Ladouceur Cecile D, Schlund Michael W, Segreti Anna-Maria
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 3811 O'Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States.
Behav Brain Res. 2018 Feb 15;338:109-117. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.10.019. Epub 2017 Oct 24.
Fronto-limbic systems play an important role in supporting resistance to emotional distraction to promote goal-directed behavior. Despite evidence that alterations in the functioning of these systems are implicated in developmental trajectories of psychopathology, most studies have been conducted in adults. This study examined the functioning of fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference in adolescents and whether differential reinforcement of correct responding can modulate these neural systems in ways that could promote resistance to emotional distraction. Fourteen healthy adolescents (ages 9-15) completed an emotional delayed working memory task during fMRI with emotional distracters (none, neutral, negative) while positive reinforcement (i.e., monetary reward) was provided for correct responses under some conditions. Adolescents showed slightly reduced behavioral performance and greater activation in amygdala and prefrontal cortical regions (ventrolateral, ventromedial, dorsolateral) on correct trials with negative distracters compared to those with no or neutral distracters. Positive reinforcement yielded an overall improvement in accuracy and reaction times and counteracted the effects of negative distracters as evidenced by significant reductions in activation in key fronto-limbic regions. The present findings extend results on emotional interference from adults to adolescents and suggest that positive reinforcement could be used to potentially promote insulation from emotional distraction. A challenge for the future will be to build upon these findings for constructing reinforcement-based attention training programs that could be used to reduce emotional attention biases in anxious youth.
额颞叶系统在支持抵抗情绪干扰以促进目标导向行为方面发挥着重要作用。尽管有证据表明这些系统功能的改变与精神病理学的发展轨迹有关，但大多数研究都是在成年人中进行的。本研究考察了青少年中负责情绪干扰的额颞叶系统的功能，以及正确反应的差异强化是否能以促进抵抗情绪干扰的方式调节这些神经系统。14名健康青少年（9 - 15岁）在功能磁共振成像（fMRI）期间完成了一项带有情绪干扰物（无、中性、负面）的情绪延迟工作记忆任务，在某些条件下，正确反应会得到积极强化（即金钱奖励）。与无干扰物或中性干扰物的试验相比，青少年在有负面干扰物的正确试验中表现出行为表现略有下降，杏仁核和前额叶皮质区域（腹外侧、腹内侧、背外侧）的激活增加。积极强化使准确性和反应时间总体上得到改善，并抵消了负面干扰物的影响，关键额颞叶区域的激活显著减少证明了这一点。本研究结果将关于情绪干扰的研究结果从成年人扩展到了青少年，并表明积极强化可用于潜在地促进免受情绪干扰。未来的一个挑战将是基于这些发现构建基于强化的注意力训练计划，该计划可用于减少焦虑青少年的情绪注意力偏差。
