Worry is associated with impaired gating of threat from working memory

The relationship between worry and academic performance: examining the moderating role of attention control

BACKGROUND

Worry is frequently associated with reduced cognitive performance, through consumption of attention control resources. Assessing attention control during acute worry may better reflect cognitive performance in real-world scenarios. This study examined whether attention control (assessed at rest and under acute worry) moderates the relationship between worry and academic performance.

METHODS

Worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire) and academic performance (examination grades) were assessed in 87 undergraduates, with attention control (antisaccade performance) measured at baseline and following worry induction.

RESULTS

When assessed at rest, attention control did not moderate the relationship between trait worry and academic performance. However, under acute worry, attention control significantly moderated the relationship between worry and academic performance (p = .05, f2 = 0.14), such that at low levels of attention control under worry, higher trait worry was significantly associated with lower academic performance. At high levels of attention control under worry, however, the relationship between trait worry and academic performance was not significant.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest that worry may shape performance according to attention control levels, with attention control's moderating role being more pronounced under conditions of acute worry. These results provide preliminary evidence that attention control assessed under worry may better predict real-world performance, compared to assessment at rest.

The differential impact of face distractors on visual working memory across encoding and delay stages

External distractions often occur when information must be retained in visual working memory (VWM)-a crucial element in cognitive processing and everyday activities. However, the distraction effects can differ if they occur during the encoding rather than the delay stages. Previous research on these effects used simple stimuli (e.g., color and orientation) rather than considering distractions caused by real-world stimuli on VWM. In the present study, participants performed a facial VWM task under different distraction conditions across the encoding and delay stages to elucidate the mechanisms of distraction resistance in the context of complex real-world stimuli. VWM performance was significantly impaired by delay-stage but not encoding-stage distractors (Experiment 1). In addition, the delay distraction effect arose primarily due to the absence of distractor process at the encoding stage rather than the presence of a distractor during the delay stage (Experiment 2). Finally, the impairment in the delay-distraction condition was not due to the abrupt appearance of distractors (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings indicate that the processing mechanisms previously established for resisting distractions in VWM using simple stimuli can be extended to more complex real-world stimuli, such as faces.

Can templates-for-rejection suppress real-world affective objects in visual search?

Previous evidence has suggested that feature-based templates-for-rejection can be maintained in working memory to suppress matching features in the environment. Currently, this effect has only been demonstrated using abstract neutral shapes, meaning that it is unclear whether this generalizes to real-world images, including aversive stimuli. In the current investigation, participants searched amongst an array of real-world objects for a target, after being precued with either a distractor template, target template, or a no template baseline. In Experiment 1, where both distractor and target template cues were presented randomly on a trial-by-trial basis, there was moderate evidence of increased capture by aversive distractors after the distractor template cue. In Experiment 2a, however, when distractor templates were the only available cue and more time was given to encode the cue features, there was moderate evidence of effective distractor inhibition for real-world aversive and neutral stimuli. In Experiment 2b, when the task required a slower more effortful comparison of target features to stereotypical object representations, there was weaker evidence of inhibition, though there was still modest evidence suggesting effective inhibition of aversive distractors. A Bayesian meta-analysis revealed that across Experiment 2, aversive distractors showed strong cumulative evidence of effective inhibition, but inconsistent inhibition for neutral distractors. The results are interpreted from a rational search behaviour framework, which suggests that individuals utilize informative cues when they enable the most beneficial strategy and are accessible, and apply these to distractors when they cause sufficient disruption, either to search speed or emotional state.

The impact of reduced worry on general functioning: A mediation analysis from a randomized trial

Previous lab findings have indicated that excessive worry may impair cognitive performance and problem solving capabilities but it is unclear if excessive worry also leads to broader impairments in general functioning. We report a secondary process data analysis of a large randomized waitlist-controlled trial (N = 670) of a self-guided online psychological intervention for dysfunctional worry related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Specific aims were to investigate (1) if improvements in general functioning were mediated by reductions in worry related to Covid-19 during the acute intervention phase, and (2) if reduced worry related to Covid-19 during acute intervention phase had a positive long-term impact on general functioning up to 1 year after the end of the intervention. To address aim 1, we used a mediation analysis framework where outcome (general functioning measured with an adapted version of the Work and Social Adjustment Scale) and the hypothesized mediator (worry measured with an adapted version of the Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale) were administered weekly during the controlled phase of the trial of 3 weeks. To address aim 2, we investigated if reductions in worry during the 3-week treatment period predicted improved general functioning at 1- and 12 months after treatment completion. Results showed that improvements in general functioning at week 3 were mediated by reductions in worry during the first 2 weeks of treatment (indirect effect estimate -0.08; 95% CI -0.15, -0.02). A sensitivity analysis indicated that the mediation effects dropped significantly when the residual correlation values between the mediator and the outcome exceeded r = 0. A reversed causation model was not significant. Additionally, reductions in worry during treatment predicted subsequent improvements in general functioning at both 1- and 12-month follow-ups (p < .05, -.001). Altogether, these results provide further support of the importance of targeting worry as a way to improve functioning among the large population of individuals with high levels of worry.

Controlling human causal inference through in silico task design

Learning causal relationships is crucial for survival. The human brain's functional flexibility allows for effective causal inference, underlying various learning processes. While past studies focused on environmental factors influencing causal inference, a fundamental question remains: can these factors be manipulated for strategic causal inference control? This paper presents a task control framework for orchestrating causal learning task design. It utilizes a two-player game setting where a neural network learns to manipulate task variables by interacting with a human causal inference model. Training the task controller to generate experimental designs, we confirm its ability to accommodate complexities of environmental causal structure. Experiments involving 126 human subjects successfully validate the impact of task control on performance and learning efficiency. Additionally, we find that task control policy reflects the intrinsic nature of human causal inference: one-shot learning. This framework holds promising potential for applications paving the way for targeted behavioral outcomes in humans.

