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Eberle JW, Boukhechba M, Sun J, Zhang D, Funk DH, Barnes LE, Teachman BA. Shifting Episodic Prediction With Online Cognitive Bias Modification: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Clin Psychol Sci 2023; 11:819-840. [PMID: 37736284 PMCID: PMC10513109 DOI: 10.1177/21677026221103128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/23/2023]
Abstract
Negative future thinking pervades emotional disorders. This hybrid efficacy-effectiveness trial tested a four-session, scalable online cognitive bias modification program for training more positive episodic prediction. 958 adults (73.3% female, 86.5% White, 83.4% from United States) were randomized to positive conditions with ambiguous future scenarios that ended positively, 50/50 conditions that ended positively or negatively, or a control condition with neutral scenarios. As hypothesized (preregistration: https://osf.io/jrst6), positive training participants improved more than control participants in negative expectancy bias (d = -0.58), positive expectancy bias (d = 0.80), and self-efficacy (d = 0.29). Positive training was also superior to 50/50 training for expectancy bias and optimism (d = 0.31). Training gains attenuated yet remained by 1-month follow-up. Unexpectedly, participants across conditions improved comparably in anxiety and depression symptoms and growth mindset. Targeting a transdiagnostic process with a scalable program may improve bias and outlook; however, further validation of outcome measures is required.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mehdi Boukhechba
- Department of Engineering Systems and Environment,
University of Virginia
| | - Jianhui Sun
- Department of Computer Science, University of
Virginia
| | - Diheng Zhang
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia
| | | | - Laura E. Barnes
- Department of Engineering Systems and Environment,
University of Virginia
- School of Data Science, University of Virginia
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2
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Tolin DF, Levy HC, Hallion LS, Wootton BM, Jaccard J, Diefenbach GJ, Stevens MC. Changes in neural activity following a randomized trial of cognitive behavioral therapy for hoarding disorder. J Consult Clin Psychol 2023; 91:242-250. [PMID: 36877480 PMCID: PMC10175200 DOI: 10.1037/ccp0000804] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/07/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is efficacious for hoarding disorder (HD), though results are modest. HD patients show an increase in activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) when making decisions. The aim of this study is to determine whether CBT's benefits follow improvements in dACC dysfunction or abnormalities previously identified in other brain regions. METHOD In this randomized clinical trial of 64 treatment-seeking HD patients, patients received group CBT, delivered weekly for 16 weeks, versus wait list. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to examine neural activity during simulated decisions about whether to acquire and discard objects. RESULTS During acquiring decisions, activity decreased in several regions, including right dorsolateral prefrontal, right anterior intraparietal area, both right and left medial intraparietal areas, left and right amygdala, and left accumbens. During discarding decisions, activity decreased in right and left dorsolateral prefrontal, right and left rostral cingulate, left anterior ventral insular cortex, and right medial intraparietal areas. None of the a priori brain parcels of interest significantly mediated symptom reduction. Moderation effects were found for left rostral cingulate, right and left caudal cingulate, and left medial intraparietal parcels. CONCLUSIONS Therapeutic benefits of CBT for HD do not appear to be mediated by changes in dACC activation. However, pretreatment dACC activation predicts outcome. Findings suggest the need to re-evaluate emerging neurobiological models of HD and our understanding of how CBT affects the brain in HD, and perhaps shift focuses to new neural target discovery and target engagement trials. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- David F. Tolin
- Institute of Living, Hartford, CT
- Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Michael C. Stevens
- Institute of Living, Hartford, CT
- Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
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3
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Guo Y, Wu H, Li Z, Zhao L, Feng T. Episodic future thinking predicts differences in delay discounting: The mediating role of hippocampal structure. Front Psychol 2022; 13:992245. [PMID: 36312178 PMCID: PMC9596978 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.992245] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
A growing body of evidence suggests that engagement in episodic future thinking (EFT) could reduce delay discounting rates. However, little is known about whether individual differences in the ability of EFT are associated with differences in delay discounting in young adults. In the present study, this association was tested in healthy college students (n = 106, 19.98 ± 1.56 years), and the neural basis underlying this association was also examined using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method. Behavioral analysis indicated that individual differences in EFT ability can significantly negatively predict discounting rates. VBM analysis first revealed that the EFT score positively correlated with gray matter volume (GMV) of a cluster in hippocampus, while negatively correlated with GMV of a cluster in rostral anterior cingulate cortex. We also found the GMV of a cluster in the mPFC was positively correlated with delay discounting. ROI analysis further revealed that individual differences in delay discounting could be reliably predicted by the GMV in the hippocampus and mPFC. The final mediation analysis showed that the GMV of the hippocampus plays a significant mediating role in the association between EFT and delay discounting, and the indirect effect of the hippocampal GMV accounts for 33.2% of the total effect. Our results suggest that individuals’ EFT ability may be an important determinant of differences in delay discounting, and highlight the hippocampal structure as a neural biomarker for explaining the association between EFT ability and delay discounting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiqun Guo
- School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China
