Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China; School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China; Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.
J Anxiety Disord. 2024 Jul;105:102892. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2024.102892. Epub 2024 Jun 11.
Insufficient sleep can initiate or exacerbate anxiety by triggering excessive fear generalization. In this study, a de novo paradigm was developed and used to examine the neural mechanisms governing the effects of sleep deprivation on processing perceptual and concept-based fear generalizations. A between-subject design was adopted, wherein a control group (who had a typical night's sleep) and a one-night sleep deprivation group completed a fear acquisition task at 9:00 PM on the first day and underwent a generalization test the following morning at 7:00 AM. In the fear acquisition task, navy blue and olive green were used as perceptual cues (P+ and P-, respectively), while animals and furniture items were used as conceptual cues (C+ and C-, respectively). Generalization was tested for four novel generalized categories (C+P+, C+P-, C-P+, and C-P-). Shock expectancy ratings, skin conductance responses, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy were recorded during the fear acquisition and generalization processes. Compared with the group who had a typical night's sleep, the sleep deprived group showed higher shock expectancy ratings (especially for P+ and C-), increased oxygenated hemoglobin in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and increased activation in the triangular inferior frontal gyrus during the generalization test. These findings suggest that sleep deprivation increases the generalization of threat memories, thus providing insights into the overgeneralization characteristics of anxiety and fear-related disorders.
睡眠不足可通过引发过度恐惧泛化而引发或加重焦虑。在这项研究中，开发并使用了一种新的范式来研究睡眠剥夺对感知和基于概念的恐惧泛化处理的影响的神经机制。采用了组间设计，其中对照组（有典型的一夜睡眠）和一夜睡眠剥夺组在第一天晚上 9 点完成了恐惧获得任务，并在第二天早上 7 点进行了泛化测试。在恐惧获得任务中，海军蓝和橄榄绿被用作感知线索（分别为 P+和 P-），而动物和家具物品被用作概念线索（分别为 C+和 C-）。对四个新的泛化类别（C+P+、C+P-、C-P+和 C-P-）进行了泛化测试。在恐惧获得和泛化过程中记录了惊吓预期评分、皮肤电导反应和功能近红外光谱。与有典型一夜睡眠的组相比，睡眠剥夺组在泛化测试中表现出更高的惊吓预期评分（尤其是 P+和 C-）、背外侧前额叶皮质中的氧合血红蛋白增加以及三角下额回的激活增加。这些发现表明，睡眠剥夺会增加威胁记忆的泛化，从而深入了解焦虑和与恐惧相关的障碍的过度泛化特征。