To err is human- to understand error-processing is divine: Contributions of working memory and anxiety to error-related brain and pupil responses

Both anxiety and working memory capacity appear to predict increased (more negative) error-related negativity (ERN) amplitudes, despite being inversely related to one another. Until the interactive effects of these variables on the ERN are clarified, there may be challenges posed to our ability to use the ERN as an endophenotype for anxiety, as some have suggested. The compensatory error monitoring hypothesis suggests that high trait-anxiety individuals have larger ERN amplitudes because they must employ extra, compensatory efforts to override the working memory demands of their anxiety. Yet, to our knowledge, no ERN study has employed direct manipulation of working memory demands in conjunction with direct manipulations of induced (state) anxiety. Furthermore, little is known about how these manipulations affect other measures of error processing, such as the error-related pupil dilation response and post-error behavioral adjustments. Therefore, we manipulate working memory load and anxiety in a 2 × 2 within-subjects design to examine the interactive effects of working memory load and anxiety on ERN amplitude, error-related pupil dilation response amplitude, and post-error behavior. There were no effects of our manipulations on ERN amplitude, suggesting a strong interpretation of compensatory error-processing theory. However, our worry manipulation affected post-error behavior, such that worry caused a reduction in post-error accuracy. Additionally, our working memory manipulation affected error-related PDR magnitude and the amplitude of the error-related positivity (Pe), such that increased working memory load decreased the amplitude of these responses. Implications of these results within the context of the compensatory error processing framework are discussed.

The interactive effects of different facets of threat uncertainty and cognitive load in shaping fear and anxiety responses

A large body of research indicates that exaggerated response to uncertainty of a future threat is at the core of anxiety and related disorders, underscoring the need for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Although behavioral and neuroimaging studies have suggested a close relationship between uncertainty responses and cognitive control, little is known about what elements of uncertainty are more or less vulnerable to cognitive modulation in shaping aversive responses. Leveraging a novel paradigm, an n-back working memory task embedded within a modified threat-of-shock paradigm, we examined how the influences of different facets of uncertainty (i.e., occurrence and timing) on psychophysiological responses were modulated by cognitive load. Psychophysiological responses were assessed using the acoustic startle reflex. Replicating prior work, the effects of cognitive load and temporal unpredictability of threat on startle responses were evident. The effect of occurrence unpredictability appears to depend on other factors. Under low cognitive load, startle response was potentiated when both the occurrence and the timing of threat were predictable. Under high cognitive load, startle response was significantly reduced, especially when a threat context involves uncertainty in both temporal and probability domains. These observations provide a framework for refining the model of fear and anxiety and for understanding the etiology of psychological disorders characterized by maladaptive uncertainty responses.

Back to the future: Progressing memory research in eating disorders

OBJECTIVE

Human behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are guided by memories of the past. Thus, there can be little doubt that memory plays a fundamental role in the behaviors (e.g., binging), thoughts (e.g., body-image concerns), and emotions (e.g., guilt) that characterize eating disorders (EDs). Although a growing body of research has begun to investigate the role of memory in EDs, this literature is limited in numerous ways and has yet to be integrated into an overarching framework.

METHODS

In the present article, we provide an operational framework for characterizing different domains of memory, briefly review existing ED memory research within this framework, and highlight crucial gaps in the literature.

RESULTS

We distinguish between three domains of memory-episodic, procedural, and working-which differ based on functional attributes and underlying neural systems. Most recent ED memory research has focused on procedural memory broadly defined (e.g., reinforcement learning), and findings within all three memory domains are highly mixed. Further, few studies have attempted to assess these different domains simultaneously, though most behavior is achieved through coordination and competition between memory systems. We, therefore, offer recommendations for how to move ED research forward within each domain of memory and how to study the interactions between memory systems, using illustrative examples from other areas of basic and clinical research.

DISCUSSION

A stronger and more integrated understanding of the mechanisms that connect memory of past experiences to present ED behavior may yield more comprehensive theoretical models of EDs that guide novel treatment approaches.

PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE

Memories of previous eating-related experiences may contribute to the onset and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). However, research on the role of memory in EDs is limited, and distinct domains of ED memory research are rarely connected. We, therefore, offer a framework for organizing, progressing, and integrating ED memory research, to provide a better foundation for improving ED treatment and intervention going forward.

High executive functioning is associated with reduced posttraumatic stress after trauma exposure among male U.S. military personnel

Introduction

Evidence suggests that executive function (EF) may play a key role in development of PTSD, possibly influenced by factors such as trauma type and timing. Since EF can be improved through intervention, it may be an important target for promoting resilience to trauma exposure. However, more research is needed to understand the relation between trauma exposure, EF, and PTSD. The goal of this study was to improve understanding of EF as a potential antecedent or protective factor for the development of PTSD among military personnel.

Method

In a cohort of U.S. Marines and Navy personnel (N = 1,373), the current study tested the association between exposure to traumatic events (pre-deployment and during deployment) and PTSD severity, and whether EF moderated these associations. Three types of pre-deployment trauma exposure were examined: cumulative exposure, which included total number of events participants endorsed as having happened to them, witnessed, or learned about; direct exposure, which included total number of events participants endorsed as having happened to them; and interpersonal exposure, which included total number of interpersonally traumatic events participants' endorsed. EF was measured using the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery.

