明在涉及对情绪刺激反应的神经系统中可能存在调节异常。
来自风险家庭的后代在情绪刺激方面表现出非典型反应，这在神经层面是明显的。
