Individual Differences in the Modulation of Fear-Related Brain Activation by Attentional Control

Distinct patterns of hippocampal subfield volumes predict coping strategies, emotion regulation, and impulsivity in healthy adults

BACKGROUND

Recent studies have suggested that the hippocampus (HC) is involved in cognitive and behavioral functions beyond memory. We aimed to investigate how the volume of each subfield of the HC is associated with distinct patterns of coping strategies, emotion regulation, and impulsivity in a healthy population.

METHODS

We studied a total of 218 healthy subjects using the Leipzig mind-brain-body dataset. Participants were assessed for coping strategies, emotion regulation, and impulsivity using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced (COPE), Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS), and Behavioral Activation and Inhibition System (BAS/BIS). The associations between HC subfield volumes including CA1, CA2/3, CA4/DG, SR-SL-SM, and subiculum, and behavioral scores were examined using multiple linear regression models adjusted for possible confounders, including age, sex, years of education, handedness, total intracranial volume (ICV), and HC volume.

RESULTS

The use of emotional support, venting, and positive reframing coping strategies were significantly and positively correlated with total, total right, and total left HC volumes. Venting was significantly associated with CA1 after adjusting for age, sex, handedness, and education (P=0.001, B = 0.265, P-FDR = 0.005). No significant association was observed between CERQ subscales and HC subfield volumes after controlling for confounders and multiple analyses. However, sensation-seeking subscale of the UPPS-P was positively correlated with total and right CA2-CA3 volumes after adjustments for age, sex, handedness, ICV, and HC volumes (P=0.002, B = 0.266, P-FDR = 0.035). BAS and BIS subscales did not show significant relationship with HC subfield volumes.

CONCLUSION

Patterns of HC subfields volumes are associated with coping strategies, impulsivity, and emotion regulation. In particular, using emotional support, positive reframing, venting, and sensation seeking are significantly associated with certain HC subfield volumes. These findings suggest that the hippocampus may play a crucial role in modulating emotional responses and behavioral adaptations, offering potential targets for therapeutic interventions.

White matter tracts alterations underpinning reward and conflict processing

BACKGROUND

Reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) is proposed as a neurobiological system that eventually led to emotion and motivation-based constructs of personality. Traditionally segmented into the behavioral activation system (BAS) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), RST is commonly used to describe personality and behavior. Although there have been studies linking gray matter alterations with BIS/BAS subscales, the role of white matter (WM) alterations is yet controversial. We aimed to investigate the specific WM tracts associated with BIS/BAS scores.

METHODS

220 healthy participants (mean age = 39.14 ± 20.23, 80 (35.7 %) females) were evaluated using the BIS/BAS questionnaire from the LEMON database. Diffusion MRI connectometry (DMRI) was used to investigate the WM correlates of BIS/BAS subscales in each gender group. Multiple regression models with the covariates of age, handedness, and education were fitted to address the correlation of local connectomes with BIS/BAS components.

RESULTS

DMRI connectometry revealed that the quantitative anisotropy (QA) value of the splenium of the corpus callosum, right cerebellum, middle cerebellar peduncle, and superior cerebellar peduncle, had a significant negative correlation with each BIS/BAS subscale. In contrast, the QA value in the body of the corpus callosum and bilateral cingulum showed a positive correlation with BIS/BAS subscales.

CONCLUSION

The connectivity of WM in certain tracts may contribute to behavioral activation and inhibition. This finding expands the findings on the neural networks associated with risk-taking and reward-seeking behaviors.

Underlying differences in resting-state activity metrics related to sensitivity to punishment

Reinforcement sensitivity theory (RST) of personality establishes the punishment sensitivity trait as a source of variation in defensive avoidance/approach behaviors. These individual differences reflect dissimilar sensitivity and reactivity of the fight-flight-freeze and behavioral inhibition systems (FFFS/BIS). The sensitivity to punishment (SP) scale has been widely used in personality research aimed at studying the activity of these systems. Structural and functional neuroimaging studies have confirmed the core biological correlates of FFFS/BIS in humans. Nonetheless, some brain functional features derived from resting-state blood-oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activity and its association with the punishment sensitivity dimension remain unclear. This relationship would shed light on stable neural activity patterns linked to anxiety-like behaviors and anxiety predisposition. In this study, we analyzed functional activity metrics "at rest" [e.g., regional homogeneity (ReHo) and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF)] and their relationship with SP in key FFFS/BIS regions (e.g., amygdala, hippocampus, and periaqueductal gray) in a sample of 127 healthy adults. Our results revealed a significant negative correlation between the fALFF within all these regions and the scores on SP. Our findings suggest aberrant neural activity (lower fALFF) within the brain's defense system in participants with high trait anxiety, which in turn could reflect lower FFFS/BIS activation thresholds. These neurally-located differences could lead to pathological fear/anxiety behaviors arising from the FFFS and BIS.

