Neurobioloigcal mechanisms of Social Return of Fear

创伤性应激障碍和焦虑症治疗的一个挑战是心理治疗后经常观察到的复发。复发构成了最初成功治疗后恐惧ROF的回归，并且可以由例如暴露于意外的应激源（恢复）触发。尽管恢复是广泛用于研究焦虑相关障碍治疗后复发的模型，但已经通过专门使用直接经历的厌恶事件在啮齿动物和人类中描述了它。然而，许多恐惧和创伤是通过社会传播获得的，包含社会信息，并可能在社会背景下恢复。本项目旨在研究社会对ROF的影响，采用一种新的实验范式，使用社会传播的压力（在他人身上观察到的疼痛，而没有实际的疼痛感）来恢复恐惧反应。这种社会恢复使调查的生态有效的社会领域复发焦虑相关的障碍，从而扩展了已建立的模型ROF。这项奋进包括调查1a）周围神经反应（皮肤电导反应，恐惧增强惊吓）以及1b）大脑反应（fMRI），以描绘社会ROF的神经生物学机制。此外，翻译合作将允许将这种范式转移到啮齿动物。此外，2）第一次对社会传播的恐惧进行神经心理药理学检查将使我们能够描绘出社会传播恐惧的潜在递质系统的新见解。该项目的主要目标是将社会情感学习与记忆形成和提取机制的研究联系起来，由卡罗林斯卡学院的Andreas Olsson博士的研究小组作为主办机构。这将有助于更好地了解社会传播的恐惧和社会ROF，这可以导致开发更有效的创伤应激和焦虑症治疗方法，以防止长期复发。

A challenge in the treatment of Traumatic Stress and Anxiety disorders is the frequently observed relapse after psychological treatment. Relapse constitutes the return of fear ROF after an initially successful treatment, and can be triggered by, for example, exposure to unexpected stressor (reinstatement).Although reinstatement is a widely used model for studying the relapse after treatment of anxiety related disorders, it has been described in rodents and humans by using directly experienced aversive events exclusively. However, many fears and traumas are acquired through social transmission, contain social information, and might recover in social contexts.This project aims to investigate the social influence on ROF employing a novel experimental paradigm using a socially transmitted stressor (pain observed in others without the actual sensation of pain) to reinstate fear responses. This social reinstatement enables the investigation of the ecological valid social domain in relapse in anxiety related disorders, thus extending established models of ROF. This endeavor includes the investigation of 1a) peripheral nervous responses (skin conductance responses, fear potentiated startle) as well as 1b) brain responses (fMRI) to delineate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying social ROF. Moreover, a translational cooperation will allow a transfer of this paradigm to rodents. In addition, 2) the first neuropsychopharmacological examination of social transmitted fear will enable us to delineate novel insights in the underlying transmitter system of socially transmitted fear. The main goal of this project, with the research group of Dr. Andreas Olsson at the Karolinska Institutet as the hosting institution, is to bridge research on social affective learning with mechanisms of memory formation and retrieval. This will enable a better understanding of social transmitted fear and social ROF, which can lead to the development of more effective treatment of Traumatic Stress and Anxiety disorders to prevent relapse in the long run.