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Ojha A, Jones NP, Henry T, Versace A, Gnagy EM, Joseph HM, Molina BSG, Ladouceur CD. Altered Lateral Prefrontal Cortex Functioning During Emotional Interference Resistance Is Associated With Affect Lability in Adults With Persisting Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder From Childhood. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2024; 9:588-596. [PMID: 38378127 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 01/09/2024] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattention and/or impulsivity/hyperactivity. ADHD, especially when persisting into adulthood, often includes emotional dysregulation, such as affect lability; however, the neural correlates of emotionality in adults with heterogeneous ADHD symptom persistence remain unclear. METHODS The present study sought to determine shared and distinct functional neuroanatomical profiles of neural circuitry during emotional interference resistance using the emotional face n-back task in adult participants with persisting (n = 47), desisting (n = 93), or no (n = 42) childhood ADHD symptoms while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. RESULTS Participants without any lifetime ADHD diagnosis performed significantly better (faster and more accurately) than participants with ADHD diagnoses on trials with high cognitive loads (2-back) that included task-irrelevant emotional distractors, tapping into executive functioning and emotion regulatory processes. In participants with persisting ADHD symptoms, more severe emotional symptoms were related to worse task performance. Heightened dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation was associated with more accurate and faster performance on 2-back emotional faces trials, respectively. Reduced activation was associated with greater affect lability in adults with persisting ADHD, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation mediated the relationship between affect lability and task accuracy. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that alterations in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex function associated with greater interference in cognitive processes from emotion could represent a marker of risk for problems with emotional dysregulation in individuals with persisting ADHD and thus represent a potential therapeutic target for those with greater emotional symptoms of ADHD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amar Ojha
- Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Neil P Jones
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Teague Henry
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; School of Data Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
| | - Amelia Versace
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Elizabeth M Gnagy
- Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida
| | - Heather M Joseph
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Brooke S G Molina
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
| | - Cecile D Ladouceur
- Center for Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Lingelbach K, Gado S, Wirzberger M, Vukelić M. Workload-dependent hemispheric asymmetries during the emotion-cognition interaction: a close-to-naturalistic fNIRS study. FRONTIERS IN NEUROERGONOMICS 2023; 4:1273810. [PMID: 38234490 PMCID: PMC10790862 DOI: 10.3389/fnrgo.2023.1273810] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
Introduction We investigated brain activation patterns of interacting emotional distractions and cognitive processes in a close-to-naturalistic functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study. Methods Eighteen participants engaged in a monitoring-control task, mimicking common air traffic controller requirements. The scenario entailed experiencing both low and high workload, while concurrently being exposed to emotional speech distractions of positive, negative, and neutral valence. Results Our investigation identified hemispheric asymmetries in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during the presentation of negative and positive emotional speech distractions at different workload levels. Thereby, in particular, activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) seems to play a crucial role. Brain activation patterns revealed a cross-over interaction indicating workload-dependent left hemispheric inhibition processes during negative distractions and high workload. For positive emotional distractions under low workload, we observed left-hemispheric PFC recruitment potentially associated with speech-related processes. Furthermore, we found a workload-independent negativity bias for neutral distractions, showing brain activation patterns similar to those of negative distractions. Discussion In conclusion, lateralized hemispheric processing, regulating emotional speech distractions and integrating emotional and cognitive processes, is influenced by workload levels and stimulus characteristics. These findings advance our understanding of the factors modulating hemispheric asymmetries during the processing and inhibition of emotional distractions, as well as the interplay between emotion and cognition. Moreover, they emphasize the significance of exploring emotion-cognition interactions in more naturalistic settings to gain a deeper understanding of their implications in real-world application scenarios (e.g., working and learning environments).
