Grillon Christian
Unit of Affective Psychophysiology, Mood and Anxiety Disorder Program, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-2670, USA.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2008 Aug;199(3):421-37. doi: 10.1007/s00213-007-1019-1. Epub 2007 Dec 6.
Preclinical data indicates that threat stimuli elicit two classes of defensive behaviors, those that are associated with imminent danger and are characterized by flight or fight (fear), and those that are associated with temporally uncertain danger and are characterized by sustained apprehension and hypervigilance (anxiety).
The objectives of the study are to (1) review evidence for a distinction between fear and anxiety in animal and human experimental models using the startle reflex as an operational measure of aversive states, (2) describe experimental models of anxiety, as opposed to fear, in humans, (3) examine the relevance of these models to clinical anxiety.
The distinction between phasic fear to imminent threat and sustained anxiety to temporally uncertain danger is suggested by psychopharmacological and behavioral evidence from ethological studies and can be traced back to distinct neuroanatomical systems, the amygdala and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Experimental models of anxiety, not fear, are relevant to non-phobic anxiety disorders.
Progress in our understanding of normal and abnormal anxiety is critically dependent on our ability to model sustained aversive states to temporally uncertain threat.
临床前数据表明，威胁刺激会引发两类防御行为，一类与迫在眉睫的危险相关，其特征为逃跑或战斗（恐惧），另一类与时间上不确定的危险相关，其特征为持续的担忧和过度警觉（焦虑）。
本研究的目的是：（1）使用惊吓反射作为厌恶状态的操作性测量指标，回顾动物和人类实验模型中恐惧与焦虑区分的证据；（2）描述人类中与恐惧相对的焦虑实验模型；（3）检验这些模型与临床焦虑的相关性。
来自行为学研究的心理药理学和行为学证据表明，对迫在眉睫的威胁的阶段性恐惧与对时间上不确定的危险的持续焦虑之间存在区别，这可以追溯到不同的神经解剖系统，即杏仁核和终纹床核。焦虑而非恐惧的实验模型与非恐惧性焦虑障碍相关。
我们对正常和异常焦虑的理解进展严重依赖于我们对时间上不确定的威胁模拟持续厌恶状态的能力。
