Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, United States; Department of Psychiatry, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, MA, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States.
J Anxiety Disord. 2021 Mar;78:102363. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102363. Epub 2021 Jan 15.
Affective facial expressions elicit automatic approach or avoidance action tendencies, which are dysregulated in Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). However, research has not dissociated the initiation and execution phases of automatic action tendencies, which may be distinctly modulated by affective faces and SAD. In Study 1, fifty adults completed a modified Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) that characterized the time course of automatic approach or avoidance actions elicited by affective faces. In the initiation phase, happy faces elicited greater automatic approach tendencies compared to angry faces, an effect that linearly weakened across the execution phase. In Study 2, 44 adults with a principal diagnosis of SAD and 22 healthy comparison (HC) adults completed a similar AAT. Compared to the HC group, the SAD group exhibited an inconsistent time course of automatic action tendencies to neutral faces. Specifically, SAD was characterized by relatively weak initiation of automatic approach tendencies, but relatively stronger execution of automatic approach tendencies. In contrast, the HC group exhibited relatively similar initiation and execution of automatic approach tendencies to neutral faces. Together, these results demonstrate that the initiation and execution of automatic action tendencies are differentially modulated by affective faces and SAD.
情感面部表情引发自动趋近或回避的行为倾向，而社交焦虑障碍（SAD）患者的这种倾向会失调。然而，目前的研究尚未区分自动行为倾向的启动和执行阶段，而这两个阶段可能会受到情绪面孔和 SAD 的不同调节。在研究 1 中，五十名成年人完成了改良的趋近-回避任务（AAT），该任务描述了情绪面孔引发的自动趋近或回避行为的时间进程。在启动阶段，与愤怒面孔相比，快乐面孔引发了更强的自动趋近倾向，这种效应在执行阶段逐渐减弱。在研究 2 中，44 名 SAD 患者和 22 名健康对照组（HC）成年人完成了类似的 AAT。与 HC 组相比，SAD 组对中性面孔的自动趋近行为倾向表现出不一致的时间进程。具体而言，SAD 组表现出相对较弱的自动趋近行为倾向的启动，但相对较强的自动趋近行为倾向的执行。相比之下，HC 组对中性面孔的自动趋近行为倾向的启动和执行则较为相似。综上所述，这些结果表明，情绪面孔和 SAD 会对自动行为倾向的启动和执行产生不同的调节作用。
