Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2022 Apr;174:66-75. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.01.016. Epub 2022 Feb 8.
Individual differences in sensitivity to unpredictable threat may be a critical mechanism for internalizing psychopathology phenotypes. The present study examined whether the startle probe-elicited N100 and P300 during unpredictable threat - two event-related potentials indexing early and elaborative attentional processing of unpredictable threat - may be endophenotypes for internalizing psychopathology, including fear and distress/misery disorders and intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a clinical trait that is transdiagnostically associated with internalizing disorders. A large sample of adult siblings (N = 375) completed the no, predictable, and unpredictable threat task, during which the N100 and P300 were recorded. Relative to the no threat condition, N100 was more strongly enhanced in anticipation of unpredictable than predictable threat while P300 was suppressed to both predictable and unpredictable threat. While neither N100 enhancement nor P300 suppression to unpredictable threat was associated with fear or distress/misery disorders, they were negatively linked to inhibitory IU (a facet of IU). Thus, individuals high in inhibitory IU showed reduced attentional engagement with the threatening context when it was unpredictable. Further, N100 enhancement and, to a lesser degree, P300 suppression to unpredictable threat showed familial aggregation - a key criterion for determining whether a biomarker is an endophenotype. In sum, N100 enhancement and P300 suppression to unpredictable threat may be endophenotypes for dimensional measures of internalizing psychopathology.
个体对外界不可预测威胁的敏感性差异可能是内化精神病理学表型的关键机制。本研究探讨了不可预测威胁诱发的起始探测 N100 和 P300 是否可能是内化精神病理学的内表型,包括恐惧和痛苦/悲伤障碍以及不确定性耐受(IU),IU 是一种与内化障碍具有跨诊断关联的临床特征。一大群成年兄弟姐妹(N=375)完成了无威胁、可预测和不可预测的威胁任务,在此期间记录了 N100 和 P300。与无威胁条件相比,N100 在预测不可预测威胁时增强更为强烈,而 P300 则对可预测和不可预测的威胁都受到抑制。虽然 N100 对不可预测威胁的增强和 P300 对不可预测威胁的抑制都与恐惧或痛苦/悲伤障碍无关,但它们与抑制性 IU(IU 的一个方面)呈负相关。因此,抑制性 IU 较高的个体在威胁情境不可预测时,对其注意力的投入减少。此外,N100 对不可预测威胁的增强以及在较小程度上 P300 对不可预测威胁的抑制表现出家族聚集性——这是确定生物标志物是否为内表型的关键标准。总之,N100 对不可预测威胁的增强和 P300 对不可预测威胁的抑制可能是内化精神病理学维度测量的内表型。