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Affiliation(s)
- Katharina Lingelbach
- Applied Neurocognitive Systems, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, Stuttgart, Germany
- Applied Neurocognitive Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Sabrina Gado
- Experimental Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Maria Wirzberger
- Department of Teaching and Learning with Intelligent Systems, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
- LEAD Graduate School and Research Network, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Mathias Vukelić
- Applied Neurocognitive Systems, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, Stuttgart, Germany
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Liu P, Hayden EP, Dougherty LR, Leung HC, Goldstein B, Klein DN. The development of depressogenic self-schemas: Associations with children's regional grey matter volume in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. Dev Psychopathol 2023; 35:1000-1010. [PMID: 34521484 PMCID: PMC8920949 DOI: 10.1017/s0954579421000341] [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: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive theories of depression contend that biased cognitive information processing plays a causal role in the development of depression. Extensive research shows that deeper processing of negative and/or shallower processing of positive self-descriptors (i.e., negative and positive self-schemas) predicts current and future depression in adults and children. However, the neural correlates of the development of self-referent encoding are poorly understood. We examined children's self-referential processing using the self-referent encoding task (SRET) collected from 74 children at ages 6, 9, and 12; around age 10, these children also contributed structural magnetic resonance imaging data. From age 6 to age 12, both positive and negative self-referential processing showed mean-level growth, with positive self-schemas increasing relatively faster than negative ones. Further, voxel-based morphometry showed that slower growth in positive self-schemas was associated with lower regional gray matter volume (GMV) in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC). Our results suggest that smaller regional GMV within vlPFC, a critical region for regulatory control in affective processing and emotion development, may have implications for the development of depressogenic self-referential processing in mid-to-late childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pan Liu
- Department of Psychology, Brain and Mind Institute, Western University
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4
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Bruning AL, Mallya MM, Lewis-Peacock JA. Rumination burdens the updating of working memory. Atten Percept Psychophys 2023; 85:1452-1460. [PMID: 36653522 PMCID: PMC11122689 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-022-02649-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Working memory is a vital, but capacity-limited, cognitive instrument that requires frequent updating as our goals and environment change. Individuals diagnosed with depression have a reduced capacity compared with the general population, as they have a propensity to fixate on negative information, even when it is not relevant for the task at hand. Here we investigated how characteristics of psychiatric illnesses, such as rumination, affect a person's ability to efficiently update emotional information in mind. We used both neutral and negative pictures of scenes in a working memory updating task that required participants to occasionally replace items held in mind during a brief delay period. Participants were presented with a probe item at the end of each trial and asked to report whether that item was in their current memory set. Responses were slowest and least accurate for images that had been replaced (i.e., "lures"), indicating there was some difficulty in successfully updating working memory in this paradigm. Participants who have both a high propensity to ruminate and a low working memory capacity were significantly more likely to false alarm to these lures. While emotional valence did not impact accuracy for these participants, their false alarms were faster for negative stimuli compared with neutral stimuli, indicating that task-irrelevant emotional information was more difficult to remove from working memory. These results demonstrate how rumination impairs goal-directed behavior by obscuring the boundary between relevant and irrelevant information in working memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allison L Bruning
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E Dean Keeton St, Stop A8000, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Meghan M Mallya
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E Dean Keeton St, Stop A8000, Austin, TX, 78712, USA
| | - Jarrod A Lewis-Peacock
- Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E Dean Keeton St, Stop A8000, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
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5