The relationship between the subjective experience of real-world cognitive failures and objective target-detection performance in visual search

Visual search is a common occurrence in everyday life, such as searching for the location of keys, identifying a friend in a crowd, or scanning an upcoming intersection for hazards while driving. Visual search is also used in professional contexts, such as medical diagnostic imaging and airport baggage screening. These contexts are often characterised by low-prevalence or rare targets. Here we tested whether individual differences in the detection of targets in visual search could be predicted from variables derived from the rich informational source of participants' subjective experience of their cognitive and attentional function in everyday life. We tested this in both low-prevalence (Experiment 1) and high-prevalence (Experiment 2) visual search conditions. In both experiments, participants completed a visual search with arrays containing multiple photorealistic objects, and their task was to detect the presence of a gun. Following this, they completed the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ) and the Attentional Control Scale (ACS). In Experiment 1, the target was present on 2% of trials, while in Experiment 2, it was present on 50%. In both experiments, participants' scores on the False Triggering component of the CFQ were negatively associated with accuracy on target-present trials, while participants' scores on the Forgetfulness component of the CFQ were positively associated with target-present accuracy. These results show that objective performance in visual search can be predicted from subjective experiences of cognitive function. They also highlight that the CFQ is not monolithic. Instead, the CFQ subfactors can have qualitatively different relationships with performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Cannabinoid Modulation of Dopamine Release During Motivation, Periodic Reinforcement, Exploratory Behavior, Habit Formation, and Attention

Motivational and attentional processes energize action sequences to facilitate evolutionary competition and promote behavioral fitness. Decades of neuropharmacology, electrophysiology and electrochemistry research indicate that the mesocorticolimbic DA pathway modulates both motivation and attention. More recently, it was realized that mesocorticolimbic DA function is tightly regulated by the brain's endocannabinoid system and greatly influenced by exogenous cannabinoids-which have been harnessed by humanity for medicinal, ritualistic, and recreational uses for 12,000 years. Exogenous cannabinoids, like the primary psychoactive component of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, produce their effects by acting at binding sites for naturally occurring endocannabinoids. The brain's endocannabinoid system consists of two G-protein coupled receptors, endogenous lipid ligands for these receptor targets, and several synthetic and metabolic enzymes involved in their production and degradation. Emerging evidence indicates that the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol is necessary to observe concurrent increases in DA release and motivated behavior. And the historical pharmacology literature indicates a role for cannabinoid signaling in both motivational and attentional processes. While both types of behaviors have been scrutinized under manipulation by either DA or cannabinoid agents, there is considerably less insight into prospective interactions between these two important signaling systems. This review attempts to summate the relevance of cannabinoid modulation of DA release during operant tasks designed to investigate either motivational or attentional control of behavior. We first describe how cannabinoids influence DA release and goal-directed action under a variety of reinforcement contingencies. Then we consider the role that endocannabinoids might play in switching an animal's motivation from a goal-directed action to the search for an alternative outcome, in addition to the formation of long-term habits. Finally, dissociable features of attentional behavior using both the 5-choice serial reaction time task and the attentional set-shifting task are discussed along with their distinct influences by DA and cannabinoids. We end with discussing potential targets for further research regarding DA-cannabinoid interactions within key substrates involved in motivation and attention.

Self-awareness buffers the consequences of negative feedback: Evidence from an ERP study

Previous studies have found that self-awareness can help people to recruit more cognitive resources, while people with more cognitive resources can better buffer the detrimental effects of negative events. However, it is not clear whether self-awareness can directly buffer the consequences of negative feedback (i.e., reducing neural sensitivity to negative feedback). To explore this issue, we used a scrambled sentence task (SST) to manipulate participants' self-awareness (self vs. other) and investigated whether outcome evaluations in a gambling task are modulated by the self-awareness priming. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded while 27 normal adults performed a gambling task. The ERP analysis focused on the feedback-related negativity (FRN), reward positivity (RewP) and P300 component. We found that the self-awareness priming resulted in a smaller FRN response to the losses compared with the other-awareness priming. There was no significant difference in the RewP response to wins between the self-awareness condition and the other-awareness condition. We also found that the self-awareness condition evoked larger P300 amplitude than the other-awareness condition. The present findings suggest that self-awareness can help people to cope with negative feedback in the early semiautomatic outcome evaluation stage (i.e., reducing neural sensitivity to negative feedback) and enhance top-down evaluation to both positive and negative feedback in the late and deliberate stage, providing direct evidence of the adaptive function of self-awareness on outcome experience.

Biased interpretation in paranoia and its modification

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Cognitive models of psychosis implicate interpretation biases as one of the mechanisms involved in the formation and maintenance of symptoms. First we measured the strength of association between interpretation biases and psychosis-relevant traits. Next we manipulated these biases and quantified the effects of doing so on psychosis-relevant outcomes.

METHODS

Experiment 1 used two measures of interpretation bias in a healthy sample (n = 70). Experiment 2 used a novel cognitive bias modification procedure (CMB-pa) in individuals with moderate trait paranoia (n = 60).

RESULTS

Experiment 1 revealed that over a third of the variance in interpretation bias could be explained by the combined effect of trait measures of paranoia/psychosis. In Experiment 2, CBM-pa produced training-congruent changes in the interpretation of new ambiguous information and influenced the interpretation, attribution and distress associated with a real-life social event.

LIMITATIONS

The potentially confounding effects of elevated anxiety and depression on interpretation bias and the restricted range of outcome measures to assess the wider effects of CBM-pa.