- School of Bioinformatics, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China
- *Correspondence: Yiqun Guo, ; Tingyong Feng,
| | - Huimin Wu
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Zhangyong Li
- School of Bioinformatics, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing, China
| | - Le Zhao
- Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China
| | - Tingyong Feng
- Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, China
- Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China
- *Correspondence: Yiqun Guo, ; Tingyong Feng,
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4
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Burleigh L, Jiang X, Greening SG. Fear in the Theater of the Mind: Differential Fear Conditioning With Imagined Stimuli. Psychol Sci 2022; 33:1423-1439. [PMID: 35895306 DOI: 10.1177/09567976221086513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Many symptoms of anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder are elicited by fearful mental imagery. Yet little is known about how visual imagery of conditioned stimuli (CSs) affects the acquisition of differential fear conditioning. Across three experiments with younger human adults (Experiment 1: n = 33, Experiment 2: n = 27, Experiment 3: n = 26), we observed that participants acquired differential fear conditioning to both viewed and imagined percepts serving as the CSs, as measured via self-reported fear and skin conductance responses. Additionally, this differential conditioning generalized across CS-percept modalities such that differential conditioning acquired in response to visual percepts generalized to the corresponding imagined percepts and vice versa. This is novel evidence that perceived and imagined stimuli engage learning processes in very similar ways and is consistent with the theory that mental imagery is depictive and recruits neural resources shared with visual perception. Our findings also provide new insight into the mechanisms of anxiety and related disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauryn Burleigh
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Louisiana State University
| | - Xinrui Jiang
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Louisiana State University
| | - Steven G Greening
- Department of Psychology, Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Louisiana State University.,Department of Psychology, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Manitoba
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5
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Sun X, Yang X. The Structure of Mental Elasticity Education for Children in Plight Using Deep Learning. Front Psychol 2022; 12:766658. [PMID: 35273532 PMCID: PMC8902162 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.766658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2021] [Accepted: 12/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The purpose is to solve the problem that the current research on the impact of the microstructure of mental elasticity and its constituent factors on the development of the mental elasticity of children is not comprehensive, and the traditional artificial analysis method of mental problems has strong subjectivity and low accuracy. First, the structural equation model is used to study the microstructure of poor children's mental elasticity, and to explore the structural relationship and functional path between the mental elasticity of children and the self-efficacy of their mental health, psychological anxiety, and attachment. Second, a prediction model of mental problems of children in plight based on the backpropagation neural network (BPNN) is constructed. Finally, middle schools in the representative areas of Northwest China are selected as the research unit. The relevant research data are collected by issuing questionnaires, and the data set is constructed to verify the performance of the model. The experimental results show that the average prediction errors of the BPNN model and the support vector regression (SVR) model are 1.87 and 5.4, respectively. The error of BPNN is 65.4% lower than that of SVR, so BPNN has a better performance. The prediction results of the test set show that the actual error and the relative error of the BPNN model are controlled in the range of 0.01, and the prediction accuracy is high. The structural equation model has a high fitting degree. The results of the questionnaire analysis show that attachment, self-efficacy, and psychological anxiety exert a significant direct impact on mental elasticity. This exploration aims to conduct a micro investigation on the relationship among the three core variables (attachment, self-efficacy, and mental health) in the resilience research of children in plight, and analyze their resilience, to provide a theoretical basis for the resilience intervention design of vulnerable groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuanlu Sun
- School of Humanities and Social Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
| | - Xiaoyang Yang
- School of Economics and Finance, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
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6
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Sambuco N, Bradley MM, Lang PJ. Narrative imagery: Emotional modulation in the default mode network. Neuropsychologia 2022; 164:108087. [PMID: 34785150 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Revised: 11/11/2021] [Accepted: 11/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
The default mode network (DMN) is activated when constructing and imagining narrative events, with functional brain activity in the medial-prefrontal cortex hypothesized to be modulated during emotional processing by adding value (or pleasure) to the episodic representation. However, since enhanced reactivity during emotional, compared to neutral, content is a more frequent finding in both the brain and body in physiological, neural, and behavioral measures, the current study directly assesses the effects of pleasure and emotion during narrative imagery in the DMN by using a within-subject design to first identify the DMN during resting state and then assess activation during pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant imagery. Replicating previous findings, enhanced functional activity in the medial prefrontal cortex was found when imagining pleasant, compared to unpleasant, events. On the other hand, emotion-related activation was found when imagining either pleasant or unpleasant, compared to neutral, events in other nodes of the DMN including the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), angular gyrus, anterior hippocampus, lateral temporal cortex, temporal pole, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC). Pervasive emotional modulation in the DMN is consistent with the view that a primary function of event retrieval and construction is to remember, recreate, and imagine motivationally relevant events important for planning adaptive behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola Sambuco
- Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
| | - Margaret M Bradley
- Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Peter J Lang
- Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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7
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Devitt AL, Thakral PP, Schacter DL. Decoding the emotional valence of future thoughts. Cogn Neurosci 2022; 13:10-14. [PMID: 33928872 PMCID: PMC8556409 DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2021.1906638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Affective future thinking allows us to prepare for future outcomes, but we know little about neural representation of emotional future simulations. We used a multi-voxel pattern analysis to determine whether patterns of neural activity can reliably distinguish between positive and negative future simulations. Neural patterning in the anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortices distinguished positive from negative future simulations, indicating that these regions code for the emotional valence of future events. These results support prior findings that anterior medial regions contain representations of emotions across various stimuli, and contribute to identifying potential rewarding outcomes of future events. More broadly, these results demonstrate that the phenomenological features of future thinking can be decoded using neural activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleea L. Devitt
- School of Psychology, The University of Waikato, New Zealand,Department of Psychology, Harvard University, MA, USA
| | - Preston P. Thakral
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, MA, USA,Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, MA, USA
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Namaky N, Glenn JJ, Eberle JW, Teachman BA. Adapting cognitive bias modification to train healthy prospection. Behav Res Ther 2021; 144:103923. [PMID: 34280584 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103923] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2018] [Revised: 04/16/2021] [Accepted: 06/29/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Prospection, the mental simulation of future events, has been theoretically linked to physical and mental health. Prior studies have found that prospection is malleable; however, no research to our knowledge has tested whether a scalable intervention explicitly targeting the simulation of positive future outcomes can lead to more generalized positive prospection, and enhance positive outlook and reduce distress. The current study tested a novel, web-based cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) program designed to shift prospective bias towards more positive (as opposed to negative) representations of future outcomes among 172 participants selected for having a relatively negative baseline expectancy bias. Results showed that following CBM-I, participants in active training conditions exhibited more positive expectations about the future, and increased self-efficacy and growth mindset. Also, optimism increased and depression and anxiety symptoms decreased following active training, but this also occurred for the control condition. Analyses did not suggest that changes in positive expectations mediated changes in positive outlook outcomes. Results suggest that an online prospection intervention can lead to more positive expectations about future events and improve positive outlook, though open questions remain about what accounts for the training effects.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jeffrey J Glenn
- University of Virginia, United States; Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System, United States; VA Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (VISN 6 MIRECC), United States
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10
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Duda BM, Sweet LH. Functional brain changes associated with cognitive training in healthy older adults: A preliminary ALE meta-analysis. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 14:1247-1262. [PMID: 30900077 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-019-00080-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests that cognitive training (CT) programs may provide healthy older adults (OAs) with cognitive benefits that are accompanied by alterations in neural activity. The current review offers the first quantitative synthesis of the available literature on the neural effects of CT in healthy aging. It was hypothesized that OAs would evidence increased and decreased neural activations across various challenging CTs, and that these effects would be observed as significantly altered clusters within regions of the frontoparietal network (FPN). Online databases and reference lists were searched to identify peer-reviewed publications that reported assessment of neural changes associated with CT programs in healthy OAs. Among the 2097 candidate studies identified, 14 studies with a total of 238 participants met inclusionary criteria. GingerALE software was used to quantify neural effects in a whole-brain analysis. The activation likelihood estimation technique revealed significant increases in activation following CT in the left hemisphere middle frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, and posterior parietal cortex, extending to the superior occipital gyrus. Two clusters of diminished neural activity following CT were identified within the right hemisphere middle frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus, extending to the superior temporal gyrus. These results provide preliminary evidence of common neural effects of different CT interventions within regions of the FPN. Findings may inform future investigations of neuroplasticity across the lifespan, including clinical applications of CT, such as assessing treatment outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bryant M Duda
- Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602-3001, USA.