Results

EF was associated with less PTSD symptom severity at pre-deployment, even when adjusting for trauma exposure, alcohol use, traumatic brain injury, and number of years in the military. EF also moderated the relation between cumulative trauma exposure and interpersonal trauma exposure and PTSD, with higher EF linked to a 20 and 33% reduction in expected point increase in PTSD symptoms with cumulative and interpersonal trauma exposure, respectively. Finally, higher pre-deployment EF was associated with reduced PTSD symptom severity at post-deployment, independent of deployment-related trauma exposure and adjusting for pre-deployment PTSD.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that EF plays a significant, if small role in the development of PTSD symptoms after trauma exposure among military personnel. These findings provide important considerations for future research and intervention and prevention, specifically, incorporating a focus on improving EF in PTSD treatment.

Spatial navigation under threat: aversive apprehensions improve route retracing in higher versus lower trait anxious individuals

Spatial navigation is a basic function for survival, and the ability to retrace a route has direct relevance for avoiding dangerous places. This study investigates the effects of aversive apprehensions on spatial navigation in a virtual urban environment. Healthy participants with varying degrees of trait anxiety performed a route-repetition and a route-retracing task under threatening and safe context conditions. Results reveal an interaction between the effect of threatening/safe environments and trait anxiety: while threat impairs route-retracing in lower-anxious individuals, this navigational skill is boosted in higher-anxious individuals. According to attentional control theory, this finding can be explained by an attentional shift toward information relevant for intuitive coping strategies (i.e., running away), which should be more pronounced in higher-anxious individuals. On a broader scale, our results demonstrate an often-neglected advantage of trait anxiety, namely that it promotes the processing of environmental information relevant for coping strategies and thus prepares the organism for adequate flight responses.

Assessment-related anxiety among older adults: associations with neuropsychological test performance

Anxiety disrupts test performance across academic/testing contexts; however, the impact of anxiety on neuropsychological testing has been examined less frequently among older adults, despite clinical observations of high anxiety and dementia worry among elderly individuals in assessment contexts. The present study examined the impact of trait, state, and test anxiety on measures of processing speed, working memory, verbal memory, and aspects of executive functioning (i.e., set shifting and inhibition). We hypothesized that anxiety specific to neuropsychological assessment would correlate with test performance more consistently than state or trait anxiety. Ninety-three older adults aged 55 to 89 underwent a three-and-a-half-hour comprehensive assessment battery measuring anxiety and neuropsychological test performance. All participants completed the Feelings About Neuropsychological Testing State (FANT-S) and Test (FANT-T) questionnaires, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-seven item (GAD-7), and neuropsychological tests in the domains of processing speed, working memory, verbal memory, and executive functioning. When test scores were regressed on these anxiety measures, increases in test anxiety predicted decreased performance on measures of executive functioning, specifically inhibitory control. State anxiety demonstrated the opposite relationship to performance and predicted increased performance on one measure. Trait anxiety did not predict cognitive assessment performance. Findings were consistent with previous research indicating measures of test anxiety are more sensitive to changes in test performance than measures of trait or state anxiety. Results demonstrated that older adults, even those not referred for a clinical neuropsychological assessment, can show decreased test performance when self-reported anxiety relevant to the neuropsychological assessment context is high.

Alterations in working memory maintenance of fearful face distractors in depressed participants: An ERP study

Task-irrelevant threatening faces (e.g., fearful) are difficult to filter from visual working memory (VWM), but the difficulty in filtering non-threatening negative faces (e.g., sad) is not known. Depressive symptoms could also potentially affect the ability to filter different emotional faces. We tested the filtering of task-irrelevant sad and fearful faces by depressed and control participants performing a color-change detection task. The VWM storage of distractors was indicated by contralateral delay activity, a specific event-related potential index for the number of objects stored in VWM during the maintenance phase. The control group did not store sad face distractors, but they automatically stored fearful face distractors, suggesting that threatening faces are specifically difficult to filter from VWM in non-depressed individuals. By contrast, depressed participants showed no additional consumption of VWM resources for either the distractor condition or the non-distractor condition, possibly suggesting that neither fearful nor sad face distractors were maintained in VWM. Our control group results confirm previous findings of a threat-related filtering difficulty in the normal population while also suggesting that task-irrelevant non-threatening negative faces do not automatically load into VWM. The novel finding of the lack of negative distractors within VWM storage in participants with depressive symptoms may reflect a decreased overall responsiveness to negative facial stimuli. Future studies should investigate the mechanisms underlying distractor filtering in depressed populations.

Actigraphic Wake after Sleep Onset and Symptom Severity Correspond with Rumination in Trauma-Exposed Individuals

Rumination and worry are forms of repetitive negative thinking (RNT) commonly associated with internalizing psychopathologies, although less is known about RNT in trauma-exposed individuals with internalizing psychopathologies. Separate lines of research show RNT also plays a role in problematic sleep, which is frequently experienced after trauma exposure. To address gaps in the literature, the current study examines the impact of sleep and symptoms on RNT in trauma-exposed participants. A transdiagnostic sample of 46 unmedicated treatment-seeking trauma-exposed participants completed standard measures of rumination and worry, as well as clinical measures that assessed posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety severity. Actigraphic sleep variables were sleep duration, wake after sleep onset (WASO), and sleep efficiency. Sleep and clinical measures were submitted to multiple regression analyses with rumination and worry as dependent variables. The regression results showed that rumination was significantly explained by WASO and posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) severity, and the omnibus test was significant. Depression, anxiety, and other estimates of sleep were not significant. No significant results emerged for worry. Preliminary findings suggest that PTSS and WASO, an index of fragmented sleep, may contribute to rumination, but not worry, in trauma-exposed individuals. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine potential causal relationships.

