AUTHOR=Luo Rui-Han , Su Feng , Zhao Xin-Yue , Cao Tian-Hui , Liao Jing , Xue Yan-Xue , Huang Geng-Di , Yang Jian-Li 

TITLE=Impairment in acquisition of conditioned fear in people with depressive symptoms

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384053

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384053

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Background: Depression is one of the chief global public health issues with a dramatic rise in depression levels among young people over the past decade. The neuroplasticity hypothesis of depression postulates that a malfunction in neural plasticity, which is responsible for learning, memory, and adaptive behavior, is the primary source of the disorder's clinical manifestations. Nevertheless, the impact of depression symptoms on associative learning remains underexplored.Methods: We used the differential fear conditioning paradigm to investigate the effects of depressive symptoms on fear acquisition and extinction learning. Skin conductance response as an objective measure and ratings of nervousness, likeability, and US expectancy as subjective evaluation indicators. In addition, we used associability generated by a computational reinforcement learning model to characterize skin conductance response.The findings indicate that individuals with depressive symptoms exhibited significant impairment in fear acquisition learning compared to those without depressive symptoms based on results of skin conductance response. Moreover, in the discrimination fear learning task, skin conductance response was positively correlated with associability as estimated by the hybrid model in the group without depressive symptoms. Additionally, the likeability rating scores improved post-extinction in the group without depressive symptoms, no such increase was noted in the group with depressive symptoms.The study underscores that individuals with pronounced depressive symptoms exhibit impaired fear acquisition and extinction learning, suggesting a possible deficit in associative learning. Employing the hybrid model to analyze the learning process offers a deeper insight into the associative learning processes of humans, thus allowing for improved comprehension and treatment of these mental health problems.