CONCLUSIONS

These studies are consistent with interpretation biases contributing to the maintenance of paranoia. CBM-pa could next be adapted and evaluated to test its efficacy as a therapeutic intervention.

Addressing Psychometric Limitations of the Attentional Control Scale via Bifactor Modeling and Item Modification

The purpose of this three-part study was to identify and correct psychometric limitations of the Attentional Control Scale (ACS; Derryberry & Reed, 2002) via bifactor modeling and item modification. In Study 1 (N = 956), results from exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) suggested that the multidimensionality of the ACS might be a function of a method effect (i.e., reverse coding). In Study 2 (N = 478), reverse-coded items were recoded in a straightforward manner and submitted to EFA. Results supported retention of 15 items and 2 factors. In Study 3 (N = 410), CFA was used to test the model identified in Study 2 and compare it to competing models (i.e., 1-factor, bifactor). The bifactor model exhibited the best fit to the data. However, results from bifactor analysis suggested that the structure of the ACS is more consistent with a unidimensional rather than multidimensional model. Additionally, the second domain-specific factor appears to be redundant with the general factor and both domain-specific factors are poorly defined and might be of little practical value. Taken together, results caution the use of the ACS subscales independent of the total score. Moreover, they support coding ACS items in a straightforward manner.

Interactive effects of Anxiety Sensitivity and Attentional Control on Post-traumatic Stress in Community and Clinical Populations

OBJECTIVE

High anxiety sensitivity (AS) and poor attention control (AC) are established risk factors for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), but little is known about the combined influence of these variables. Consistent with dual-systems models suggesting facets of executive function (e.g., AC) will modulate the effects of other risk factors (e.g., AS), the current study evaluated the singular and interactive effects of these variables on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

METHOD

In Study 1, latent variable modeling was used to examine the unique and interactive effects of AS and AC on PTSS, controlling for trauma history, sex, and age, in a sample of trauma-exposed community adults (N = 670). In Study 2, latent variable modeling was used to replicate these effects in a sample of trauma-exposed treatment-seeking adults (N = 207).

RESULTS

Findings from both studies demonstrated a significant and negative interaction between AS and AC predicting PTSS when controlling for trauma history, sex, and age. Moreover, results revealed that AS more strongly predicts PTSS among those with poor AC.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that impaired AC, one facet of executive function, may potentiate the effects of AS on PTSS, and increasing levels of AS may enhance the effects of AC on PTSS. Results are discussed within the context of a dual-systems model of PTSS.

Avoidance of Novelty Contributes to the Uncanny Valley

A hypothesis suggests that objects with a high degree of visual similarity to real humans trigger negative impressions (i.e., the uncanny valley). Previous studies have suggested that difficulty in object categorization elicits negative emotional reactions to enable the avoidance of potential threats. The present study further investigated this categorization-difficulty hypothesis. In an experiment, observers categorized morphed images of photographs and human doll faces as "photograph" or "doll" and evaluated the perceived eeriness of the images. Additionally, we asked the observers to answer questionnaires on behavioral inhibition systems (BIS). The results indicated that individual differences in the BIS score were associated with enhanced eeriness in the objects with a specific human likeness. These findings suggest that the tendency to avoid a potentially threatening novel experience contributes to promoting the perceived eeriness of objects with some degree of visual similarity to real humans.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder, worry and attention to threat: A systematic review

Among anxious populations, attention has been demonstrated to be preferentially biased to threatening material compared to neutral or other valenced material. Individuals who have high levels of trait worry, such as those with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), may be biased to threat but research has produced equivocal findings. This review aimed to systematically review the extant experimental literature to establish the current evidence of attentional bias to threat among trait worriers compared to healthy controls and other clinical populations. Twenty-nine published articles were included in the final review. There was strong evidence of a bias to threat among GAD patients compared to other groups and this was found across most experimental paradigms. Few studies had investigated this bias in non-clinical trait worriers. Among GAD patients this bias to threat was most strongly evidenced when visual threat material was in a verbal-linguistic format (i.e., words) rather than when in pictorial form (i.e., images or faces). The bias was also found across several domains of negative material, supporting the general nature of worry. Further research should look to examine the specific components of the threat bias in GAD, as well as investigating the bias to threat in trait worriers.

Effects of Visual Game Experience on Auditory Processing Speed

Games are one of the fastest growing and most exciting forms of entertainment. Whether casual mobile game playing has a cognitive, physiological, or behavioral effect on players whose game use is not pathological is unknown. Here we explored whether preattentive auditory processing is linked to the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) in frequent and infrequent game players. A total of 74 subjects who were enrolled in our study were divided into two groups, 40 subjects were frequent gamers and 34 subjects were age-, gender-, IQ-, and education-matched infrequent gamers. All participants underwent a passive auditory oddball paradigm and completed the behavioral inhibition/behavioral activation system scales. The mismatch negativity (MMN) latency was shorter for the frequent gamers relative to the infrequent gamers, whereas no difference in MMN amplitude was found between groups. MMN amplitude was negatively associated with the degree of behavioral inhibition in the frequent and infrequent gaming group. We also found that those who frequently play games show an enhanced processing speed, which could be an effect of game practice. Greater behavioral inhibition induces increased vigilance, and this may have enhanced the MMN amplitude in the infrequent gamers. This differential pattern of correlations suggests that differences in the BIS could lead to different approaches to auditory information processing.

