健康与遗传心理学研究室知识库

    目前，我国正处于社会转型期，城市化进程不断推进，社会结构和利益分配发生巨大变化。这些发展和变化使我们的生活日益富裕，同时也使其中的每一个社会成员都不断地暴露于各种各样的应激源(stressor)之中，进而导致个体的应激反应(stress response。一方面，应激能够帮助个体应对实际的或潜在的威胁以及恢复机体内稳态;另一方面，应激可能抑制个体的高级脑功能和行为，并影响身心健康。但是，应激反应及其对认知和行为以及健康的影响具有巨大的个体差异。提前预测这些个体差异，对于紧急情况下的应急处置能力评估和人员选拔，避免事故，预防应激对个体身心健康造成伤害，具有重要的意义。目前关于应激反应个体差异的评估和预测多采用主观的面试和问卷方式。更加客观的、基于应激反应的前额叶一杏仁核神经调节通路的认知神经测量，有望成为预测应激反应的良好指标。本论文结合行为和事件相关电位(ERP)技术，通过测量个体的反应抑制、错误加工和负性情绪加工作为预测指标，采用经典的特里尔社会应激测试(TSST)诱发实验室急性心理应激的自主神经系统反应(心率反应)和下丘脑一垂体一肾上腺皮质轴反应(唾液皮质醇反应)和连续30天每天报告的应激源和焦虑/抑郁水平作为效标，来考察认知控制和情绪功能对实验室诱发的急性应激反应和日常生活应激反应的预测作用，探索客观、便捷的个体应激反应预测指标  (体系)。
    研究一采用Go/Nogo任务测量反应抑制，考察反应抑制对个体应激反应的预测作用。结果发现，反应抑制的敏感性指标d'以及Nogo-P3波幅对健康成年人面对实验室急性应激时的自主神经系统和HPA轴反应有显著的正向预测作用，而Nogo-P3潜伏期则对个体的自主神经系统和HPA轴反应存在显著的负向预测作用;此外，反应抑制误报率对于日常生活应激的焦虑和抑郁反应具有显著的正向预测作用，而Nogo-N2波幅对日常生活应激的焦虑和抑郁反应具有显著的负向预测作用。
    研究二用Go/Nogo任务测量错误加工，考察和验证错误加工对个体应激反应的预测作用。结果发现，Pe波幅与实验室急性应激的心率反应和唾液皮质醇反应存在显著的正相关，但与生活应激的焦虑和抑郁反应没有显著关联。
    研究三采用情绪图片被动观看任务测量个体对负性情绪刺激的认知神经加工，考察负性情绪加工对个体应激反应和日常应对的预测作用。结果发现，非应激条件下的负性情绪加工ERP成分LPP波幅能够正向预测健康年轻成人对急性心理应激源的自主神经系统反应，但对日常应激源相关的焦虑和抑郁水平没有显著的预测作用;进一步的分析发现，随着当天的日常应激事件增多，非应激条件下负性LPP波幅越大的个体，更倾向于减少趋近应对方式的采用。
    研究结果表明，前额叶一杏仁核功能相关的行为和脑电指标能够预测应激反应，平时越敏感的个体，应激反应也越大。

    Now China is in the process of social transition and urbanization, which leads to dramatic changes in the social structure and interest distribution. These changes and developments have made our life increasingly rich and colorful. However, they also cause constant exposure of every social member to a variety of stressors, which elicit a  series  of  physiological  and  psychological  responses.  The  physiological  and psychological responses have crucial functions in allowing individuals to cope with threatening or potentially threatening situations  and recover homeostasis  at the expense of temporarily suppressing nonessential brain functions and activities and impacting mental and physical health. However, there are substantial inter-individual differences in the stress responses and the corresponding effects on individual brain,cognition, behavior, and mental and physical health. Thus, prospectively predicting such individual differences is important in emergency management ability evaluation and personnel selection in high-stress jobs, as well as in preventing accidents and avoiding secondary damage of stress on the body and mind. Previous efforts in the prediction  of individual differences  in  stress  responses  have largely relied  on subjective measurements such as self-reported questionnaires and have yielded mixed results. Neurocognitive measurements indexing individual differences in the function of stress-mediating prefrontal-amygdala neural circuits are more objective and can be promising candidates of stress reaction predictors. Therefore, the present study measured individuals' neurocognitive indice of response inhibition, error processing, and  negative  emotional  processing  using  a  combination  of  behavioral  and electrophysiological  (event-related potentials,  ERP)  approach  as  predictors,  and autonomic (heart rate) and HPA (cortisol) responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and daily reports on stressful life events and anxiety and depression levels on 30 days  as outcome, to investigate the predictive effects on physiological and psychological stress responses to acute laboratory stressor and daily life stressors of cognitive control and emotional function, to explore objective and convenient indice (system) for individual stress response prediction.
    Study One measured response inhibition using Go/Nogo tasks to investivate the prediction of response inhibition on individual stress responses. Results showed that response  inhibition  sensitivity  indexed  by  d'  and  the  amplitude  of  Nogo-P3 component positively predicted autonomic and HPA responses to the acute laboratory stressor in healthy adults, whereas the latency of Nogo-P3 negatively predicted individuals' autonomic and HPA stress responses. In addition, the false alarm rate positively predicted daily anxiety and depression in response to daily life stressors,whereas Nogo-N2 amplitude negatively predicted daily anxiety and depression in response to daily life stressors.
    Study Two measured error processing using Go/Nogo tasks to investivate the prediction of error processing on individual stress responses. Results showed that the amplitude of error positivity (Pe) was positively associated with both the heart rate and cortisol responses towards the TSST, but not significantly associated with daily anxiety and depression levels in response to daily stressors.
    Study Three measured neurocognitive processing of negative emotional stimuli using a passive viewing task to investigate the prediction of negative emotional processing on individual stress responses and daily coping. Results showed that the late positive positivity (LPP) towards negative relative to neutral pictures positively predicted heart rate response towards the TSST but did not predict daily anxiety and depression levels related to daily stressors. Further analysis showed that higher LPP amplitude towards negative pictures was associated with reduced daily affiliation coping when facing with daily stressors.
    Results of the current study showed that behavioral and ERP indice related to prefrontal and amygdala functions can predict stress responses. Individuals who were more sensitive in a non-stressful state showed lager responses to stressors.