Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padua, Italy; Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), University of Padua, Via Orus 2/B, 35131, Padua, Italy.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padua, Italy.
Behav Res Ther. 2020 Aug;131:103626. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2020.103626. Epub 2020 Apr 28.
The present study investigated the interplay between attention and affective disposition during emotional processing in dysphoria. Attentional and affective startle modulation and cardiac deceleration were assessed during the viewing of emotional pictures in 38 individuals with dysphoria and in 52 controls. Startle probes during picture viewing were presented at 300, 1500, 3500, 4500 ms after picture onset. Whereas controls showed the expected startle potentiation to unpleasant stimuli as compared to neutral and pleasant ones, individuals with dysphoria did not show any significant increase in startle reflex amplitude in response to unpleasant stimuli. Of note, startle potentiation during the viewing of unpleasant stimuli was significantly attenuated in the group with dysphoria relative to controls. Conversely, no significant effect concerning attentional startle modulation was noted. However, whereas individuals with dysphoria showed a prolonged cardiac deceleration when viewing unpleasant compared to neutral stimuli, the same effect was observed in controls only in the initial stage of stimuli processing. This study suggests that dysphoria is characterized by underactivation of the defensive motivational system and by prolonged attentional allocation to unpleasant stimuli. The assessment of affective startle modulation and cardiac deceleration is a valuable paradigm for unraveling dysfunctions in affective disposition and attention in dysphoria.
本研究探讨了抑郁个体在情绪加工过程中注意力和情感倾向的相互作用。在 38 名抑郁个体和 52 名对照者观看情绪图片时，评估了注意和情感的惊吓调制以及心脏减速。在图片呈现后 300、1500、3500 和 4500 毫秒时，在图片观看期间呈现惊吓探测。与中性和愉快刺激相比，对照组对不愉快刺激表现出预期的惊吓增强，但抑郁个体对不愉快刺激的惊吓反射幅度没有明显增加。值得注意的是，与对照组相比，抑郁组在观看不愉快刺激时的惊吓增强明显减弱。相反，关于注意惊吓调制没有注意到显著影响。然而，与对照组相比，当观看不愉快的刺激时，抑郁个体的心脏减速时间延长，而对照组仅在刺激处理的初始阶段观察到相同的效果。本研究表明，抑郁的特征是防御动机系统的激活不足，以及对不愉快刺激的注意力分配时间延长。评估情感惊吓调制和心脏减速是揭示抑郁个体情感倾向和注意力功能障碍的有价值的范式。