Using clustering algorithms to examine the association between working memory training trajectories and therapeutic outcomes among psychiatric and healthy populations

Working memory (WM) training has gained interest due to its potential to enhance cognitive functioning and reduce symptoms of mental disorders. Nevertheless, inconsistent results suggest that individual differences may have an impact on training efficacy. This study examined whether individual differences in training performance can predict therapeutic outcomes of WM training, measured as changes in anxiety and depression symptoms in sub-clinical and healthy populations. The study also investigated the association between cognitive abilities at baseline and different training improvement trajectories. Ninety-six participants (50 females, mean age = 27.67, SD = 8.84) were trained using the same WM training task (duration ranged between 7 to 15 sessions). An algorithm was then used to cluster them based on their learning trajectories. We found three main WM training trajectories, which in turn were related to changes in anxiety symptoms following the training. Additionally, executive function abilities at baseline predicted training trajectories. These findings highlight the potential for using clustering algorithms to reveal the benefits of cognitive training to alleviate maladaptive psychological symptoms.

The effects of social anxiety on recognition memory for social threat words: An ERP study

In this study, the effect of social anxiety on item recognition memory was examined by adopting a study-test paradigm. Participants with high and low social anxiety (31 HSA vs. 30 LSA) memorized neutral target and threat target (NT vs. TT) words while threat distracters were simultaneously presented. The behavioral results did not exhibit group differences in recognition performance. The event-related potentials (ERP) results showed that the HSA and LSA participants all did not exhibit significant old/new effects for neutral targets, while only the LSA participants exhibited significant old/new effects for threat targets. For the distracters, the HSA participants did not exhibit evident old/new effects under the NT and TT conditions; while LSA participants showed a reversed LPC old/new effect for the threat distracters under the NT condition. The old/new effects for threat targets were impaired in HSA participants but presented in LSA participants. These findings suggest that social anxiety modulates the effect of recognition memory for social threat words.

[Cognitive disorders and sleep disturbances in long COVID]

BACKGROUND

During the last 2 years of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, knowledge about the long-term effects of the disease, the so-called long COVID, has rapidly grown; however, many questions remain unanswered, especially regarding the causes of persistent symptoms and their prognosis. Cognitive disorders and sleep disturbances are among the most frequent complaints. Both are associated with severe suffering and significant impairment in everyday functioning.

OBJECTIVE

What is known about the occurrence of cognitive disorders and sleep disturbances in long COVID? What are the influencing factors and what is known about the course over time and possible underlying mechanisms? What treatment options are available?

MATERIAL AND METHOD

In a narrative review, the most important findings on cognitive disorders and sleep disturbances in long COVID are presented. An overview of cohort studies with data on the prevalence and influencing factors of both symptom complexes is given. Current knowledge and hypotheses on pathophysiological mechanisms are presented and an outlook on treatment approaches is given.

RESULTS

About one in five of those affected report cognitive impairment more than 3 months after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and about one third report sleep disturbances. The latter comprise symptoms of insomnia as well as hypersomnia. Cognitive impairment and sleep disturbances occur in patients with all levels of initial disease severity. There are indications of an improvement of cognitive deficits over time but further longitudinal studies are needed.

CONCLUSION

In addition to the prognosis, the underlying disease mechanisms are still insufficiently understood. Furthermore, there is a great need for research on the efficacy and specific effective factors of therapeutic interventions.

Association between spatial working memory and Re-experiencing symptoms in PTSD

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Few studies have evaluated the link between working memory (WM) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Further, it is unknown whether this relationship is accounted for by other relevant variables including negative affect, emotional dysregulation, or general non-WM-related cognitive control deficits, which are associated with PTSD. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a computerized WM task could predict PTSD symptomology incrementally beyond the contribution of other relevant variables associated with PTSD.

METHODS

Thirty veterans were eligible to complete emotional symptom questionnaires, a heart-rate variability measure, and computerized tasks (i.e., emotional Stroop and automated complex span tasks). A three-stage hierarchical regression was conducted with the PCL-5 total score and symptom clusters (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and negative cognition/mood) as the dependent variable.

RESULTS

Results revealed that only the re-experiencing symptom cluster was significantly predicted by executive, verbal, and visuospatial WM tasks, which explained an additional 29.7% of the variance over and above other relevant variables. Most notably, the visuospatial task was the only WM task that significantly explained PCL-5 re-experiencing symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

This study was based on a small sample of veterans with PTSD and causality cannot be determined with this cross-sectional study.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the results suggest that deficits in visuospatial WM are significantly associated with PTSD re-experiencing symptoms after controlling for other relevant variables. Further research should evaluate whether an intervention to improve visuospatial WM capacity can be implemented to reduce re-experiencing symptoms.

Working Memory Performance for Differentially Conditioned Stimuli

Previous work suggests that threat-related stimuli are stored to a greater degree in working memory compared to neutral stimuli. However, most of this research has focused on stimuli with physically salient threat attributes (e.g., angry faces), failing to account for how a "neutral" stimulus that has acquired threat-related associations through differential aversive conditioning influences working memory. The current study examined how differentially conditioned safe (i.e., CS-) and threat (i.e., CS+) stimuli are stored in working memory relative to a novel, non-associated (i.e., N) stimuli. Participants (n = 69) completed a differential fear conditioning task followed by a change detection task consisting of three conditions (CS+, CS-, N) across two loads (small, large). Results revealed individuals successfully learned to distinguishing CS+ from CS- conditions during the differential aversive conditioning task. Our working memory outcomes indicated successful load manipulation effects, but no statistically significant differences in accuracy, response time (RT), or Pashler's K measures of working memory capacity between CS+, CS-, or N conditions. However, we observed significantly reduced RT difference scores for the CS+ compared to CS- condition, indicating greater RT differences between the CS+ and N condition vs. the CS- and N condition. These findings suggest that differentially conditioned stimuli have little impact on behavioral outcomes of working memory compared to novel stimuli that had not been associated with previous safe of aversive outcomes, at least in healthy populations.

