A pilot study to investigate the induction and manipulation of learned helplessness in healthy adults

PSYCHIATRY RESEARCH

卷:219

Article

Taylor, Joseph J.¹  Neitzke, Daniel J.¹  Khouri, George¹  Borckardt, Jeffrey J.¹  Acierno, Ron^1,2  Tuerk, Peter W.^1,2  Schmidt, Matthew¹  George, Mark S.^1,2 

[1] Med Univ S Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425 USA

[2] Ralph H Johnson VA Med Ctr, Charleston, SC USA

关键词: Learned helplessness;    Stress;    rTMS;    Prefrontal cortex;    Post-traumatic stress disorder;    Depression;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.psychres.2014.05.045

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Eliminating the controllability of a noxious stimulus may induce a learned helplessness (LH) that resembles aspects of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study examined whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) promotes resilience in an aversive stimulus model of LH. All 55 participants were told that an undisclosed sequence of button presses would terminate an aversive stimulus on their forearm. In truth, only half had control (+C). The other half had no control (-C). All participants received real (R) or sham (S) left DLPFC rTMS during the paradigm (+C/R, -C/S, +C/S, -C/R). We evaluated the cognitive effects of LH using an anagram task. The LH paradigm successfully reduced perceived control in the -C groups. As predicted, the +C/R and +C/S groups tended to give up less quickly and take less time to solve each anagram than did the -C/S group. Superior anagram performance in the -C/R group approached statistical significance. Our preliminary results suggest that manipulating the controllability of an aversive stimulus may induce an LH effect that manifests as impaired anagram performance. Further research is needed to refine this model and determine if DLPFC rTMS mitigates any LH effects. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free