Klinik und Hochschulambulanz für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
J Psychopharmacol. 2021 Jun;35(6):755-759. doi: 10.1177/0269881121997100. Epub 2021 Mar 28.
Facial expressions contain important affective information, and selective attention to facial expression provides an advantage in the face of loss, stress and danger. In addition, the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis mediate the organism's response to loss and danger. Here, we aimed at investigating the influence of sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activation on selective attention to affective facial stimuli.
One hundred-and-four healthy men between 18-35 years old (mean (standard deviation) age: 24.1 (3.5) years) participated in the study. We used a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled design. Participants received either: (a) yohimbine, (b) hydrocortisone, (c) yohimbine and hydrocortisone or (d) placebo only and participated in a dot-probe task with sad, happy and neutral faces. We collected salivary samples to measure cortisol and alpha amylase activity in addition to measurements of blood pressure and heart rate. Salivary cortisol served as correlate of hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activation and salivary alpha amylase activity, blood pressure and heart rate as correlates of sympathetic nervous system activation. Measurements were carried out before and after drug administration.
We did not find a main effect or interaction effect of hydrocortisone or yohimbine administration on selective attention to happy faces. However, we found an interaction of yohimbine and hydrocortisone on selective attention to sad faces. Post-hoc -test revealed an attentional bias away from sad stimuli and towards neutral faces in the hydrocortisone-only group.
Only hydrocortisone administration led to an attentional bias away from sad faces. Future studies should investigate these effects in major depression disorder, as this disorder is characterised by glucocorticoid resistance and increased processing of sad stimuli.
面部表情包含重要的情感信息，选择性地注意面部表情可以在面对失落、压力和危险时提供优势。此外，交感神经系统和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴调节着机体对失落和危险的反应。在这里，我们旨在研究交感神经系统和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴激活对情感面部刺激选择性注意的影响。
104 名年龄在 18-35 岁之间的健康男性（平均（标准差）年龄：24.1（3.5）岁）参与了这项研究。我们采用随机、双盲、安慰剂对照设计。参与者接受以下治疗之一：（a）育亨宾，（b）氢化可的松，（c）育亨宾和氢化可的松或（d）仅安慰剂，并参与了带有悲伤、快乐和中性面孔的点探测任务。我们收集唾液样本以测量皮质醇和α-淀粉酶活性，以及血压和心率的测量。唾液皮质醇作为下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴激活的相关指标，唾液α-淀粉酶活性、血压和心率作为交感神经系统激活的相关指标。测量在药物给药前后进行。
我们没有发现氢化可的松或育亨宾给药对快乐面孔选择性注意的主要影响或相互作用影响。然而，我们发现育亨宾和氢化可的松对悲伤面孔选择性注意存在交互作用。事后检验显示，在仅氢化可的松组中，对悲伤刺激的注意力偏向于中性面孔。
只有氢化可的松给药导致对悲伤面孔的注意力偏向。未来的研究应该在重度抑郁症中研究这些影响，因为这种疾病的特征是糖皮质激素抵抗和对悲伤刺激的处理增加。