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Yang X, Spangler DP, Jennings JR, Friedman BH. Cardiac timing and threatening stimuli influence response inhibition and ex-Gaussian parameters of reaction time in a Go/No-go task. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14260. [PMID: 36717691 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Revised: 12/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Sensorimotor responses vary as a function of the cardiac cycle phase. These effects, known as cardiac cycle time effects, have been explained by the inhibition of cardiac afferent signals on information processing. However, the validity of cardiac cycle time effects is challenged by mixed findings. Factors such as current information processing and affective context may modulate cardiac cycle time effects and account for inconsistencies in the literature. The current study examines the influence of cardiac cycle time and threatening stimuli on two aspects of sensorimotor processing, response speed and inhibition. Thirty-four participants (Mage = 19.35 years; 29 female) completed an auditory Go/No-go task in no face, neutral face, and fearful face conditions. Faces were presented at either cardiac diastole or systole. Participants' reaction times (RTs) during Go trials and failures in response inhibition during No-go trials were recorded. The ex-Gaussian model was fit to RT data in each condition deriving the parameters, mu (μ) and tau (τ), that indicate response speed and attentional lapses, respectively. Repeated measures ANOVA were used to analyze behavioral data. Results showed that cardiac systole prolonged μ but decreased τ, and that cardiac diastole reduced inhibition errors in the fearful face condition but not in other conditions. These findings indicate that cardiac timing differentially modulates sensory-perceptual and top-down attentional processes and cardiac timing interacts with threatening contexts to influence response inhibition. These results highlight the specificity of cardiac cycle time effects on sensorimotor processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao Yang
- Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
| | - Derek P Spangler
- Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - J Richard Jennings
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Bruce H Friedman
- Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
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6
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Dwyer CP. An Evaluative Review of Barriers to Critical Thinking in Educational and Real-World Settings. J Intell 2023; 11:105. [PMID: 37367507 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence11060105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 05/19/2023] [Accepted: 05/24/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Though a wide array of definitions and conceptualisations of critical thinking have been offered in the past, further elaboration on some concepts is required, particularly with respect to various factors that may impede an individual's application of critical thinking, such as in the case of reflective judgment. These barriers include varying levels of epistemological engagement or understanding, issues pertaining to heuristic-based thinking and intuitive judgment, as well as emotional and biased thinking. The aim of this review is to discuss such barriers and evaluate their impact on critical thinking in light of perspectives from research in an effort to reinforce the 'completeness' of extant critical thinking frameworks and to enhance the potential benefits of implementation in real-world settings. Recommendations and implications for overcoming such barriers are also discussed and evaluated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher P Dwyer
- Technology Education Research Group (TERG), Department of Teacher Education, Athlone Campus, Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, N37 HD68 Westmeath, Ireland
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Nishimura R, Menrai K, Kajihara M, Asaoka S. Is decision-making influenced by interactions between extended wakefulness and weak emotional stressors? An experimental study. INDUSTRIAL HEALTH 2023; 61:92-101. [PMID: 35370226 PMCID: PMC10079499 DOI: 10.2486/indhealth.2021-0260] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
In this study, we aimed to determine whether 21-hour continuous wakefulness decreases performance in the Iowa Gambling Task and examine the effect of the interaction between a weak emotional stressor and prolonged continuous wakefulness on the decision-making process, as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task. Approximately half of 38 healthy college students were in the sleep deprivation condition (they performed the task at 4:30 a.m.); the remainder were in the daytime condition (they performed the task during the day). The participants in each sleep condition were further divided into non-exposed and exposed to an emotional stressor via a social exclusion procedure before the task, with the Iowa Gambling Task score as the dependent variable. In the sleep deprivation condition, performance in the final block of the task was significantly worse in the group with an emotional stressor than the group without. There was no main effect of sleep conditions or emotional stressors on the task performance in either block. The results of this study suggest that even 21 hours of continuous wakefulness, which can occur in daily work life, may prevent appropriate learning in people exposed to an emotional stressor, even if the stress caused due to it is low.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ritsuko Nishimura
- Edogawa University Sleep Research Institute (where the work was performed), Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Japan
- Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Japan
| | - Kazuki Menrai
- Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Japan
| | - Mayu Kajihara
- Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Japan
- Kyushu University Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Sciences, Japan
| | - Shoichi Asaoka
- Edogawa University Sleep Research Institute (where the work was performed), Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Japan
- Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Department of Psychology and Humanities, Edogawa University, Japan
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8
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Xia Y, Shimomura Y. Relationship between anxiety and monotonous task performance in response to local cooling: an experimental study in healthy young men. ERGONOMICS 2023; 66:366-376. [PMID: 35722776 DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2022.2087908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2021] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
