Strauss Gregory P, Bartolomeo Lisa A, Ayawvi Gifty
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, 125 Baldwin St, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2025 Apr 26. doi: 10.1007/s00406-025-02006-y.
Past studies indicate that individuals at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR) display emotion regulation abnormalities that predict increased symptom severity and poor functional outcome. However, it is unclear which neurophysiological processes contribute to impairments in implementing various strategies to down-regulate negative emotion. The current study used electroencephalography (EEG) to determine whether individuals at CHR have difficulty implementing reappraisal and distraction. Participants included individuals at CHR (n = 25) and healthy controls (CN: n = 36) who completed an EEG task while unpleasant or neutral stimuli were presented and they were required to either passively view or down-regulate negative emotion using reappraisal or distraction. The late positive potential (LPP) event related potential component was calculated from the EEG data and used as an objective neurophysiological indicator of emotion regulation effectiveness. CN effectively decreased the amplitude of the LPP for both reappraisal and distraction compared with unpleasant passive viewing; however, CHR did not differ in LPP amplitude for unpleasant passive viewing, reappraisal, and distraction, suggesting an implementation abnormality. Difficulty implementing distraction was associated with greater severity of attenuated positive symptoms. Collectively, these findings suggest that CHR display neurophysiological patterns of emotion regulation impairment that are similar to those that have been identified among individuals with schizophrenia in past studies. Interventions have been developed to target these mechanisms. It may be beneficial to apply these interventions to psychosis-spectrum populations where they would have relevance for both treatment of established symptoms and prevention of illness among those at CHR.
以往的研究表明，处于临床高风险的精神病患者（CHR）表现出情绪调节异常，这种异常预示着症状严重程度增加和功能预后不良。然而，尚不清楚哪些神经生理过程导致在实施各种下调负面情绪的策略时出现障碍。当前的研究使用脑电图（EEG）来确定CHR个体在实施重新评估和分心方面是否存在困难。参与者包括CHR个体（n = 25）和健康对照者（CN：n = 36），他们在呈现不愉快或中性刺激时完成一项EEG任务，并被要求要么被动观看，要么使用重新评估或分心来下调负面情绪。从EEG数据中计算出晚期正电位（LPP）事件相关电位成分，并将其用作情绪调节有效性的客观神经生理指标。与不愉快的被动观看相比，CN在重新评估和分心时均有效降低了LPP的幅度；然而，CHR在不愉快的被动观看、重新评估和分心时的LPP幅度没有差异，表明存在实施异常。实施分心困难与阳性症状减弱的严重程度更高有关。总体而言，这些发现表明，CHR表现出与过去研究中在精神分裂症患者中发现的类似的情绪调节损害神经生理模式。已经开发出针对这些机制的干预措施。将这些干预措施应用于精神病谱系人群可能是有益的，因为它们对于已确诊症状的治疗以及CHR人群的疾病预防都具有相关性。