Neural correlates of heart-focused interoception: a functional magnetic resonance imaging meta-analysis

Interoception is the ability to perceive one's internal body state including visceral sensations. Heart-focused interoception has received particular attention, in part due to a readily available task for behavioural assessment, but also due to accumulating evidence for a significant role in emotional experience, decision-making and clinical disorders such as anxiety and depression. Improved understanding of the underlying neural correlates is important to promote development of anatomical-functional models and suitable intervention strategies. In the present meta-analysis, nine studies reporting neural activity associated with interoceptive attentiveness (i.e. focused attention to a particular interoceptive signal for a given time interval) to one's heartbeat were submitted to a multilevel kernel density analysis. The findings corroborated an extended network associated with heart-focused interoceptive attentiveness including the posterior right and left insula, right claustrum, precentral gyrus and medial frontal gyrus. Right-hemispheric dominance emphasizes non-verbal information processing with the posterior insula presumably serving as the major gateway for cardioception. Prefrontal neural activity may reflect both top-down attention deployment and processing of feed-forward cardioceptive information, possibly orchestrated via the claustrum.This article is part of the themed issue 'Interoception beyond homeostasis: affect, cognition and mental health'.

Thinking high but feeling low: An exploratory cluster analysis investigating how implicit and explicit spider fear co-vary

Research has demonstrated large differences in the degree to which direct and indirect measures predict each other and variables including behavioural approach and attentional bias. We investigated whether individual differences in the co-variance of "implicit" and "explicit" spider fear exist, and whether this covariation exerts an effect on spider fear-related outcomes. One hundred and thirty-two undergraduate students completed direct and indirect measures of spider fear/avoidance, self-report questionnaires of psychopathology, an attentional bias task, and a proxy Behavioural Approach Task. TwoStep cluster analysis using implicit and explicit spider fear as criterion variables resulted in three clusters: (1) low explicit/low implicit; (2) average explicit/high implicit; and (3) high explicit/low implicit. Clusters with higher explicit fear demonstrated greater disgust propensity and sensitivity and less willingness to approach a spider. No differences between clusters emerged on anticipatory approach anxiety or attentional bias. We discuss results in terms of dual-systems and cognitive-behavioural models of fear.

Subgenual Cingulum Microstructure Supports Control of Emotional Conflict

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with specific difficulties in attentional disengagement from negatively valenced material. Diffusion MRI studies have demonstrated altered white matter microstructure in the subgenual cingulum bundle (CB) in individuals with MDD, though the functional significance of these alterations has not been examined formally. This study explored whether individual differences in selective attention to negatively valenced stimuli are related to interindividual differences in subgenual CB microstructure. Forty-six individuals (21 with remitted MDD, 25 never depressed) completed an emotional Stroop task, using happy and angry distractor faces overlaid by pleasant or unpleasant target words and a control gender-based Stroop task. CBs were reconstructed in 38 individuals using diffusion-weighted imaging and tractography, and mean fractional anisotropy (FA) computed for the subgenual, retrosplenial, and parahippocampal subdivisions. No significant correlations were found between FA and performance in the control gender-based Stroop task in any CB region. However, the degree of interference produced by angry face distractors on time to identify pleasant words (emotional conflict) correlated selectively with FA in the subgenual CB (r = -0.53; P = 0.01). Higher FA was associated with reduced interference, irrespective of a diagnosis of MDD, suggesting that subgenual CB microstructure is functionally relevant for regulating attentional bias toward negative interpersonal stimuli.

Biopsychological structure of Yin-Yang using Cloninger's Temperament model and Carver and White's BIS/BAS scale

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological structure of Yin-Yang based on the Sasang Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) in relation to Carver and White’s Behavior Inhibition/Behavior Activation System (BIS/BAS) Scale and Cloninger’s temperament model of the West.

Methods. A total of 188 university students were classified as high (30%), middle (40%), and low (30%) groups based on their SPQ score and their differences in Cloninger’s temperaments and BIS/BAS subscales were analyzed using analysis of covariance after controlling the sex. Correlation among SPQ, Cloninger’s four temperaments and BIS/BAS subscales was also examined.

Results. Significant differences in BAS (F = 11.703, p < .001), Novelty-Seeking (F = 4.945, p < .01), and Harm-Avoidance (F = 10.912, p < .001) were observed between high and low SPQ score groups after controlling for sex. The SPQ showed significant correlation with BAS (r = 0.303), Novelty-Seeking (r = 0.225), and Harm-Avoidance (r = − 0.273). However, BIS showed no significant differences between SPQ groups, and did not show correlation with the SPQ.

Discussion. The current study demonstrated that Yin-Yang has similarities with and disparities from the Western tradition and may be examined with objective instruments. We showed that the emotionality of the East which is defined as mobility of emotion, not emotional instability as traditionally defined in Western theories, is pivotal for understanding the nature of emotion in the East. Suggestions are made for cross-cultural psychobiological study of the East and West.