There are limited studies on monotonous task performance and its relationship with anxiety and stress traits. This study aimed to determine if local cooling exerts physiological effects and positively affects task performance. Ten male participants performed monotonous work for 24 min under control and local cooling conditions. We measured physiological arousal and anxiety using electroencephalography and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, respectively. The participants rated their drowsiness, the thermal sensation of the seat and whole-body thermal sensation. Despite the lack of significant differences in physiological arousal, the state anxiety score, which reflects the current stressful situation, was significantly lower in the local cooling condition. Therefore, cooling might help relieve stress during monotonous tasks, without impairing task performance. In addition, individuals with higher state anxiety scores tended to experience a faster increase in their arousal level. Thus, individual anxiety traits may modulate attentional resources during monotonous task performance.Practitioner summary: The study on topic related to monotonous task performance and its relationship with anxiety and stress traits is novel. Minimising negative emotions is key to monotonous task execution under stress. Individual anxiety might modulate resource allocation for monotonous task execution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yali Xia
- Design Research Institute, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
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9
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Eckart C, Kraft D, Rademacher L, Fiebach CJ. Neural correlates of affective task switching and asymmetric affective task switching costs. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 18:6760204. [PMID: 36226894 PMCID: PMC9949498 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2021] [Revised: 08/12/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The control of emotions is of potentially great clinical relevance. Accordingly, there has been increasing interest in understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying the ability to switch efficiently between the processing of affective and non-affective information. Reports of asymmetrically increased switch costs when switching toward the more salient emotion task indicate specific demands in the flexible control of emotion. The neural mechanisms underlying affective task switching, however, are so far not fully understood. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) (N = 57), we observed that affective task switching was accompanied by increased activity in domain-general fronto-parietal control systems. Blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the posterior medial frontal and anterolateral prefrontal cortex was directly related to affective switch costs, indicating that these regions play a particular role in individual differences in (affective) task-switching ability. Asymmetric switch costs were associated with increased activity in the right inferior frontal and dorsal anterior medial prefrontal cortex, two brain regions critical for response inhibition. This suggests that asymmetric switch costs might-to a great extent-reflect higher demands on inhibitory control of the dominant emotion task. These results contribute to a refined understanding of brain systems for the flexible control of emotions and thereby identify valuable target systems for future clinical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cindy Eckart
- Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 60323, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
| | - Dominik Kraft
- Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 60323, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Tübingen Center for Mental Health, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72076, Germany
| | - Lena Rademacher
- Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 60323, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Lübeck 23562, Germany
| | - Christian J Fiebach
- Department of Psychology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 60323, Germany.,Brain Imaging Center, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
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An Integrative Model for Understanding Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Merging Cognitive Behavioral Theory with Insights from Clinical Neuroscience. J Clin Med 2022; 11:jcm11247379. [PMID: 36555995 PMCID: PMC9784452 DOI: 10.3390/jcm11247379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2022] [Revised: 12/01/2022] [Accepted: 12/07/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Several models have been proposed for the emergence and maintenance of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Although these models have provided important insights and inspired treatment development, no single model has yet sufficiently accounted for the complexed phenotype of the disorder. In the current paper, we propose a novel model that integrates elements from cognitive behavioral models of OCD with neurocognitive approaches to the disorder. This Reciprocal Interaction Model (RIM) for OCD is based on two assumptions: (a) similar observed symptoms can stem from different etiological processes; and (b) neuropsychological deficits (such as reduced response inhibition and overreliance on the habit formation system) and cognitive behavioral processes (such as temporary reduction in anxiety after engaging in compulsive behaviors) mutually affect each other such that abnormalities in one system influence the second system and vice-versa-creating a vicious cycle of pathological processes. Indeed, the bidirectional inhibitory connection between anxiety/obsessions and executive control is at the heart of the model. We begin by briefly reviewing the current models for OCD. We then move on to describe the RIM, the supporting evidence for the model, the model's predictions, and potential clinical implications.
