Reducing future fears by suppressing the brain mechanisms underlying episodic simulation

被引:69
作者
Benoit, Roland G. [1 ]
Davies, Daniel J. [2 ]
Anderson, Michael C. [3 ,4 ]
机构
[1] Max Planck Inst Human Cognit & Brain Sci, Max Planck Res Grp Adapt Memory, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
[2] Univ Cambridge, Dept Psychiat, Cambridge CB2 8AH, England
[3] Univ Cambridge, MRC, Cognit & Brain Sci Unit, Cambridge CB2 7EF, England
[4] Univ Cambridge, Behav & Clin Neurosci Inst, Cambridge CB2 3EB, England
基金
英国医学研究理事会;
关键词
suppression; episodic simulation; anxiety; cognitive control; prefrontal cortex; VENTROMEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX; UNWANTED MEMORIES; MENTAL-IMAGERY; INHIBITORY-CONTROL; ANXIETY DISORDERS; BIPOLAR DISORDER; NEGATIVE EMOTION; DAILY-LIFE; SYSTEMS; DEPRESSION;
D O I
10.1073/pnas.1606604114
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Imagining future events conveys adaptive benefits, yet recurrent simulations of feared situations may help to maintain anxiety. In two studies, we tested the hypothesis that people can attenuate future fears by suppressing anticipatory simulations of dreaded events. Participants repeatedly imagined upsetting episodes that they feared might happen to them and suppressed imaginings of other such events. Suppressing imagination engaged the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which modulated activation in the hippocampus and in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Consistent with the role of the vmPFC in providing access to details that are typical for an event, stronger inhibition of this region was associated with greater forgetting of such details. Suppression further hindered participants' ability to later freely envision suppressed episodes. Critically, it also reduced feelings of apprehensiveness about the feared scenario, and individuals who were particularly successful at down-regulating fears were also less trait-anxious. Attenuating apprehensiveness by suppressing simulations of feared events may thus be an effective coping strategy, suggesting that a deficiency in this mechanism could contribute to the development of anxiety.
引用
收藏
页码:E8492 / E8501
页数:10
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