Social anxiety disorder in childhood: Attentional, neurophysiological and cognitive correlates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation

儿童社交焦虑障碍：情绪反应和情绪调节的注意力、神经生理学和认知相关性

• 批准号: 255685354
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Julian Schmitz
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2013-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/255685354?language=en
• 关键词: Social; anxiety; disorder; childhood; Attentional

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is one of the most prevalent mentaldisorders in childhood and youth, often persisting into adulthood.Since most cases of SAD first develop in children and adolescents,research in this age group is crucial to understand the factors that areinvolved in the disorder maintenance. Theoretical models suggest thatdysfunctional attentional and cognitive processes in individuals withSAD lead to an emotional hyperreactivity (e.g. intensive anxiety)within anxiety provoking situations. Taking findings of the first fundingphase as a starting point, the current proposal aims to assessemotional reactivity and emotion regulation in a large sample (n=180)of both children and adolescents, aged 10 to 15 years. Beside ahealthy control group, a clinical control group with specific phobia willbe assessed to capture possible transdiagnostic qualities in theprocesses of interest. In study 1, children and adolescents will watchpictures of emotional faces and neutral house hold pictures, whileelectrocencephalography (EEG) is assessed. We expect that the SADgroup shows a neurophysiological hypervigilance-avoidance patternand that his pattern is more prominent in adolescents. Further, weexpect the SAD group neutrally shows a priorized processing offemale when compared to male faces. In a second study, emotionalreactivity to facial stimuli and attentional processing in a free viewingtask is assessed through pupillometry and eye-tracking measures.We expect children and adolescent with SAD to show an attenuatedpupillary light reflex in response to facial stimuli. Further, we expectthe SAD group to show a hypervigilance-avoidance pattern related tothe eye-region of emotional faces and that this pattern is mostpronounced in girls with SAD. In a third study, we will investigatesubjective and neurophysiological correlates of cognitive appraisal inresponse to social stimuli. After a reappraisal training, children willappraise neutral children’s faces as either socially negative, neutral,or positive. We expect that the SAD group will show a smaller effect ofpositive appraisal on neural and subjective measures when comparedto the two control groups. Negative appraisal will lead to a strongerneural pattern of avoidance and more negative subjective ratings inthe SAD group when compared to controls. Importantly, the studies ofthe proposal will allow to investigate possible developmental differences in the processes of interest between children andadolescents with SAD, and will allow for the assessment of genderspecific features of SAD. Beside the inclusion of a health controlgroup, the studies will include a clinical group of children andadolescents with specific phobia, to assess possible transdiagnosticqualities, according to the recent Research Domain Criteria approach(RDoc), in the processes of interest.

社交焦虑症 (SAD) 是儿童和青少年中最常见的精神障碍之一，通常会持续到成年。由于大多数 SAD 病例首先发生在儿童和青少年中，因此对该年龄段的研究对于了解与疾病维持相关的因素至关重要。理论模型表明，SAD 患者的注意力和认知过程功能失调会导致在引发焦虑的情况下出现情绪过度反应（例如强烈焦虑）。以第一阶段资助的结果为起点，当前提案旨在评估 10 至 15 岁儿童和青少年的大样本 (n=180) 的情绪反应和情绪调节。除了健康对照组之外，还将评估具有特定恐惧症的临床对照组，以捕获感兴趣过程中可能的跨诊断质量。在研究 1 中，儿童和青少年将观看情绪面孔的图片和中性的家居图片，同时评估脑电图 (EEG)。我们预计 SAD 群体表现出神经生理学的过度警惕-回避模式，并且他的模式在青少年中更为突出。此外，我们预计 SAD 组与男性面孔相比，会中立地表现出对女性面孔的优先处理。在第二项研究中，通过瞳孔测量和眼球追踪测量来评估自由观看任务中对面部刺激的情绪反应和注意力处理。我们预计患有季节性情感障碍的儿童和青少年对面部刺激的反应会表现出减弱的瞳孔光反射。此外，我们预计 SAD 群体会表现出与情绪面孔的眼部区域相关的过度警惕回避模式，并且这种模式在患有 SAD 的女孩中最为明显。在第三项研究中，我们将调查对社会刺激的认知评估的主观和神经生理学相关性。经过重新评价训练后，孩子们会将中性孩子的面孔评价为社交消极、中性或积极。我们预计，与两个对照组相比，SAD 组的积极评价对神经和主观测量的影响较小。与对照组相比，负面评价会导致 SAD 组出现更强的回避神经模式和更负面的主观评价。重要的是，该提案的研究将有助于调查患有 SAD 的儿童和青少年在兴趣过程中可能存在的发育差异，并将允许评估 SAD 的性别特异性特征。除了纳入健康对照组外，这些研究还将包括患有特定恐惧症的儿童和青少年的临床小组，以根据最近的研究领域标准方法（RDoc）在感兴趣的过程中评估可能的跨诊断质量。