Herzog Michaela, Sucec Josef, Van Diest Ilse, Van den Bergh Omer, von Leupoldt Andreas
Research Group Health Psychology, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, box 3726, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Biol Psychol. 2019 Jan;140:48-54. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.11.004. Epub 2018 Nov 20.
Dyspnea is a threatening symptom frequently experienced by patients within social contexts such as in the presence of family members, health professionals, or other patients. However, the effects of social presence on perceived dyspnea remain unknown. Therefore, this study examined the effects of social presence on dyspnea perception and cortical neural processing of respiratory sensations using respiratory-related evoked potentials (RREPs) in the electroencephalogram while additionally investigating the impact of dyspnea-specific fear. Thirty-one healthy females underwent four experimental conditions while RREPs were induced by inspiratory occlusions: (1)observer present/no dyspnea, (2)observer present/dyspnea, (3)alone/no dyspnea, (4)alone/dyspnea. The observer presence reduced ratings of perceived dyspnea during dyspnea conditions either significantly or at trend level. Additionally, reduced amplitudes at trend level of RREP component P2 in conditions with an observer present were found. No associations with dyspnea-specific fear were found. Findings suggest that social presence might have beneficial effects for individuals experiencing dyspnea.
呼吸困难是患者在诸如家庭成员、医护人员或其他患者在场等社交情境中经常经历的一种威胁性症状。然而，社交情境对感知到的呼吸困难的影响尚不清楚。因此，本研究使用脑电图中的呼吸相关诱发电位（RREP），研究了社交情境对呼吸困难感知和呼吸感觉的皮层神经处理的影响，同时还研究了特定于呼吸困难的恐惧的影响。31名健康女性在吸气阻断诱发RREP的情况下接受了四种实验条件：（1）有观察者在场/无呼吸困难，（2）有观察者在场/呼吸困难，（3）单独/无呼吸困难，（4）单独/呼吸困难。在呼吸困难的情况下，有观察者在场显著或在趋势水平上降低了感知到的呼吸困难评分。此外，发现在有观察者在场的情况下，RREP成分P2在趋势水平上的振幅降低。未发现与特定于呼吸困难的恐惧有相关性。研究结果表明，社交情境可能对经历呼吸困难的个体有有益影响。
