Luo Rui-Han, Su Feng, Zhao Xin-Yue, Cao Tian-Hui, Liao Jing, Xue Yan-Xue, Huang Geng-Di, Yang Jian-Li
Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Department of Clinical Psychology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.
Front Psychol. 2024 May 28;15:1384053. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384053. eCollection 2024.
Depression is one of the primary global public health issues, and there has been a dramatic increase in depression levels among young people over the past decade. The neuroplasticity theory of depression postulates that a malfunction in neural plasticity, which is responsible for learning, memory, and adaptive behavior, is the primary source of the disorder's clinical manifestations. Nevertheless, the impact of depression symptoms on associative learning remains underexplored.
We used the differential fear conditioning paradigm to investigate the effects of depressive symptoms on fear acquisition and extinction learning. Skin conductance response (SCR) is an objective evaluation indicator, and ratings of nervousness, likeability, and unconditioned stimuli (US) expectancy are subjective evaluation indicators. In addition, we used associability generated by a computational reinforcement learning model to characterize the skin conductance response.
The findings indicate that individuals with depressive symptoms exhibited significant impairment in fear acquisition learning compared to those without depressive symptoms based on the results of the skin conductance response. Moreover, in the discrimination fear learning task, the skin conductance response was positively correlated with associability, as estimated by the hybrid model in the group without depressive symptoms. Additionally, the likeability rating scores improved post-extinction learning in the group without depressive symptoms, and no such increase was observed in the group with depressive symptoms.
The study highlights that individuals with pronounced depressive symptoms exhibit impaired fear acquisition and extinction learning, suggesting a possible deficit in associative learning. Employing the hybrid model to analyze the learning process offers a deeper insight into the associative learning processes of humans, thus allowing for improved comprehension and treatment of these mental health problems.
抑郁症是全球主要的公共卫生问题之一，在过去十年中，年轻人的抑郁水平急剧上升。抑郁症的神经可塑性理论假定，负责学习、记忆和适应性行为的神经可塑性功能失调是该疾病临床表现的主要根源。然而，抑郁症状对联想学习的影响仍未得到充分探索。
我们使用差异恐惧条件范式来研究抑郁症状对恐惧习得和消退学习的影响。皮肤电传导反应（SCR）是一种客观评估指标，而紧张程度、可爱程度和非条件刺激（US）预期评分是主观评估指标。此外，我们使用计算强化学习模型生成的关联性来表征皮肤电传导反应。
研究结果表明，根据皮肤电传导反应的结果，与没有抑郁症状的个体相比，有抑郁症状的个体在恐惧习得学习方面表现出显著受损。此外，在辨别恐惧学习任务中，在没有抑郁症状的组中，皮肤电传导反应与混合模型估计的关联性呈正相关。此外，没有抑郁症状的组在消退学习后可爱程度评分有所提高，而有抑郁症状的组未观察到这种增加。
该研究强调，有明显抑郁症状的个体在恐惧习得和消退学习方面表现受损，这表明联想学习可能存在缺陷。使用混合模型分析学习过程可以更深入地了解人类的联想学习过程，从而有助于更好地理解和治疗这些心理健康问题。
