Research network for the (European) Interdisciplinary study of Fear and Extinction Learning as well as the Return of Fear (EIFEL-ROF)

焦虑症非常普遍，会导致个人痛苦和高昂的社会成本。对焦虑的基本机制的了解正在增加，但关于为什么有些人会患上(病理性)焦虑，而另一些人不会。了解这些个体差异对于揭示焦虑的病因、培养韧性、改进诊断和量身定制的治疗至关重要。个体差异是个性化医学革命的关键，但个体差异研究的主要挑战是大样本数量和所需的重复研究。一个可能的解决办法是加强研究小组之间的沟通、协调和交流，并注重跨学科。科学网络Eifel-ROF将打造一个跨学科平台，通过对恐惧条件作用、恐惧消退和恐惧回归的研究，连贯地描绘(病理性)焦虑的个体差异背后的因素，并将来自不同领域的专家聚集在一起，追求共同的目标。Eifel-ROF将通过研究指南文件、联合发表综述文章和元分析、协调跨实验室复制测试和数据池来加强沟通和协调，而无需额外的资金。这将需要从参与的各个研究小组迈出一小步，同时在焦虑研究方面创造一个巨大的飞跃。这为焦虑(障碍)的个体差异研究提供了一个重大飞跃，它汇集了足够多的实验室的力量，具有共同的重点但互补的专业知识。

Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent, cause individual suffering and high societal costs. Insight in basic mechanisms of anxiety is increasing, but less is known about why some people develop (pathological) anxiety while others do not. Understanding these individual differences is crucial for enlightening the etiology of anxiety, fostering resilience, and improving diagnostics and tailored treatments. Individual differences represent the key for a personalized medicine revolution but major challenges to individual differences research are posed by the large sample sizes and required replication studies. A better communication coordination and exchange between research groups and a focus on trans-disciplinarity is one possible solution. The scientific network EIFEL-ROF will forge an interdisciplinary platform to coherently delineate the factors underlying individual differences in (pathological) anxiety through the study of fear conditioning, extinction and return of fear and bring together experts from different fields pursuing common goals. EIFEL-ROF will increase communication and coordination through research guidelines papers, joint publication of review articles and meta-analyses, coordination of cross-laboratory replication tests and data pooling without additional funding. This will entail small steps from the individual research groups involved, while creating a giant leap forward in anxiety research. This provides a major leap forward in the study of individual differences in anxiety (disorders) by pooling forces across a sufficient number of labs with a common focus but complementary expertise.