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Grützmann R, Kathmann N, Heinzel S. Effects of a three-week executive control training on adaptation to task difficulty and emotional interference. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0276994. [PMID: 36413545 PMCID: PMC9681094 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276994] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2022] [Accepted: 09/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Intact executive functions are characterized by flexible adaptation to task requirements, while these effects are reduced in internalizing disorders. Furthermore, as executive functions play an important role in emotion regulation, deficits in executive functions may contribute to symptom generation in psychological disorders through increased emotional interference. Thus, the present study investigated transfer effects of a three-week executive control training on adaptation to task difficulty and emotional interference in healthy participants (n = 24) to further explore the training's suitability for clinical application. To assess the adaptation to task difficulty, the proportion congruency effect on behavioral data (response times, error rates) and ERP measures (N2, CRN) was assessed in a flanker task with varying frequency of incompatible trials (25%, 75%). To quantify emotional interference, flanker stimuli were superimposed on neutral or negative pictures. Replicating previous results, the training increased interference control as indexed by decreased response times and errors rates, increased N2 amplitude and decreased CRN amplitude in incompatible trials after training. Proportion congruency effects were weaker than expected and not affected by the training intervention. The training lead to a shift in the time-point of emotional interference: before training negative pictures lead to a reduction in CRN amplitude, while after training this reduction was observed for the N2. This pattern illustrates that the training leads to a change in task processing mode from predominant response-related cognitive control to predominant stimulus-related cognitive control (N2), indicating a proactive processing mode.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosa Grützmann
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Norbert Kathmann
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Stephan Heinzel
- Department of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Intranasal Oxytocin Modulates the Salience Network in Aging. Neuroimage 2022; 253:119045. [PMID: 35259525 PMCID: PMC9450112 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119045] [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: 10/29/2021] [Revised: 02/25/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Growing evidence supports a role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in promoting social cognition and prosocial behavior, possibly via modulation of the salience of social information. The effect of intranasal oxytocin administration on the salience network, however, is not well understood, including in the aging brain. To address this research gap, 42 young (22.52 ± 3.02 years; 24 in the oxytocin group) and 43 older (71.12 ± 5.25 years; 21 in the oxytocin group) participants were randomized to either self-administer intranasal oxytocin or placebo prior to resting-state functional imaging. The salience network was identified using independent component analysis (ICA). Independent t-tests showed that individuals in the oxytocin compared to the placebo group had lower within-network resting-state functional connectivity, both for left amygdala (MNI coordinates: x = −18, y = 0, z = −15; corrected p < 0.05) within a more ventral salience network and for right insula (MNI coordinates: x = 39, y = 6, z = −6; corrected p < 0.05) within a more dorsal salience network. Age moderation analysis furthermore demonstrated that the oxytocin-reduced functional connectivity between the ventral salience network and the left amygdala was only present in older participants. These findings suggest a modulatory role of exogenous oxytocin on resting-state functional connectivity within the salience network and support age-differential effects of acute intranasal oxytocin administration on this network.
