Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Postbox 100131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Bielefeld University, Postbox 100131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany.
Biol Psychol. 2023 Nov;184:108697. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2023.108697. Epub 2023 Sep 27.
Peer victimization is a risk factor for the development of major depressive disorders, but little is known about the mechanisms. This study examined whether peer victimization alters physiological and affective responses to potentially threatening social stimuli. For this purpose, reactions to socially evaluative stimuli of depressive patients and healthy controls with varying histories of peer victimization were compared. In a social conditioning task, we studied heart rate responses to unconditioned socially negative and neutral evaluative video statements, followed by the heart rate reactions to conditioned stimuli, i.e. still images of the faces of the same actors. Diagnosis of depression and peer victimization were both associated with a more pronounced heart rate deceleration in response to unconditioned stimuli, irrespective of valence. The effect of peer victimization was stronger in depressive patients than in healthy controls. However, heart rate responses to the CSs were not related to depression or peer victimization. The results indicate a hypervigilant processing of social stimuli in depressive patients reporting histories of peer victimization. This distinct processing may be associated with inappropriate behavioral and emotional responses to social challenges, putting individuals at risk for depressive symptoms.
同伴侵害是发展为重度抑郁症的一个风险因素，但人们对此知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨同伴侵害是否会改变对潜在威胁性社会刺激的生理和情感反应。为此，比较了有不同同伴侵害史的抑郁患者和健康对照组对社会评价刺激的反应。在社会条件反射任务中，我们研究了心率对未条件反射的社会负面和中性评价视频语句的反应，然后对条件刺激（即同一演员的面部静态图像）的心率反应。抑郁和同伴侵害的诊断均与对未条件刺激的心率减速反应更为明显有关，而与效价无关。同伴侵害的影响在抑郁患者中比在健康对照组中更强。然而，对 CS 的心率反应与抑郁或同伴侵害无关。研究结果表明，有同伴侵害史的抑郁患者对社会刺激的处理更为敏感。这种特殊的处理可能与对社会挑战的不适当的行为和情感反应有关，使个体处于抑郁症状的风险之中。
