Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium.
Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2021 Jun;71:101629. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2020.101629. Epub 2020 Nov 7.
Childhood abuse and neglect increase the risk for psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression and anxiety) during adulthood and have been associated with deficits in cognitive control. The specific mechanisms underlying these cognitive control deficits are still unknown.
This study examined the expectation for reward to improve inhibitory control in young women (ages 18-35 years) with a history of childhood sexual and/or physical abuse (AG, N = 28), childhood emotional and/or physical neglect (NG, N = 30), or unaffected comparison women (HC, N = 40). They completed a previously validated rewarded (color-word) Stroop task and filled out questionnaires on depression, anxiety, and resilience.
Surprisingly, a significant group by reward interaction revealed larger performance benefits under reward prospect (relative to no-reward) for the AG group relative to both the NG and HC groups.
A small sample size limiting generalizability.
These results demonstrate sensitivity of abused subjects to reward in modulating cognitive control and might aid in discussing whether using reward schedules during therapeutic interventions could be effective.
童年期虐待和忽视会增加成年后患精神障碍（如抑郁和焦虑）的风险，并且与认知控制缺陷有关。这些认知控制缺陷的具体机制仍不清楚。
本研究旨在探讨奖励预期是否能改善有童年期性虐待和/或躯体虐待史（AG，N=28）、童年期情感和/或躯体忽视史（NG，N=30）或无不良经历的对照组女性（HC，N=40）的年轻女性的抑制控制能力。她们完成了一项经过验证的有奖（颜色-词语）斯特鲁普任务，并填写了抑郁、焦虑和适应力问卷。
令人惊讶的是，一个显著的组间奖励交互作用表明，与 NG 和 HC 组相比，AG 组在奖励预期（相对于无奖励）下的表现有更大的收益。
样本量小限制了研究的普遍性。
这些结果表明，受虐待的受试者对奖励调节认知控制的敏感性，并可能有助于讨论在治疗干预中使用奖励计划是否有效。