Study on the Difference of BIS/BAS Scale between Sasang Types

Introduction. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in temperament between So-Yang (SY) and So-Eum (SE) Sasang types using Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) scale to elucidate the biopsychological mechanism underlying the Sasang typology, a traditional Korean personalized medicine. Methods. 248 university students were categorized into three Sasang types, and series of t-tests were conducted, separately for male and female participants, to examine the difference of Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), Behavioral Activation System (BAS), BAS-Drive (BAS-D), BAS-Fun Seeking (BAS-FS), and BAS-Reward Responsiveness (BAS-RR) scores between SY and SE Sasang types. Results. There were significant differences between Sasang types in the BIS/BAS subscales with consideration of gender. In male participants, BAS-total score of SY type (39.75 ± 4.56) was significantly (t = 2.462, p = 0.016) higher than that of SE type (36.68 ± 4.97). On the other hand, in female participants, BIS score of SY type (20.10 ± 4.01) was significantly (t = -2.097, p = 0.039) lower than that of SE type (21.83 ± 3.91). Discussion. The current study suggested relationship between Sasang typology and Behavior Inhibition and Activation Systems and showed significant differences in BIS/BAS scale between SY and SE Sasang types. Further studies on biological base of Sasang typology are needed.

Shared and Distinct Cognitive/Affective Mechanisms in Intrusive Cognition: An Examination of Worry and Obsessions

Generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder are defined by chronic intrusive thoughts. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between cognitive (attentional control) and motivational (negative urgency) mechanisms potentially underlying worry and obsessions. Participants (N = 526) completed an online questionnaire battery consisting of self-report measures of worry, OCD symptoms, attentional control (AC), negative urgency (NU), and trait negative affect. After controlling for trait negative affect, self-reported AC was negatively related to worry, repugnant obsessions, and ordering symptoms. Greater NU was associated with increased worry and repugnant obsessions. Further, self-reported AC and NU interacted such that greater NU was associated with greater worry at high but not low levels of AC. AC and NU were independently associated with repugnant obsessions. Perceived executive functioning impairments may confer risk for intrusive thoughts, particularly worries, whereas distress-driven impulsivity may contribute to the involuntary, ego-dystonic features of intrusions.

The relative contribution of metacognitions and attentional control to the severity of gambling in problem gamblers

The present study explored the relationship between metacognitions, attentional control, and the severity of gambling in problem gamblers. One hundred and twenty six problem gamblers completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21, the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire 30, the Attentional Control Scale, and the Problem Gambling Severity Index. Results revealed that negative affect, four out of five metacognitions factors (positive beliefs about worry, negative beliefs about thoughts concerning danger and uncontrollability, cognitive confidence and beliefs about the need to control thoughts), and all attentional control factors (focusing, shifting and flexible control of thought) were correlated, in the predicted directions, with the severity of gambling. The same metacognitions were also found to be correlated, in the predicted directions, with attention focusing, however only negative beliefs about thoughts concerning danger and uncontrollability and cognitive confidence were found to be correlated with attention shifting and flexible control of thought. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that beliefs about the need to control thoughts were the only predictor of the severity of gambling controlling for negative affect. Overall these findings support the hypotheses and are consistent with the metacognitive model of psychological dysfunction. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Interpretation biases in paranoia

Information in the environment is frequently ambiguous in meaning. Emotional ambiguity, such as the stare of a stranger, or the scream of a child, encompasses possible good or bad emotional consequences. Those with elevated vulnerability to affective disorders tend to interpret such material more negatively than those without, a phenomenon known as "negative interpretation bias." In this study we examined the relationship between vulnerability to psychosis, measured by trait paranoia, and interpretation bias. One set of material permitted broadly positive/negative (valenced) interpretations, while another allowed more or less paranoid interpretations, allowing us to also investigate the content specificity of interpretation biases associated with paranoia. Regression analyses (n=70) revealed that trait paranoia, trait anxiety, and cognitive inflexibility predicted paranoid interpretation bias, whereas trait anxiety and cognitive inflexibility predicted negative interpretation bias. In a group comparison those with high levels of trait paranoia were negatively biased in their interpretations of ambiguous information relative to those with low trait paranoia, and this effect was most pronounced for material directly related to paranoid concerns. Together these data suggest that a negative interpretation bias occurs in those with elevated vulnerability to paranoia, and that this bias may be strongest for material matching paranoid beliefs. We conclude that content-specific biases may be important in the cause and maintenance of paranoid symptoms.

Is the emotional memory effect sensitive to encoding instructions and the passage of time?

This study examined whether the emotional memory effect (i.e., superior recall for emotionally arousing events relative to neutral events) is sensitive to encoding instructions focusing participants' attention on denotation, connotation, or surface information and on the passage of time. Participants encoded taboo and neutral words under one type of instructions and then performed a free recall task after a variable delay. Attention to denotation negatively affected the emotional memory effect. Time elapsed from encoding weakened recall of neutral words but not of emotional words. These findings suggest that although attentional control can influence the emotional memory effect, distinctiveness can shield retrieval of taboo words from the passage of time.

