Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Bochum, Germany.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2017 Sep;80:703-728. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.07.007. Epub 2017 Jul 29.
Why do only some individuals develop pathological anxiety following adverse events? Fear acquisition, extinction and return of fear paradigms serve as experimental learning models for the development, treatment and relapse of anxiety. Individual differences in experimental performance were however mostly regarded as 'noise' by researchers interested in basic associative learning principles. Our work for the first time presents a comprehensive literature overview and methodological discussion on inter-individual differences in fear acquisition, extinction and return of fear. We tell a story from noise that steadily develops into a meaningful tune and converges to a model of mechanisms contributing to individual risk/resilience with respect to fear and anxiety-related behavior. Furthermore, in light of the present 'replicability crisis' we identify methodological pitfalls and provide suggestions for study design and analyses tailored to individual difference research in fear conditioning. Ultimately, synergistic transdisciplinary and collaborative efforts hold promise to not only improve our mechanistic understanding but can also be expected to contribute to the development of specifically tailored ('individualized') intervention and targeted prevention programs in the future.
为什么只有部分个体在经历不良事件后会出现病理性焦虑？恐惧获得、消退和恐惧恢复范式是研究焦虑症发展、治疗和复发的实验性学习模型。然而，对基本联想学习原则感兴趣的研究人员大多将实验表现中的个体差异视为“噪音”。我们的工作首次全面概述和讨论了恐惧获得、消退和恐惧恢复的个体差异。我们从噪声中讲述了一个故事，这个故事逐渐发展成一个有意义的曲调，并汇聚成一个有助于个体对恐惧和焦虑相关行为的风险/弹性的机制模型。此外，鉴于目前的“可重复性危机”，我们确定了方法上的陷阱，并为针对恐惧条件作用的个体差异研究量身定制的研究设计和分析提供了建议。最终，协同的跨学科和协作努力不仅有望提高我们的机制理解，而且有望为未来专门设计（“个体化”）干预和针对性预防计划的发展做出贡献。