Test anxiety impairs filtering ability in visual working memory: Evidence from event-related potentials

Attentional control theory regards individuals with high anxiety as having deficits of inhibitory control when faced with distractors, especially under high-load conditions and with threatening distractors. Research on test anxiety has a long history, but the working memory (WM) characteristics of individuals with high test anxiety (HTA) remain unclear. We used two experiments to test the WM filtering ability of individuals with HTA, and the salient results were those of the contralateral delay activity amplitude rather than K score. The first experiment employed neutral distractors. HTA participants filtered distractors under low-load conditions but not under high-load conditions. Participants with low test anxiety (LTA) filtered distractors under high-load conditions but not under low-load conditions. The second experiment utilized threatening distractors. The participants with HTA exhibited deficits in their ability to filter neutral and threatening distractors, whereas the participants with LTA filtered both types of distractor.

Neutral and threatening distracter word stimuli are unnecessarily stored in working memory but do not differ in their degree of working memory storage

Evidence suggests that threatening stimuli induce attentional biases compared to neutral stimuli, leading to subsequent storage in working memory. The current study examined how threatening versus neutral word distracters influence attention, and how this affects the unnecessary storage of these task-irrelevant stimuli in working memory. We measured the N2pc and contralateral delay activity (CDA), two event-related potentials (ERPs) that index attentional selection and the number of items maintained in WM, respectively, as participants completed a lateralized change detection task using word stimuli. Our results replicated work demonstrating a CDA effect for word stimuli, and found that distracter words are unnecessarily stored in working memory. However, we observed non-significant differences in attentional bias and working memory storage between distracter word conditions, and individual variation in anxiety was not associated with these processes. Bayes Factor analyses supported these null effects, suggesting that differences between neutral and threatening distracter words are unlikely.

Social anxiety is related to impaired ability to filter out irrelevant information but not reduced storage capacity

Individuals with social anxiety have deficits in inhibiting task-irrelevant threatening information, but the mechanism is poorly understood. In this study, we instructed participants with high and low social anxiety to perform a variant change-detection task, recording their accuracy and electrophysiological data. The results indicated that individuals with high social anxiety showed impaired ability to filter out irrelevant information in disgust facial expression condition rather than neutral facial expression. While individuals with low social anxiety didn't show filter efficiency defects under both disgust and neutral facial expressions. Furthermore, we found high socially anxious individuals could hold more information in visual working memory than low socially anxious individuals. These results suggest that the abundance of cognitive resources in socially anxious individuals compensates the presumed weak performance in accuracy produced by impaired filter efficiency. These results provide support for the claims of efficiency and effectiveness in attentional control theory.

Personal relative deprivation impairs ability to filter out threat-related distractors from visual working memory

The literature has indicated that personal relative deprivation (PRD) results in anxiety disorders. Given that some cognitive models propose that attention bias toward a threat causes and maintains anxiety, relatively deprived individuals may have difficulty gating threat from working memory. To test this hypothesis, this study investigated the influence of PRD on the filtering ability of happy, angry, and neutral facial distractors from visual working memory using electroencephalography (EEG). Participants were randomly assigned to a PRD (n = 24) or a non-PRD group (n = 24). Filtering ability was reflected by comparing the contralateral delay activity (CDA) amplitude for one-target, one-target-one-distractor, and two-targets conditions. The CDA was measured as the difference in mean amplitudes between activity in the hemispheres contralateral and ipsilateral to the to-be-remembered information. Results indicated that individuals in the PRD group showed a reduced ability to filter out neutral and angry facial distractors, as reflected by similar CDA amplitudes for one-target-one-distractor and two-targets conditions for both angry and neutral distractors in the PRD group. However, PRD did not impair the ability to filter out happy facial distractors, as reflected by similar CDA amplitudes for one-target-one-distractor and one-target conditions for happy distractors in the PRD group. As neutral faces might then be taken as potentially threatening information by relatively deprived individuals, these results support the hypothesis that relatively deprived individuals might have difficulty filtering out threat-related information.

Investigating Principal Working Memory Features in Generalized, Panic, and Social Anxiety Spectrum Disorders

Anxiety spectrum disorders are characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worrying about potential negative events in the short- and long-term future. Various reports linked anxiety spectrum disorders with working memory (WM) deficits despite conflicting results stemming from different study approaches. It remains unclear, however, how different anxiety spectrum disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and panic disorder (PD), differ in WM function. In this study, we utilized verbal, numerical, and sequential evaluations of WM to cover most possible facets of the WM data space. We used principal component analysis to extract the uncorrelated/whitened components of WM based on these measures. We evaluated medication-free patients with GAD, SAD, and PD patients as well as matched healthy individuals using a battery that measures WM duration and load. We found that patients with GAD and SAD, but not PD, exhibited poor performance only in the WM principal component that represents maintenance. There were no other significant differences between the four groups. Further, different WM components significantly predicted the severity of anxiety symptoms in the groups. We explored the clinical utility of WM components for differentiating patients with anxiety spectrum disorders from healthy individuals. By only using the WM components that represent maintenance and encoding, we managed to differentiate patients from controls in 84% of cases. For the first time, we present multiple novel approaches to examine cognitive function and design cognitive screening, and potentially diagnostics, for psychiatric disorders.

