Staples-Bradley Lindsay K, Treanor Michael, Craske Michelle G
a Department of Psychology , University of California , Los Angeles , CA , USA.
Cogn Emot. 2018 Feb;32(1):167-173. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2016.1265485. Epub 2016 Dec 6.
Individuals with anxiety disorders show deficits in the discrimination between a cue that predicts an aversive outcome and a safe stimulus that predicts the absence of that outcome. This impairment has been linked to increased spontaneous recovery of fear following extinction, however it is unknown if there is a link between discrimination and return of fear in a novel context (i.e. context renewal). It is also unknown if impaired discrimination mediates the relationship between trait anxiety and either spontaneous recovery or context renewal. The present study used a differential fear conditioning paradigm to examine the relationships between trait anxiety, discrimination learning, spontaneous recovery and context renewal in healthy volunteers. Fear learning was assessed using continuous ratings of US expectancy and subjective ratings of fear. Discrimination mediated the relationships between trait anxiety and both spontaneous recovery and context renewal such that elevated trait anxiety was associated with poorer discrimination, which in turn was associated with increased fear at test phases. Results are discussed in terms of the genesis and maintenance of anxiety disorders.
患有焦虑症的个体在区分预测厌恶结果的线索和预测无该结果的安全刺激方面存在缺陷。这种损害与消退后恐惧的自发恢复增加有关，然而，在新环境中（即情境更新），辨别能力与恐惧重现之间是否存在联系尚不清楚。同样未知的是，辨别能力受损是否介导了特质焦虑与自发恢复或情境更新之间的关系。本研究采用差异恐惧条件范式，考察健康志愿者的特质焦虑、辨别学习、自发恢复和情境更新之间的关系。使用对预期非条件刺激的连续评分和恐惧的主观评分来评估恐惧学习。辨别能力介导了特质焦虑与自发恢复和情境更新之间的关系，因此特质焦虑水平升高与较差的辨别能力相关，而较差的辨别能力又与测试阶段恐惧增加相关。本文将根据焦虑症的发生和维持来讨论研究结果。