The Behavioural Inhibition System, anxiety and hippocampal volume in a non-clinical population

Background

Animal studies have suggested that the hippocampus may play an important role in anxiety as part of the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS), which mediates reactivity to threat and punishment and can predict an individual’s response to anxiety-relevant cues in a given environment. The aim of the present structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study was to examine the relationship between individual differences in BIS and hippocampal structure, since this has not received sufficient attention in non-clinical populations. Thirty healthy right-handed participants with no history of alcohol or drug abuse, neurological or psychiatric disorders, or traumatic brain injury were recruited (16 male, 14 female, age 18 to 32 years). T1-weighted structural MRI scans were used to derive estimates of total intracranial volume, and hippocampal and amygdala gray matter volume using FreeSurfer. To relate brain structure to Gray’s BIS, participants completed the Sensitivity to Punishment questionnaire. They also completed questionnaires assessing other measures potentially associated with hippocampal volume (Beck Depression Inventory, Negative Life Experience Survey), and two other measures of anxiety (Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory).

Results

We found that high scores on the Sensitivity to Punishment scale were positively associated with hippocampal volume, and that this phenomenon was lateralized to the right side. In other words, greater levels of behavioural inhibition (BIS) were positively associated with right hippocampal volume.

Conclusions

Our data suggest that hippocampal volume is related to the cognitive and affective dimensions of anxiety indexed by the Sensitivity to Punishment, and support the idea that morphological differences in the hippocampal formation may be associated with behavioural inhibition contributions to anxiety.

Structural basis of empathy and the domain general region in the anterior insular cortex

Empathy is key for healthy social functioning and individual differences in empathy have strong implications for manifold domains of social behavior. Empathy comprises of emotional and cognitive components and may also be closely linked to sensorimotor processes, which go along with the motivation and behavior to respond compassionately to another person's feelings. There is growing evidence for local plastic change in the structure of the healthy adult human brain in response to environmental demands or intrinsic factors. Here we have investigated changes in brain structure resulting from or predisposing to empathy. Structural MRI data of 101 healthy adult females was analyzed. Empathy in fictitious as well as real-life situations was assessed using a validated self-evaluation measure. Furthermore, empathy-related structural effects were also put into the context of a functional map of the anterior insular cortex (AIC) determined by activation likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis of previous functional imaging studies. We found that gray matter (GM) density in the left dorsal AIC correlates with empathy and that this area overlaps with the domain general region (DGR) of the anterior insula that is situated in-between functional systems involved in emotion-cognition, pain, and motor tasks as determined by our meta-analysis. Thus, we propose that this insular region where we find structural differences depending on individual empathy may play a crucial role in modulating the efficiency of neural integration underlying emotional, cognitive, and sensorimotor information which is essential for global empathy.

Prefrontal control of attention to threat

Attentional control refers to the regulatory processes that ensure that our actions are in accordance with our goals. Dual-system accounts view temperament as consisting of both individual variation in emotionality (e.g., trait anxiety) and variation in regulatory attentional mechanisms that act to modulate emotionality. Increasing evidence links trait variation in attentional control to clinical mood and anxiety disorder symptoms, independent of trait emotionality. Attentional biases to threat have been robustly linked to mood and anxiety disorders. However, the role of variation in attentional control in influencing such biases, and the neural underpinnings of trait variation in attentional control, are unknown. Here, we show that individual differences in trait attentional control, even when accounting for trait and state anxiety, are related to the magnitude of an attentional blink (AB) following threat-related targets. Moreover, we demonstrate that activity in dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), is observed specifically in relation to control of attention over threatening stimuli, in line with neural theories of attentional control, such as guided activation theory. These results have key implications for neurocognitive theories of attentional bias and emotional resilience.

Proactive and reactive control during emotional interference and its relationship to trait anxiety

In classic Stroop paradigms, increasing the proportion of control-demanding incongruent trials results in strategic adjustments in behavior and implementation of cognitive control processes. We manipulated expectancy for incongruent trials in an emotional facial Stroop task to investigate the behavioral and neural effects of proportion manipulation in a cognitively demanding task with emotional stimuli. Subjects performed a high expectancy (HE) task (65% incongruent trials) and a low expectancy (LE) task (35% incongruent trials) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As in standard Stroop tasks, behavioral interference was reduced in the emotional facial Stroop HE task compared to the LE task. Functional MRI data revealed a switch in cognitive control strategy, from a reactive, event-related activation of a medial and lateral cognitive control network and right amygdala in the LE task to a proactive, sustained activation of right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the HE task. Higher trait anxiety was associated with impairment (slower response time and decreased accuracy) as well as reduced activity in left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, and orbitofrontal cortex in the HE task on high conflict trials with task-irrelevant emotional information, suggesting that individual differences in anxiety may be associated with expectancy-related strategic control adjustments, particularly when emotional stimuli must be ignored.

Keeping the body in mind: insula functional organization and functional connectivity integrate interoceptive, exteroceptive, and emotional awareness

Relatively discrete experimental literatures have grown to support the insula's role in the domains of interoception, focal exteroceptive attention and cognitive control, and the experience of anxiety, even as theoretical accounts have asserted that the insula is a critical zone for integrating across these domains. Here we provide the first experimental demonstration that there exists a functional topography across the insula, with distinct regions in the same participants responding in a highly selective fashion for interoceptive, exteroceptive, and affective processing. Although each insular region is associated with areas of differential resting state functional connectivity relative to the other regions, overall their functional connectivity profiles are quite similar, thereby providing a map of how interoceptive, exteroceptive, and emotional awareness are integrated within the insular cortex.