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Non-human contributions to personality neuroscience – from fish through primates. An introduction to the special issue. PERSONALITY NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 5:e11. [PMID: 36258777 PMCID: PMC9549393 DOI: 10.1017/pen.2022.4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 08/18/2022] [Accepted: 08/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The most fundamental emotional systems that show trait control are evolutionarily old and extensively conserved. Psychology in general has benefited from non-human neuroscience and from the analytical simplicity of behaviour in those with simpler nervous systems. It has been argued that integration between personality, psychopathology, and neuroscience is particularly promising if we are to understand the neurobiology of human experience. Here, we provide some general arguments for a non-human approach being at least as productive in relation to personality, psychopathology, and their interface. Some early personality theories were directly linked to psychopathology (e.g., Eysenck, Panksepp, and Cloninger). They shared a common interest in brain systems that naturally led to the use of non-human data; behavioural, neural, and pharmacological. In Eysenck’s case, this also led to the selective breeding, at the Maudsley Institute, of emotionally reactive and non-reactive strains of rat as models of trait neuroticism or trait emotionality. Dimensional personality research and categorical approaches to clinical disorder then drifted apart from each other, from neuropsychology, and from non-human data. Recently, the conceptualizations of both healthy personality and psychopathology have moved towards a common hierarchical trait perspective. Indeed, the proposed two sets of trait dimensions appear similar and may even be eventually the same. We provide, here, an introduction to this special issue of Personality Neuroscience, where the authors provide overviews of detailed areas where non-human data inform human personality and its psychopathology or provide explicit models for translation to human neuroscience. Once all the papers in the issue have appeared, we will also provide a concluding summary of them.
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Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 2022; 239:1373-1385. [PMID: 34448889 PMCID: PMC9110519 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-021-05956-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2021] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
RATIONALE Compromised cognitive control in cannabis use-tempting situations is thought to play a key role in the development of cannabis use disorders. However, little is known about how exposure to cannabis cues and contexts may influence cognitive control and the underlying neural mechanisms in cannabis users. OBJECTIVES Working memory (WM) is an attention reliant executive function central to cognitive control. In this study, we investigated how distracting cannabis words affected WM load-dependent performance and related brain activity in near-daily cannabis users (N = 36) relative to controls (N = 33). METHODS Brain activity was recorded during a novel N-back flanker WM task with neutral and cannabis flankers added as task-irrelevant distractors. RESULTS On a behavioural level, WM performance did not differ between groups, and the presence of cannabis flankers did not affect performance. However, in cannabis users compared to controls, the presence of cannabis flankers reduced WM load-related activity in multiple regions, including the insula, thalamus, superior parietal lobe and supramarginal gyrus. CONCLUSIONS The group specificity of these effects suggest that cannabis users might differ from controls in the way they process cannabis-related cues and that cannabis cue exposure could interfere with other cognitive processes under cognitively demanding circumstances. Future studies should focus on the role of context in cognitive control-related processes like WM and attention to further elucidate potential cognitive impairments in heavy cannabis users and how these relate to loss of control over drug seeking itself.
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15
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Liu X, Hou Z, Yin Y, Xie C, Zhang H, Zhang H, Zhang Z, Yuan Y. Decreased cortical thickness of left premotor cortex as a treatment predictor in major depressive disorder. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 15:1420-1426. [PMID: 32710337 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-020-00341-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the cerebral cortex characteristics (thickness, surface area, and curvature) in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and explore whether these cortex characteristics are predictors for the antidepressant therapeutic effect. 105 patients with MDD and 49 healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Both groups were given magnetic resonance image (MRI) scans at baseline period, and then the cerebral cortex characteristics (thickness, surface area, and curvature) were calculated using the DPABISurf software. The Hamilton Depression Scale-24 (HAMD-24) reductive rate was used to measure antidepressant therapeutic effect and Snaith Hamilton Rating Scale (SHAPS) reduction was performed to assess the change of anhedonia after treatment of 8 weeks. Correlation analysis was performed to identify the relationship between cortex characteristics and antidepressant therapeutic effect in patients with MDD. There were no significant differences in the cortical curvature and surface area between MDD and HC groups, while significant decreases were found in the cortical thickness of inferior frontal cortex (IFC), premotor cortex (PMC), orbital and medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) in the left hemisphere of MDD group, comparing with HC group (P < 0.05 for all, corrected by threshold-free cluster enhancement). In MDD group, the cortical thickness of left PMC had significant positive correlations with 8-week HAMD-24 reduction (r = 0.228, P = 0.020) and HAMD-24 reductive rate (r = 0.193, P = 0.048); and a negative correlation with the 8-week SHAPS reduction (r = -0.240, P = 0.018). Decreased cortical thickness in left PMC may be a predictor of therapeutic effect in MDD. Determining the cortical thickness of this region before treatment can provide certain reference value for clinical antidepressant treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyun Liu
- Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Zhenghua Hou
- Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yingying Yin
- Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Chunming Xie
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, ZhongDa Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Haisan Zhang
- Department of Clinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
| | - Hongxing Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
| | - Zhijun Zhang
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, ZhongDa Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China
| | - Yonggui Yuan
- Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
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16
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Moore M, Maclin EL, Iordan AD, Katsumi Y, Larsen RJ, Bagshaw AP, Mayhew S, Shafer AT, Sutton BP, Fabiani M, Gratton G, Dolcos F. Proof-of-concept evidence for trimodal simultaneous investigation of human brain function. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:4102-4121. [PMID: 34160860 PMCID: PMC8357002 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2020] [Revised: 04/04/2021] [Accepted: 05/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The link between spatial (where) and temporal (when) aspects of the neural correlates of most psychological phenomena is not clear. Elucidation of this relation, which is crucial to fully understand human brain function, requires integration across multiple brain imaging modalities and cognitive tasks that reliably modulate the engagement of the brain systems of interest. By overcoming the methodological challenges posed by simultaneous recordings, the present report provides proof‐of‐concept evidence for a novel approach using three complementary imaging modalities: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), event‐related potentials (ERPs), and event‐related optical signals (EROS). Using the emotional oddball task, a paradigm that taps into both cognitive and affective aspects of processing, we show the feasibility of capturing converging and complementary measures of brain function that are not currently attainable using traditional unimodal or other multimodal approaches. This opens up unprecedented possibilities to clarify spatiotemporal integration of brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew Moore
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Edward L Maclin
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Alexandru D Iordan
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Yuta Katsumi
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Ryan J Larsen
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Andrew P Bagshaw
- Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Stephen Mayhew
- Centre for Human Brain Health and School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - Andrea T Shafer
- Centre for Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Alta., Canada; now at Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, Brain Imaging and Behavior Section, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Bradley P Sutton
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Monica Fabiani
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
| | - Gabriele Gratton
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
| | - Florin Dolcos
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, USA
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17
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Mowlavi Vardanjani M, Ghasemian S, Sheibani V, A Mansouri F. The effects of emotional stimuli and oxytocin on inhibition ability and response execution in macaque monkeys. Behav Brain Res 2021; 413:113409. [PMID: 34111470 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2020] [Revised: 06/04/2021] [Accepted: 06/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Social and emotional content of environmental stimuli influence executive control of behavior. There has been a great variability in the behavioral effects of emotional stimuli in humans. These variabilities might arise from other contextual factors, such as specific task demands or natural hormones, which potentially interact with emotional stimuli in modulating executive functions. This study aimed at examining the effects of social-emotional visual stimuli and a natural hormone (oxytocin) on inhibition ability and response execution of macaque monkeys. In a crossover design, monkeys received inhaled oxytocin or its vehicle before performing a stop-signal task in which they must respond rapidly to a visual go-cue in Go trials but inhibit the initiated response following the onset of a stop-cue in Stop trials. The social-emotional content (negative, positive or neutral) of the go-cue was changed trial-by-trial. We found that monkeys' inhibition ability was significantly influenced by the social-emotional content of stimuli and appeared as an enhanced inhibition ability when monkeys were exposed to negative stimuli. However, response execution was not influenced by the emotional content of stimuli in the current or preceding trials. The same dose of oxytocin, which modulated working memory in monkeys, had no significant effect on the inhibition ability, but significantly decreased monkeys' response time regardless of the stimulus valence. Our findings indicate that emotional stimuli, valence dependently, influence monkeys' inhibition ability but not their response execution and suggest that oxytocin might attenuate reorientation of cognitive resources to the task irrelevant emotional information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marzieh Mowlavi Vardanjani
