Leng Lu, Beckers Tom, Vervliet Bram
Center for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, KU Leuven, Belgium.
Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium.
J Mood Anxiety Disord. 2024 Jan 17;5:100050. doi: 10.1016/j.xjmad.2024.100050. eCollection 2024 Mar.
Active threat avoidance is an adaptive coping strategy but can evolve into maladaptive behavior patterns when it is disproportionate to an actual threat. While excessive and persistent avoidance, as often seen in anxiety-related disorders, have been investigated extensively, it is presently unclear under what circumstances insufficient avoidance might occur in the presence of a genuine threat. We hypothesized that anhedonia, the reduced ability to experience pleasure, might undermine the relief experience after successful threat avoidance and thus reduce future active avoidance responses. Using an established avoidance learning paradigm, we examined the relationship between anhedonia, relief, and active avoidance responses. Forty participants learned that two threat cues signaled electrical stimulation and they could click a button during cue presentations to prevent electrical stimulation from occurring. While clicking the button worked for one threat cue, it did not work for the other one. After several repetitions, button effectiveness was reversed. Another safety cue that never signaled electrical stimulation was presented intermixed with the two threat cues. Every time there was an omission of electrical stimulation, self-reported relief was measured. We found that participants who scored higher on anhedonia experienced weaker relief during all outcome omissions. Behaviorally, at the early stage of each phase, participants who scored higher on anhedonia executed fewer avoidance actions, specifically for the threat cue that signaled avoidable electrical stimulation. Relief induced by threat omission is a pleasant experience, which trait anhedonia seems to impair. This attenuation of relief might reduce the reinforcement of future adaptive avoidance behaviors.
主动威胁回避是一种适应性应对策略,但当它与实际威胁不相称时,可能会演变成适应不良的行为模式。虽然过度和持续的回避行为,如在焦虑相关障碍中常见的那样,已经得到了广泛研究,但目前尚不清楚在真正存在威胁的情况下,何种情况下会出现回避不足。我们假设快感缺失,即体验愉悦的能力降低,可能会破坏成功回避威胁后的解脱感,从而减少未来的主动回避反应。我们使用一种既定的回避学习范式,研究了快感缺失、解脱感和主动回避反应之间的关系。40名参与者了解到两个威胁线索预示着电刺激,并且他们可以在线索呈现期间点击按钮以防止电刺激发生。虽然点击按钮对一个威胁线索有效,但对另一个无效。经过几次重复后,按钮的有效性发生了逆转。另一个从未预示电刺激的安全线索与两个威胁线索混合呈现。每次电刺激未发生时,测量自我报告的解脱感。我们发现,在快感缺失得分较高的参与者在所有未发生电刺激的情况下体验到的解脱感较弱。在行为上,在每个阶段的早期,快感缺失得分较高的参与者执行的回避动作较少,特别是对于预示可避免电刺激的威胁线索。威胁未发生所引发的解脱感是一种愉悦的体验,而特质性快感缺失似乎会损害这种体验。这种解脱感的减弱可能会减少未来适应性回避行为的强化。
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