Trait anxiety and perceptual load as determinants of emotion processing in a fear conditioning paradigm

The impact of trait anxiety and perceptual load on selective attention was examined in a fear conditioning paradigm. A fear-conditioned angry face (CS+), an unconditioned angry face (CS-), or an unconditioned face with a neutral or happy expression were used in distractor interference and attentional probe tasks. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants classified centrally presented letters under two conditions of perceptual load. When perceptual load was high, distractors had no effect on selective attention, even with aversive conditioning. However, when perceptual load was low, strong response interference effects for CS+ face distractors were found for low trait-anxious participants. Across both experiments, this enhanced distractor interference reversed to strong facilitation effects for those reporting high trait anxiety. Thus, high trait-anxious participants were faster, rather than slower, when ignoring CS+ distractors. Using an attentional probe task in Experiment 3, it was found that fear conditioning resulted in strong attentional avoidance in a high trait-anxious group, which contrasted with enhanced vigilance in a low trait-anxious group. These results demonstrate that the impact of fear conditioning on attention is modulated by individual variation in trait anxiety when perceptual load is low. Fear conditioning elicits an avoidance of threat-relevant stimuli in high trait-anxious participants.

The temporal electrocortical profile of emotive facial processing in depressed males and females and healthy controls

BACKGROUND

Previous work indicates that emotive processing, such as of facial expressions, may be altered in major depressive disorder (MDD). Individuals with MDD tend to exhibit a mood-congruent processing bias, though MDD may also be characterized by blunted emotive processing in general. Females tend to exhibit enhanced facial emotive processing than males. Few groups have examined the temporal electrophysiological event-related potential (ERP)-indexed profiles, spanning preconscious to sustained, conscious processing of facial expressions in MDD; systematic comparisons of ERPs to emotive stimuli between depressed males and females are also lacking.

METHODS

This study examined the temporal ERP profile to a simple expression recognition task in depressed adult males and females (N=52; 29 females) and controls (N=43; 23 females).

RESULTS

The MDD group rated facial expressions as sadder overall than controls. Females exhibited enhanced and speeded pre- and conscious face processing than males. Subtle group differences emerged to specific expressions at mid-latency ERPs (N2, P2) indicating both blunted late pre-conscious perceptual processing of expressions and prolonged processing of intensely sad faces.

LIMITATIONS

A more involved emotive processing task, employing threatening faces, may have revealed more robust group ERP differences. Menstrual cycle should also be controlled for in future work.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to systematically assess the temporal ERP profile, including of ERPs preceding the face-sensitive N170/VPP, to expressions in MDD. Overall, early perceptual and late conscious expression processing did not differ fundamentally between groups. Altered emotive processing may be a candidate index for monitoring and predicting antidepressant treatment outcome.

Attentional Control Buffers the Effect of Public Speaking Anxiety on Performance

We explored dispositional differences in the ability to self-regulate attentional processes in the domain of public speaking. Participants first completed measures of speech anxiety and attentional control. In a second session, participants prepared and performed a short speech. Fear of public speaking negatively impacted performance only for those low in attentional control. Thus, attentional control appears to act as a buffer that facilitates successful self-regulation despite performance anxiety.

Attentional control as a moderator of the relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms and attentional threat bias

Attentional threat bias (ATB) has been suggested as one factor leading to maintenance and exacerbation of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). In the present study, attentional processes (i.e., facilitated engagement, difficulty disengaging) underlying the association between ATB and PTSS were examined. Additionally, attentional control (AC) was examined as a moderator of this relationship. Participants (N=97) completed a dot-probe task with two levels of stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA: 150 and 500ms). Higher PTSS were associated with ATB when SOA was longer (i.e., 500ms), suggesting difficulty disengaging from threat stimuli. AC moderated the relationship between PTSS and ATB when SOA was shorter (i.e., 150ms), with participants high in PTSS and high in AC having disengaged and shifted attention from threat stimuli using top-down AC when the emotional valence of threat stimuli was less salient (i.e., shorter presentation duration). Findings implicate AC as a buffering mechanism against prolonged attentional engagement with threat-related stimuli among those with high PTSS. Current PTSD interventions may benefit from incorporating attention-based components.

Storm in a coffee cup: caffeine modifies brain activation to social signals of threat

Caffeine, an adenosine A₁ and A(2A) receptor antagonist, is the most popular psychostimulant drug in the world, but it is also anxiogenic. The neural correlates of caffeine-induced anxiety are currently unknown. This study investigated the effects of caffeine on brain regions implicated in social threat processing and anxiety. Participants were 14 healthy male non/infrequent caffeine consumers. In a double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design, they underwent blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing an emotional face processing task 1 h after receiving caffeine (250 mg) or placebo in two fMRI sessions (counterbalanced, 1-week washout). They rated anxiety and mental alertness, and their blood pressure was measured, before and 2 h after treatment. Results showed that caffeine induced threat-related (angry/fearful faces > happy faces) midbrain-periaqueductal gray activation and abolished threat-related medial prefrontal cortex wall activation. Effects of caffeine on extent of threat-related amygdala activation correlated negatively with level of dietary caffeine intake. In concurrence with these changes in threat-related brain activation, caffeine increased self-rated anxiety and diastolic blood pressure. Caffeine did not affect primary visual cortex activation. These results are the first to demonstrate potential neural correlates of the anxiogenic effect of caffeine, and they implicate the amygdala as a key site for caffeine tolerance.

