Haesen Kim, Vervliet Bram
Center for Excellence on Generalization in Health and Psychopathology, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2015 Dec;98(3 Pt 2):529-34. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.11.010. Epub 2014 Dec 3.
A marked signature of fear extinction is its vulnerability for relapse. Here, we departed from the standard extinction principle and examined the ability of habituation to reduce conditioned fear reactions and prevent relapse. In a human fear conditioning paradigm, we first established one visual stimulus as a signal for an impending aversive electrical stimulation, while another visual stimulus was never followed by this stimulation. Next, the screen color changed and participants were exposed to either the visual stimuli without electrical stimulation (extinction treatment) or to the electrical stimulation without the visual stimuli (habituation treatment). Finally, the screen color changed back and the two visual stimuli were tested. Verbal ratings showed a return of conditioned shock-expectancy in the two groups, while skin conductance reactivity showed conditioned discrimination following exposures to the visual stimuli, but not following exposures to the electrical stimulation. We conclude that a habituation treatment outperforms an extinction treatment, and that shock-expectancy and skin conductance can dissociate under some conditions.
恐惧消退的一个显著特征是其复发的易感性。在此，我们背离了标准的消退原则，研究了习惯化减少条件性恐惧反应并防止复发的能力。在一项人类恐惧条件反射范式中，我们首先将一种视觉刺激确立为即将到来的厌恶性电刺激的信号，而另一种视觉刺激之后从未伴随这种刺激。接下来，屏幕颜色改变，参与者要么接受无电刺激的视觉刺激（消退治疗），要么接受无视觉刺激的电刺激（习惯化治疗）。最后，屏幕颜色变回原来的，对两种视觉刺激进行测试。言语评分显示两组中条件性电击预期均有恢复，而皮肤电导反应性显示在暴露于视觉刺激后出现条件性辨别，但在暴露于电刺激后未出现。我们得出结论，习惯化治疗优于消退治疗，并且在某些情况下，电击预期和皮肤电导可能会出现分离。