Patients with anxiety disorders rely on bilateral dlPFC activation during verbal working memory

One of the hallmarks of anxiety disorders is impaired cognitive control, affecting working memory (WM). The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is critical for WM; however, it is still unclear how dlPFC activity relates to WM impairments in patients. Forty-one healthy volunteers and 32 anxiety (general and/or social anxiety disorder) patients completed the Sternberg WM paradigm during safety and unpredictable shock threat. On each trial, a series of letters was presented, followed by brief retention and response intervals. On low- and high-load trials, subjects retained the series (five and eight letters, respectively) in the original order, while on sort trials, subjects rearranged the series (five letters) in alphabetical order. We sampled the blood oxygenation level-dependent activity during retention using a bilateral anatomical dlPFC mask. Compared to controls, patients showed increased reaction time during high-load trials, greater right dlPFC activity and reduced dlPFC activity during threat. These results suggest that WM performance for patients and controls may rely on distinct patterns of dlPFC activity with patients requiring bilateral dlPFC activity. These results are consistent with reduced efficiency of WM in anxiety patients. This reduced efficiency may be due to an inefficient allocation of dlPFC resources across hemispheres or a decreased overall dlPFC capacity.

State anxiety reduces working memory capacity but does not impact filtering cost for neutral distracters

Current theories propose that anxiety adversely impacts working memory (WM) by restricting WM capacity and interfering with efficient filtering of task-irrelevant information. The current study investigated the effect of shock-induced state anxiety on WM capacity and the ability to filter task-irrelevant neutral stimuli. We measured the contralateral delay activity (CDA), an event-related potential that indexes the number of items maintained in WM, while participants completed a lateralized change detection task. The task included low and high WM loads, as well as a low load plus distracter condition. This design was used to assess WM capacity for low and high loads and investigate an individual's ability to filter neutral task-irrelevant stimuli. Participants completed the task under two conditions, threat of shock and safe. We observed a reduced CDA in the threat compared to the safe condition that was specific for high memory load. However, we did not find any differences in CDA filtering cost between threat and safe conditions. In addition, we did not find any differences in behavioral performance between the threat and safe conditions. These findings suggest that being in an anxious state reduces the neural representation for large amounts of information in WM, but have little effect on the filtering of neutral distracters.

Visual Working Memory for Faces and Facial Expressions as a Useful "Tool" for Understanding Social and Affective Cognition

Visual working memory (VWM) is one of the most investigated cognitive systems functioning as a hub between low- and high-level processes. Remarkably, its role in human cognitive architecture makes it a stage of crucial importance for the study of socio-affective cognition, also in relation with psychopathology such as anxiety. Among socio-affective stimuli, faces occupy a place of first importance. How faces and facial expressions are encoded and maintained in VWM is the focus of this review. Within the main theoretical VWM models, we will review research comparing VWM representations of faces and of other classes of stimuli. We will further present previous work investigating if and how both static (i.e., ethnicity, trustworthiness and identity) and changeable (i.e., facial expressions) facial features are represented in VWM. Finally, we will examine research showing qualitative differences in VWM for face representations as a function of psychopathology and personality traits. The findings that we will review are not always coherent with each other, and for this reason we will highlight the main methodological differences as the main source of inconsistency. Finally, we will provide some suggestions for future research in this field in order to foster our understanding of representation of faces in VWM and its potential role in supporting socio-affective cognition.

Attenuated prefrontal and temporal neural activity during working memory as a potential biomarker of suicidal ideation in veterans with PTSD

BACKGROUND

Suicide is a significant health concern among veterans, and suicidal ideation is a common and functionally debilitating condition that frequently precedes suicidal behavior. Characterizing neurobiological substrates associated with suicidal ideation in veterans may inform evaluation of risk for this population. Associations between suicidal ideation and functional abnormalities in prefrontal, temporal, and striatal regions supporting cognitive task performance have been documented in individuals with mood and psychotic disorders, suggesting a potential role for neurocognitive vulnerabilities in this condition. To date, however, relatively little research has explored neural correlates of suicidal ideation, particularly among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

METHODS

Twenty three combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD completed an adapted Reading Span (Rspan) working memory task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were classified based on presence of current SI. We evaluated differences between these groups on neural activation in response to interference-based working memory demands within the task. Primary analyses were conducted using a voxel-wise between-group t-test.

RESULTS

Task-based activations were observed in regions including the cingulate, middle frontal, parietal, and occipital cortex, striatum, and cerebellum. Relative to individuals without SI, individuals with SI demonstrated less activation in a large region spanning the lateral prefrontal cortex and cingulate cortex, as well as the inferior temporal cortex, in response to interference demands.

CONCLUSIONS

Results are consistent with models proposing that prefrontal neural substrates involved in cognitive regulation are implicated in suicidal ideation. Involvement of temporal functioning may also exist based on current findings. Future research is needed to understand whether disturbances in prefrontal regulatory control reflect a specific profile subtype with distinct neural correlates, and how such neural patterns may be used to improve detection and treatment personalization.

A pilot randomized trial of a dual n-back emotional working memory training program for veterans with elevated PTSD symptoms

Anxiety is characterized by excessive attention to threatening information, leading to impaired working memory (WM) performance and elevated anxious thoughts. Preliminary research indicates that individuals with PTSD show particular difficulty with WM in emotional contexts (Schweizer et al., 2011). Although several studies show that computerized training can improve WM capacity for anxious individuals (Owens et al., 2013; Schweizer et al., 2011; 2013), there has been very little research on WM training for PTSD or with Veterans (Saunders et al., 2015). In a pilot randomized trial, we assigned Veterans with elevated PTSD symptoms to an online emotional WM training, either adaptive (n-back; n = 11) or a less potent training (1-back; n = 10). Overall, both groups showed significant decreases in PTSD symptoms. The n-back group showed a trend of outperforming the 1-back group in improving reexperiencing symptoms (which are likely to be associated with impaired WM functioning). This population anecdotally found the intervention quite challenging, which may be why even the less potent 1-back was still helpful. These preliminary findings justify the effort for developing new WM-focused PTSD intervention for complex, vulnerable populations, particularly as online training can improve accessibility.

