Background and objectives

Vicarious threat conditioning abnormalities are theorized to confer vulnerability to a wide range of emotional problems. We tested two different conceptual models of this non-specificity. First, hypersensitivity to socially conditioned danger cues might predict standing on a general internalizing dimension that represents commonalities among various forms of anxiety and depression. Second, this hypersensitivity might predict specific symptom clusters, such as panic or social anxiety.

Methods

We examined university students' (N = 150) defensive responses during a vicarious threat conditioning task in relation to both broad and specific components of the internalizing domain.

Results

Vicarious conditioning was successful, such that participants exhibited larger subjective and skin conductance responses during their first direct encounters with threatening, as compared to nonthreatening, conditioned stimuli. But, contrary to hypotheses, individual differences in this threat learning process were not robustly correlated with any internalizing dimension.

Limitations

The threat value of the conditioned stimuli was readily apparent, possibly limiting individual differences in defensive responding and, in turn, the correlations between conditioned responses and symptom dimensions. Also, results may differ in clinical populations.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that the association between vicarious threat learning and emotional disorder risk—whether it is conceptualized in terms of broad symptom dimensions that span many categorical diagnoses or more fine-grain symptom processes—is weaker than previously believed, at least in this population. Data, analysis code, and stimulus materials are available at https://osf.io/m3xst/.

中文翻译：

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基于实验室的替代威胁学习与情绪障碍症状维度之间的相关性

背景和目标

从理论上讲，替代性威胁条件异常会导致对各种情绪问题的脆弱性。我们测试了这种非特异性的两种不同概念模型。首先，对社会条件危险线索的超敏反应可能预示着站在一个普遍的内化维度上，该维度代表了各种形式的焦虑和抑郁之间的共性。其次，这种超敏反应可能预示着特定的症状群，例如恐慌或社交焦虑。

方法

我们检查了大学生 ( N  = 150) 在替代性威胁条件反射任务中与内化域的广泛和特定组成部分相关的防御反应。

结果

替代条件反射是成功的，与非威胁条件刺激相比，参与者在第一次直接遇到威胁时表现出更大的主观和皮肤电导反应。但是，与假设相反，这种威胁学习过程中的个体差异与任何内化维度都没有密切相关。

限制

条件刺激的威胁值很明显，可能限制了防御反应的个体差异，进而限制了条件反应和症状维度之间的相关性。此外，临床人群的结果可能有所不同。

结论

我们的研究结果表明，替代性威胁学习与情绪障碍风险之间的关联——无论是根据跨越许多分类诊断的广泛症状维度还是更细粒度的症状过程来概念化——至少在这个人群中比以前认为的要弱。数据、分析代码和刺激材料可在 https://osf.io/m3xst/ 获得。