School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Stress. 2020 Jan;23(1):97-104. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2019.1645113. Epub 2019 Jul 31.
Previous studies have found that PTSD is associated with hippocampal-related impairment in cognitive flexibility. However, little is known about this impairment following nature adventure interventions. The current ex post facto study aimed to examine the relationship between cognitive flexibility, sailing-based intervention and PTSD symptoms. Thirty-nine individuals with PTSD diagnosis (17 who engaged in sailing and 22 who did not engage in sailing) and 38 healthy control (18 who engaged in sailing and 20 who did not engage in sailing) completed a performance-based reversal learning paradigm to assess cognitive flexibility and were evaluated for PTSD, depressive and anxiety symptoms. The results revealed significantly lower levels of PTSD and trait anxiety symptoms in the PTSD-sailing group, compared to the PTSD-no-sailing group. In addition, both PTSD groups showed selective, though different, impairments in reversal learning. Specifically, PTSD-no-sailing individuals showed a selective impairment in reversing the outcome of a negative stimulus- they struggled to learn that a previously negative stimulus was later associated with a positive outcome. PTSD-sailing individuals, on the other hand, displayed a selective impairment in reversing the outcome of a positive stimulus- they had difficulty learning that a previously positive stimulus was later associated with a negative outcome. The results may suggest that although individuals who participated in a sailing-based intervention had lower clinical symptoms, their hippocampal related cognitive flexibility was mot improved, and the impairment exists in a different domain.
先前的研究发现，创伤后应激障碍与海马体相关的认知灵活性损伤有关。然而，对于自然探险干预后这种损伤知之甚少。本回顾性研究旨在探讨认知灵活性、帆船干预与创伤后应激障碍症状之间的关系。39 名创伤后应激障碍诊断患者（17 名参与帆船运动，22 名未参与帆船运动）和 38 名健康对照组（18 名参与帆船运动，20 名未参与帆船运动）完成了基于表现的反转学习范式，以评估认知灵活性，并评估创伤后应激障碍、抑郁和焦虑症状。结果显示，与未参与帆船运动的 PTSD 组相比，参与帆船运动的 PTSD 组的 PTSD 和特质焦虑症状水平显著降低。此外，两组 PTSD 患者均表现出选择性但不同的反转学习损伤。具体来说，未参与帆船运动的 PTSD 患者在反转负性刺激的结果方面表现出选择性损伤——他们难以学习到先前的负性刺激后来与正性结果相关。另一方面，参与帆船运动的 PTSD 患者在反转正性刺激的结果方面表现出选择性损伤——他们难以学习到先前的正性刺激后来与负性结果相关。结果可能表明，尽管参与帆船运动干预的个体临床症状较低，但他们的海马体相关认知灵活性并没有得到改善，并且损伤存在于不同的领域。
