Simonsen Arndis, Scheel-Krüger Jørgen, Jensen Mads, Roepstorff Andreas, Møller Arne, Frith Chris D, Campbell-Meiklejohn Daniel
Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, 8000, Aarhus, Denmark.
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2014 Jul;231(14):2759-69. doi: 10.1007/s00213-014-3444-2. Epub 2014 Jan 25.
Certain disorders, such as depression and anxiety, to which serotonin dysfunction is historically associated, are also associated with lower assessments of other people's trustworthiness. Serotonergic changes are known to alter cognitive responses to threatening stimuli. This effect may manifest socially as reduced apparent trustworthiness of others. Trustworthiness judgments can emerge from either direct observation or references provided by third parties.
We assessed whether explicit judgments of trustworthiness and social influences on those judgments are altered by changes within serotonergic systems.
We implemented a double-blind between-subject design where 20 healthy female volunteers received a single dose of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram (2 × 20 mg), while 20 control subjects (matched on age, intelligence, and years of education) received a placebo. Subjects performed a face-rating task assessing how trustworthy they found 153 unfamiliar others (targets). After each rating, the subjects were told how other subjects, on average, rated the same target. The subjects then performed 30 min of distractor tasks before, unexpectedly, being asked to rate all 153 faces again, in a random order.
Compared to subjects receiving a placebo, subjects receiving citalopram rated targets as less trustworthy. They also conformed more to opinions of others, when others rated targets to be even less trustworthy than subjects had initially indicated. The two effects were independent of negative effects of citalopram on subjective state.
This is evidence that serotonin systems can mediate explicit assessment and social learning of the trustworthiness of others.
某些疾病，如抑郁症和焦虑症，传统上与血清素功能障碍有关，同时也与对他人可信度的较低评估有关。已知血清素能变化会改变对威胁性刺激的认知反应。这种效应在社交中可能表现为他人的明显可信度降低。可信度判断可以来自直接观察或第三方提供的参考。
我们评估了血清素能系统内的变化是否会改变对可信度的明确判断以及这些判断的社会影响。
我们采用双盲受试者间设计，20名健康女性志愿者单次服用选择性血清素再摄取抑制剂（SSRI）西酞普兰（2×20毫克），而20名对照受试者（在年龄、智力和受教育年限方面匹配）服用安慰剂。受试者执行一项面部评级任务，评估他们认为153个不熟悉的他人（目标）的可信度。每次评级后，受试者被告知其他受试者对同一目标的平均评级。然后，受试者进行30分钟的干扰任务，之后意外地被要求以随机顺序再次对所有153张面孔进行评级。
与接受安慰剂的受试者相比，接受西酞普兰的受试者对目标的可信度评级更低。当其他人对目标的评级比受试者最初表明的更低时，他们也更倾向于他人的意见。这两种效应与西酞普兰对主观状态的负面影响无关。
这证明血清素系统可以介导对他人可信度的明确评估和社会学习。