Understanding Emotion Inflexibility in Risk for Affective Disease: Integrating Current Research and Finding a Path Forward

Emotion-related disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, eating, substance and some personality disorders) include some of the most common, burdensome, and costly diseases worldwide. Central to many, if not all of these disorders, may be patterns of rigid or inflexible emotion responses. Indeed, theorists point to emotion in-flexibility as a potential cause or maintaining factor in emotion-related diseases. Despite the increasing prominence of emotion inflexibility in theories of affective disease, a comprehensive review of the developing empirical literature has not yet been conducted. Accordingly, this review will examine the three dominant lines of inquiry assessing emotion flexibility. These include: (1) the capacity to use and vary deliberate emotion regulation strategies, (2) the context sensitivity of spontaneous emotional responses, and (3) flexibility in the appraisal of emotional events and experiences. Moreover, current evidence suggests that each of these three lines of research may converge to suggest the interplay of two key biological dimensions in emotion inflexibility, threat sensitivity, and cognitive control, known to be impaired in patients with affective disorders. In short, this developing body of work suggests a path by which future research could explicate and even exploit the ties between emotion inflexibility and affective disease, contributing to the development of improved models of risk, assessment, and intervention, with broad implications for psychological health.

Executive function and other cognitive deficits are distal risk factors of generalized anxiety disorder 9 years later

OBJECTIVE

The cognitive model (Hirsch & Mathews, 2012) and attentional control theory (Eysenck & Derakshan, 2011) postulate that compromised executive function (EF) and other cognitive constructs are negatively linked to increased excessive and uncontrollable worry, the core symptom of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, the prospective link between neuropsychological constructs and GAD are not well understood.

METHODS

A nationally representative sample of 2605 community-dwelling adults whose average age was 55.20 (s.d. = 11.41, range 33-84; 56.31% females) participated at baseline and 9-year follow-up. Baseline neuropsychological function and symptoms were measured using the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone and Composite International Diagnostic Interview - Short Form. Multivariate Poisson and negative binomial regression analyses were conducted with 11 baseline covariates entered simultaneously: age, gender, years of formal education, perceived control, hypertension/diabetes, body mass index, exercise status, as well as GAD severity, panic disorder severity, and depression severity. Those with baseline GAD were also removed.

RESULTS

Lower Time 1 composite global cognition z-score independently predicted higher Time 2 GAD severity and diagnosis [odds ratio (OR) 0.60, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.40-0.89, p = 0.01]. Poor inhibition, set-shifting, working memory (WM) updating, inductive reasoning, and global cognition sequentially forecasted heightened GAD. However, processing speed, verbal WM, verbal fluency, and episodic memory did not predict future GAD.

CONCLUSION

Global cognition, inductive reasoning, inhibition, set-shifting, and WM updating EF impairments may be distal risk factors for elevated GAD nearly a decade later.

The impact of visual working memory capacity on the filtering efficiency of emotional face distractors

Emotional faces can serve as distractors for visual working memory (VWM) tasks. An event-related potential called contralateral delay activity (CDA) can measure the filtering efficiency of face distractors. Previous studies have investigated the influence of VWM capacity on filtering efficiency of simple neutral distractors but not of face distractors. We measured the CDA indicative of emotional face filtering during a VWM task related to facial identity. VWM capacity was measured in a separate colour change detection task, and participants were divided to high- and low-capacity groups. The high-capacity group was able to filter out distractors similarly irrespective of its facial emotion. In contrast, the low-capacity group failed in filtering the neutral and angry face distractors, while the filtering was efficient for the happy face distractors. The results indicate that potentially threatening faces are particularly difficult to filter if VWM capacity is limited.

For whom is social-network usage associated with anxiety? The moderating role of neural working-memory filtering of Facebook information

Is Facebook usage bad for mental health? Existing studies provide mixed results, and direct evidence for neural underlying moderators is lacking. We suggest that being able to filter social-network information from accessing working memory is essential to preserve limited cognitive resources to pursue relevant goals. Accordingly, among individuals with impaired neural social-network filtering ability, enhanced social-network usage would be associated with negative mental health. Specifically, participants performed a novel electrophysiological paradigm that isolates neural Facebook filtering ability. Participants' actual Facebook behavior and anxious symptomatology were assessed. Confirming evidence showed that enhanced Facebook usage was associated with anxious symptoms among individuals with impaired neural Facebook filtering ability. Although less robust and tentative, additional suggestive evidence indicated that this specific Facebook filtering impairment was not better explained by a general filtering deficit. These results involving a neural social-network filtering moderator, may help understand for whom increased online social-network usage is associated with negative mental health.

An unpleasant emotional state reduces working memory capacity: electrophysiological evidence

Emotional states can guide the actions and decisions we make in our everyday life through their influence on cognitive processes such as working memory (WM). We investigated the long-lasting interference that an unpleasant emotional state had on goal-relevant WM representations from an electrophysiological perspective. Participants performed a change detection task that was preceded by the presentation of unpleasant or neutral task-irrelevant pictures in a blocked fashion. We focused on the contralateral delay activity (CDA), an event-related potential that is sensitive to the number of task-relevant items stored in WM. We found that the asymptotic limit for the CDA amplitude was lower during the unpleasant emotional state than during the neutral one; that is, an emotional state was capable of reducing how many task-relevant items the participants could hold in WM. Furthermore, both the individuals who experienced more intrusive thoughts and those who were dispositionally anxious were more susceptible to the influence of the emotional state. We provide evidence that an unpleasant emotional state diminished visual WM for task-relevant items, particularly in susceptible individuals. These results open new avenues to uncover the emotional-cognitive processing that underlies maladaptive WM representations and the role of such processing in the development of mental illness.

