Yancey James R, Vaidyanathan Uma, Patrick Christopher J
Florida State University, United States.
Florida State University, United States.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2015 Nov;98(2 Pt 2):262-269. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.10.014. Epub 2014 Nov 6.
Enhanced startle reactivity during exposure to unpleasant cues (aversive startle potentiation; ASP) appears in the RDoC matrix as a physiological index of acute threat response. Increased ASP has been linked to focal fear disorders and to scale measures of dispositional fearfulness (i.e., threat sensitivity; THT+). However, some studies have reported reduced ASP for fear pathology accompanied by major depressive disorder (MDD) or pervasive distress. The current study evaluated whether (a) THT+ as indexed by reported dispositional fearfulness mediates the relationship between fear disorders (when unaccompanied by depression) and ASP, and (b) depression moderates relations of THT+ and fear disorders with ASP. Fear disorder participants without MDD showed enhanced ASP whereas those with MDD (or other distress conditions) showed evidence of reduced ASP. Continuous THT+ scores also predicted ASP, and this association: (a) was likewise moderated by depression/distress, and (b) accounted for the relationship between ASP and fear pathology without MDD. These findings point to a role for the RDoC construct of acute threat, operationalized dispositionally, in enhanced ASP shown by individuals with fear pathology unaccompanied by distress pathology.
在暴露于不愉快线索期间增强的惊吓反应性（厌恶惊吓增强；ASP）在研究领域标准（RDoC）矩阵中作为急性威胁反应的生理指标出现。ASP增加与特定恐惧障碍以及特质恐惧量表测量（即威胁敏感性；THT+）相关。然而，一些研究报告称，伴有重度抑郁症（MDD）或普遍困扰的恐惧病理患者的ASP降低。本研究评估了：（a）以报告的特质恐惧为指标的THT+是否介导恐惧障碍（无抑郁症时）与ASP之间的关系，以及（b）抑郁症是否调节THT+和恐惧障碍与ASP之间的关系。无MDD的恐惧障碍参与者表现出增强的ASP，而患有MDD（或其他困扰状况）的参与者则表现出ASP降低的证据。连续的THT+分数也预测了ASP，并且这种关联：（a）同样受到抑郁症/困扰的调节，（b）解释了无MDD的ASP与恐惧病理之间的关系。这些发现表明，在无困扰病理的恐惧病理个体所表现出的增强的ASP中，RDoC中以特质方式操作化的急性威胁结构起到了作用。