Self reported attentional control with the Attentional Control Scale: factor structure and relationship with symptoms of anxiety and depression

The Attentional Control Scale (ACS) is a self-report questionnaire that has been developed to measure individual differences in attentional control. Despite its fairly widespread use, little is known about the psychometric properties of the scale in adult samples. In the present study, factor structure of the ACS and its relationship with symptoms of anxiety and depression was investigated in a total sample of 728 Icelandic university students. Exploratory factor analysis in sample 1 (n=361), yielded two factors, labeled focusing and shifting. Confirmatory factor analysis in sample 2 (n=367) showed a reasonable fit of this two factor model. The two factors correlated strongly (0.73). The two subscales showed different predictive validity in a set of hierarchical regression analyses where the focusing subscale made a significant prediction of anxiety scores when depression scores were controlled for, and the shifting subscale significant prediction of depression scores when anxiety scores were controlled for. These findings are discussed in relation to previous studies on attentional and executive control in anxiety and depression.

Individual differences in neural responses to social rejection: the joint effect of self-esteem and attentional control

Individuals with low self-esteem have been found to react more negatively to signs of interpersonal rejection than those with high self-esteem. However, previous research has found that individual differences in attentional control can attenuate negative reactions to social rejection among vulnerable, low self-esteem individuals. The current fMRI study sought to elucidate the neurobiological substrate of this buffering effect. We hypothesized and found that while looking at scenes of social rejection (vs negative scenes) low self-esteem high attentional control individuals engaged the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), an area of the brain associated with emotional control, more than their low self-esteem low attentional control peers. Furthermore, we found that low self-esteem high attentional control individuals evaluated social rejection as less arousing and less rejecting in a separate behavioral task. Importantly, activation in the rACC fully mediated the relationship between the interaction of self-esteem and attentional control and emotional evaluations, suggesting that the rACC activation underlies the buffering effects of attentional control. Results are discussed in terms of individual differences in emotional vulnerability and protection and by highlighting the role of rACC in emotion regulation.

Adding fear to conflict: a general purpose cognitive control network is modulated by trait anxiety

Studies of cognitive control show that the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are involved in the detection and resolution of cognitive conflict. However, the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying emotional interference effects are less consistent. We used fMRI during emotional and nonemotional versions of a facial Stroop task to investigate the effects of emotional stimuli on cognitive control. In the full group there was limited evidence that different prefrontal circuits manage conflict arising from emotional and nonemotional distractors. However, individual differences in trait anxiety affected both behavioral performance and neural activity during the emotional task. Relative to low-anxiety (LA) subjects, high-anxiety (HA) subjects showed greater amygdala activity to task-relevant emotional information and impaired performance and greater conflict-related activity in the dACC when emotional content was task-irrelevant. Only LA subjects activated rostral ACC during the emotional task. This is consistent with cognitive models of individual differences that hypothesize deficient control of task-irrelevant emotional information in HA subjects. Additional behavioral and fMRI results from this study may be downloaded from http://cabn.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.

Neurophysiological markers for child emotion regulation from the perspective of emotion-cognition integration: current directions and future challenges

Neuroscientific research on emotion regulation suggests that the interplay between emotion and cognition may be fundamental to the ability to adaptively regulate emotions. Although emotion and cognition have historically been considered to be in opposition, more recent research suggests that they are also integrated, coordinated, and complementary. In this article, I review studies showing that scalp-recorded event related potentials (ERPs) reflecting emotion-cognition integration can be used as clinically meaningful indices of emotion regulation in children and adults, and have the potential to serve as biomarkers for emotion regulation and risk for specific affective disorders. Drawing on neuroscience and behavioral research, I propose a model in which ERP measures of emotion-cognition integration rather than opposition is the guiding principle for detecting neural markers for emotion regulation. Suggestions for a future research agenda are then presented.

Why do beliefs about intelligence influence learning success? A social cognitive neuroscience model

Students' beliefs and goals can powerfully influence their learning success. Those who believe intelligence is a fixed entity (entity theorists) tend to emphasize 'performance goals,' leaving them vulnerable to negative feedback and likely to disengage from challenging learning opportunities. In contrast, students who believe intelligence is malleable (incremental theorists) tend to emphasize 'learning goals' and rebound better from occasional failures. Guided by cognitive neuroscience models of top-down, goal-directed behavior, we use event-related potentials (ERPs) to understand how these beliefs influence attention to information associated with successful error correction. Focusing on waveforms associated with conflict detection and error correction in a test of general knowledge, we found evidence indicating that entity theorists oriented differently toward negative performance feedback, as indicated by an enhanced anterior frontal P3 that was also positively correlated with concerns about proving ability relative to others. Yet, following negative feedback, entity theorists demonstrated less sustained memory-related activity (left temporal negativity) to corrective information, suggesting reduced effortful conceptual encoding of this material-a strategic approach that may have contributed to their reduced error correction on a subsequent surprise retest. These results suggest that beliefs can influence learning success through top-down biasing of attention and conceptual processing toward goal-congruent information.