Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 235 E. Cameron Ave, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2022 Aug;22(4):690-702. doi: 10.3758/s13415-022-00984-3. Epub 2022 Mar 16.
Following a traumatic event, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are common. Considerable research has identified a relationship between physiological responses during fear learning and PTSD. Adults with PTSD display atypical physiological responses, such as increased skin conductance responses (SCR) to threatening cues during fear learning (Orr et al., 2000). However, little research has examined these responses in childhood when fear learning first emerges. We hypothesized that greater threat responsivity in early acquisition during fear conditioning before Hurricane Florence would predict PTSD symptoms in a sample of young children following the hurricane. The final sample included 58 children in North Carolina who completed fear learning before Hurricane Florence-a potentially traumatic event. After the hurricane, we assessed severity of hurricane impact and PTSD symptoms. We found that threat responsivity as measured by differential SCR during fear learning before the hurricane predicted PTSD hyperarousal symptoms and that hurricane impact predicted PTSD symptoms following the disaster. This exploratory work suggests that prospective associations between threat responsivity and PTSD symptoms observed in adulthood may be replicated in early childhood. Results are discussed in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis.
创伤后，创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）症状很常见。大量研究已经确定了在恐惧学习过程中生理反应与 PTSD 之间的关系。患有 PTSD 的成年人表现出非典型的生理反应，例如在恐惧学习期间对威胁线索的皮肤电反应（SCR）增加（Orr 等人，2000）。然而，很少有研究在恐惧学习首次出现的儿童时期检查这些反应。我们假设，在佛罗伦萨飓风之前的恐惧条件反射中早期获得阶段的威胁反应性更大，将预测飓风后一组幼儿的 PTSD 症状。最终样本包括北卡罗来纳州的 58 名儿童，他们在佛罗伦萨飓风之前完成了恐惧学习——这是一个潜在的创伤性事件。在飓风之后，我们评估了飓风的严重程度和 PTSD 症状。我们发现，在飓风前的恐惧学习中通过 SCR 差异测量的威胁反应性预测了 PTSD 警觉性症状，而飓风影响预测了灾难后的 PTSD 症状。这项探索性工作表明，在成年期观察到的威胁反应性与 PTSD 症状之间的前瞻性关联可能在儿童早期得到复制。结果在当前 COVID-19 危机的背景下进行了讨论。
