Sheynin Jony, Beck Kevin D, Pang Kevin C H, Servatius Richard J, Shikari Saima, Ostovich Jacqueline, Myers Catherine E
Department of Veterans Affairs, New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA; Joint Biomedical Engineering Program, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA; Stress & Motivated Behavior Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA.
Honors College, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA.
Behav Processes. 2014 Mar;103:228-35. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2014.01.003. Epub 2014 Jan 9.
Acquisition and maintenance of avoidance behaviour is a key feature of all human anxiety disorders. Animal models have been useful in understanding how anxiety vulnerability could translate into avoidance learning. For example, behaviourally inhibited temperament and female sex, two vulnerability factors for clinical anxiety, are associated with faster acquisition of avoidance responses in rodents. However, to date, the translation of such empirical data to human populations has been limited since many features of animal avoidance paradigms are not typically captured in human research. Here, using a computer-based task that captures many features of rodent escape-avoidance learning paradigms, we investigated whether avoidance learning would be faster in humans with inhibited temperament and/or female sex and, if so, whether this facilitation would take the same form. Results showed that, as in rats, both vulnerability factors were associated with facilitated acquisition of avoidance behaviour in humans. Specifically, inhibited temperament was associated with higher rate of avoidance responding, while female sex was associated with longer avoidance duration. These findings strengthen the direct link between animal avoidance work and human anxiety vulnerability, further motivating the study of animal models while also providing a simple testbed for a direct human testing.
回避行为的习得和维持是所有人类焦虑症的关键特征。动物模型有助于理解焦虑易感性如何转化为回避学习。例如，行为抑制性气质和女性性别这两个临床焦虑的易感性因素，与啮齿动物更快地习得回避反应有关。然而，迄今为止，由于动物回避范式的许多特征在人类研究中通常未被捕捉到，此类实证数据向人类群体的转化一直很有限。在此，我们使用一项基于计算机的任务，该任务捕捉了啮齿动物逃避 - 回避学习范式的许多特征，研究了气质抑制型和/或女性是否在人类中具有更快的回避学习能力，如果是，这种促进作用是否会采取相同的形式。结果表明，与大鼠一样，这两个易感性因素都与人类回避行为的促进习得有关。具体而言，气质抑制与更高的回避反应率相关，而女性性别与更长的回避持续时间相关。这些发现加强了动物回避研究与人类焦虑易感性之间的直接联系，进一步推动了动物模型的研究，同时也为直接的人体测试提供了一个简单的试验平台。