Individual variation in working memory is associated with fear extinction performance

PTSD has been associated consistently with abnormalities in fear acquisition and extinction learning and retention. Fear acquisition refers to learning to discriminate between threat and safety cues. Extinction learning reflects the formation of a new inhibitory-memory that competes with a previously learned threat-related memory. Adjudicating the competition between threat memory and the new inhibitory memory during extinction may rely, in part, on cognitive processes such as working memory (WM). Despite significant shared neural circuits and signaling pathways the relationship between WM, fear acquisition, and extinction is poorly understood. Here, we analyzed data from a large sample of healthy Marines who underwent an assessment battery including tests of fear acquisition, extinction learning, and WM (N-back). Fear potentiated startle (FPS), fear expectancy ratings, and self-reported anxiety served as the primary dependent variables. High WM ability (N = 192) was associated with greater CS + fear inhibition during the late block of extinction and greater US expectancy change during extinction learning compared to individuals with low WM ability (N = 204). WM ability was not associated with magnitude of fear conditioning/expression. Attention ability was unrelated to fear acquisition or extinction supporting specificity of WM associations with extinction. These results support the conclusion that individual differences in WM may contribute to regulating fear responses.

Neural circuitry governing anxious individuals' mis-allocation of working memory to threat

Dispositional anxiety is a trait-like phenotype that confers increased risk for a range of debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders. Like many patients with anxiety disorders, individuals with elevated levels of dispositional anxiety are prone to intrusive and distressing thoughts in the absence of immediate threat. Recent electrophysiological research suggests that these symptoms are rooted in the mis-allocation of working memory (WM) resources to threat-related information. Here, functional MRI was used to identify the network of brain regions that support WM for faces and to quantify the allocation of neural resources to threat-related distracters in 81 young adults. Results revealed widespread evidence of mis-allocation. This was evident in both face-selective regions of the fusiform cortex and domain-general regions of the prefrontal and parietal cortices. This bias was exaggerated among individuals with a more anxious disposition. Mediation analyses provided compelling evidence that anxious individuals’ tendency to mis-allocate WM resources to threat-related distracters is statistically explained by heightened amygdala reactivity. Collectively, these results provide a neurocognitive framework for understanding the pathways linking anxious phenotypes to the development of internalizing psychopathology and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies.

Electrocortical consequences of image processing: The influence of working memory load and worry

Research suggests that worry precludes emotional processing as well as biases attentional processes. Although there is burgeoning evidence for the relationship between executive functioning and worry, more research in this area is needed. A recent theory suggests one mechanism for the negative effects of worry on neural indicators of attention may be working memory load, however few studies have examined this directly. The goal of the current study was to document the influence of both visual and verbal working memory load and worry on attention allocation during processing of emotional images in a cued image paradigm. It was hypothesized that working memory load will decrease attention allocation during processing of emotional images. This was tested among 38 participants using a modified S1-S2 paradigm. Results indicated that both the visual and verbal working memory tasks resulted in a reduction of attention allocation to the processing of images across stimulus types compared to the baseline task, although only for individuals low in worry. These data extend the literature by documenting decreased neural responding (i.e., LPP amplitude) to imagery both the visual and verbal working memory load, particularly among individuals low in worry.

Dispositional negativity: An integrative psychological and neurobiological perspective

Dispositional negativity-the propensity to experience and express more frequent, intense, or enduring negative affect-is a fundamental dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality. Elevated levels of dispositional negativity can have profound consequences for health, wealth, and happiness, drawing the attention of clinicians, researchers, and policymakers. Here, we highlight recent advances in our understanding of the psychological and neurobiological processes linking stable individual differences in dispositional negativity to momentary emotional states. Self-report data suggest that 3 key pathways-increased stressor reactivity, tonic increases in negative affect, and increased stressor exposure-explain most of the heightened negative affect that characterizes individuals with a more negative disposition. Of these 3 pathways, tonically elevated, indiscriminate negative affect appears to be most central to daily life and most relevant to the development of psychopathology. New behavioral and biological data provide insights into the neural systems underlying these 3 pathways and motivate the hypothesis that seemingly "tonic" increases in negative affect may actually reflect increased reactivity to stressors that are remote, uncertain, or diffuse. Research focused on humans, monkeys, and rodents suggests that this indiscriminate negative affect reflects trait-like variation in the activity and connectivity of several key brain regions, including the central extended amygdala and parts of the prefrontal cortex. Collectively, these observations provide an integrative psychobiological framework for understanding the dynamic cascade of processes that bind emotional traits to emotional states and, ultimately, to emotional disorders and other kinds of adverse outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record

Is set shifting really impaired in trait anxiety? Only when switching away from an effortfully established task set

The current study investigated whether trait anxiety was systematically related to task-set shifting performance, using a task-switching paradigm in which 1 task was more attentionally demanding than the other. Specifically, taking advantage of a well-established phenomenon known as asymmetric switch costs, we tested the hypothesis that the association between trait anxiety and task-set shifting is most clearly observed when individuals must switch away from a more attentionally demanding task for which it was necessary to effortfully establish an appropriate task set. Ninety-one young adults completed an asymmetric switching task and trait-level mood questionnaires. Results indicated that higher levels of trait anxiety were systematically associated with greater asymmetry in reaction time (RT) switch costs. Specifically, the RT costs for switching from the more attentionally demanding task to the less demanding task were significantly greater with higher levels of trait anxiety, whereas the RT costs for switching in the opposite direction were not significantly associated with trait anxiety levels. Further analyses indicated that these associations were not attributable to comorbid dysphoria or worry. These results suggest that levels of trait anxiety may not be related to general set-shifting ability per se, but, rather, that anxiety-specific effects may primarily be restricted to when one must efficiently switch away from (or let go of) an effortfully established task set. (PsycINFO Database Record