| | - Lawrence H Sweet
- Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602-3001, USA.,Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Brown University Medical School, Providence, RI, USA
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11
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Crawford B, Muhlert N, MacDonald G, Lawrence AD. Brain structure correlates of expected social threat and reward. Sci Rep 2020; 10:18010. [PMID: 33093488 PMCID: PMC7582181 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74334-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Prospection (mentally simulating future events) generates emotionally-charged mental images that guide social decision-making. Positive and negative social expectancies-imagining new social interactions to be rewarding versus threatening-are core components of social approach and avoidance motivation, respectively. Interindividual differences in such positive and negative future-related cognitions may be underpinned by distinct neuroanatomical substrates. Here, we asked 100 healthy adults to vividly imagine themselves in a novel self-relevant event that was ambiguous with regards to possible social acceptance or rejection. During this task we measured participants' expectancies for social reward (anticipated feelings of social connection) or threat (anticipated feelings of rejection). On a separate day they underwent structural MRI; voxel-based morphometry was used to explore the relation between social reward and threat expectancies and regional grey matter volumes (rGMV). Increased rGMV in key default-network regions involved in prospection, socio-emotional cognition, and subjective valuation, including ventromedial prefrontal cortex, correlated with both higher social reward and lower social threat expectancies. In contrast, social threat expectancies uniquely correlated with rGMV of regions involved in social attention (posterior superior temporal sulcus, pSTS) and interoception (somatosensory cortex). These findings provide novel insight into the neurobiology of future-oriented cognitive-affective processes critical to adaptive social functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bonni Crawford
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ, UK.
| | - Nils Muhlert
- Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Geoff MacDonald
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Andrew D Lawrence
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ, UK
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12
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Cao J, Tu Y, Orr SP, Lang C, Park J, Vangel M, Chen L, Gollub R, Kong J. Analgesic Effects Evoked by Real and Imagined Acupuncture: A Neuroimaging Study. Cereb Cortex 2019; 29:3220-3231. [PMID: 30137262 PMCID: PMC7302519 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhy190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2018] [Revised: 07/08/2018] [Accepted: 07/19/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Acupuncture can provide therapeutic analgesic benefits but is limited by its cost and scheduling difficulties. Guided imagery is a commonly used method for treating many disorders, such as chronic pain. The present study examined a novel intervention for pain relief that integrates acupuncture with imagery called video-guided acupuncture imagery treatment (VGAIT). A total of 27 healthy subjects were recruited for a crossover-design study that included 5 sessions administered in a randomized order (i.e., baseline and 4 different interventions). We investigated changes in pain threshold and fMRI signals modulated by: 1) VGAIT, watching a video of acupuncture previously administered on the participant's own body at baseline while imagining it being concurrently applied; 2) a VGAIT control condition, watching a video of a cotton swab touching the skin; 3) real acupuncture; and 4) sham acupuncture. Results demonstrated that real acupuncture and VGAIT significantly increased pain threshold compared with respective control groups. Imaging showed that real acupuncture produced greater activation of the insula compared with VGAIT. VGAIT produced greater deactivation at the rostral anterior cingulate cortex. Our findings demonstrate that VGAIT holds potential clinical value for pain management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jin Cao
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
- School of Acupuncture Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
| | - Yiheng Tu
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Scott P Orr
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Courtney Lang
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Joel Park
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Mark Vangel
- Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Lucy Chen
- Department of Anesthesia, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Randy Gollub
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
- Martinos Brain Imaging Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
| | - Jian Kong
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
- Martinos Brain Imaging Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, USA
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Tiba AI, Manea L. The vividness of imagining emotional feelings in positive situations is attenuated in non-clinical dysphoria and predicts the experience of positive emotional feelings. J Clin Psychol 2018; 74:2238-2263. [PMID: 30014547 DOI: 10.1002/jclp.22676] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2017] [Revised: 05/31/2018] [Accepted: 06/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The vividness of imagining emotional feelings in positive situations (EFP) in non-clinically dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals and its relation to dysphoric and positive feelings was examined. METHOD Participants were university students in Study 1 (N = 106, 84 women; 18-45 years), in Study 2 (N = 43, 39 women; 20-47 years), in Study 3 (N = 109, 92 women; 18-50 years) who filled out a set of questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, cognition measures, and then completed an affective imagery task, using a cross-sectional design. RESULTS Non-clinically dysphoric participants imagined less vividly EFP than non-dysphoric participants. The vividness of imagining EFP accounted for group differences in positive feelings beyond positive and negative cognition and negative mood. CONCLUSIONS In addition to deficits in the general imagery of positive events, the attenuation of vividness of EFP in non-clinical dysphoric individuals warrants attention as a separate pathway by which non-clinically dysphoric individuals develop deficiencies of conscious positive feelings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandru I Tiba
- Department of Psychology, University of Oradea, Oradea, Bihor, Romania
| | - Laura Manea
- The Hull York Medical School, University of York, York, UK
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