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Sadegh Ghasemian
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
| | - Vahid Sheibani
- Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
| | - Farshad A Mansouri
- Australian Research Council, Centre of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Monash University, Australia
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18
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Marxen M, Jacob MJ, Hellrung L, Riedel P, Smolka MN. Questioning the role of amygdala and insula in an attentional capture by emotional stimuli task. Hum Brain Mapp 2021; 42:1257-1267. [PMID: 33216427 PMCID: PMC7927307 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2020] [Revised: 10/16/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Our senses are constantly monitoring the environment for emotionally salient stimuli that are potentially relevant for survival. Because of our limited cognitive resources, emotionally salient distractors prolong reaction times (RTs) as compared to neutral distractors. In addition, many studies have reported fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) activation of both the amygdala and the anterior insula for similar valence contrasts. However, a direct correlation of trail-by-trial BOLD activity with RTs has not been shown, yet, which would be a crucial piece of evidence to relate the two observations. To investigate the role of the above two regions in the context of emotional distractor effects, we study here the correlation between BOLD activity and RTs for a simple attentional capture by emotional stimuli (ACES) choice reaction time task using a general linear subject-level model with a parametric RT regressor. We found significant regression coefficients in the anterior insula, supplementary motor cortex, medial precentral regions, sensory-motor areas and others, but not in the amygdala, despite activation of both insula and amygdala in the traditional valence contrast across trials (i.e., negative vs. neutral pictures). In addition, we found that subjects that exhibit a stronger RT distractor effect across trials also show a stronger BOLD valence contrast in the right anterior insula but not in the amygdala. Our results indicate that the current neuroimaging-based evidence for the involvement of the amygdala in RT slowing is limited. We advocate that models of emotional capture should incorporate both the amygdala and the anterior insula as separate entities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Marxen
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuroimaging CenterTechnische Universität DresdenDresdenGermany
| | - Mark J. Jacob
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuroimaging CenterTechnische Universität DresdenDresdenGermany
| | - Lydia Hellrung
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuroimaging CenterTechnische Universität DresdenDresdenGermany
- Department of EconomicsUniversity of ZurichZurichSwitzerland
| | - Philipp Riedel
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuroimaging CenterTechnische Universität DresdenDresdenGermany
| | - Michael N. Smolka
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuroimaging CenterTechnische Universität DresdenDresdenGermany
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19
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Sommer A, Ecker L, Plewnia C. Neural Signatures of Performance Feedback in the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT): An ERP Study. Front Hum Neurosci 2021; 15:630468. [PMID: 33679350 PMCID: PMC7930379 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.630468] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Research on cognitive control has sparked increasing interest in recent years, as it is an important prerequisite for goal oriented human behavior. The paced auditory serial addition task (PASAT) has been used to test and train cognitive control functions. This adaptive, challenging task includes continuous performance feedback. Therefore, additional cognitive control capacities are required to process this information along with the already high task-load. The underlying neural mechanisms, however, are still unclear. To explore the neural signatures of the PASAT and particularly the processing of distractive feedback information, feedback locked event-related potentials were derived from 24 healthy participants during an adaptive 2-back version of the PASAT. Larger neural activation after negative feedback was found for feedback related negativity (FRN), P300, and late positive potential (LPP). In early stages of feedback processing (i.e., FRN), a larger difference between positive and negative feedback responses was associated with poorer overall performance. This association was inverted in later stages (i.e., P300 and LPP). Together, our findings indicate stage-dependent associations between neural activation after negative information and cognitive functioning. Conceivably, increased early responses to negative feedback signify distraction, whereas higher activity at later stages reflects cognitive control processes to preserve ongoing performance.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Christian Plewnia
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Neurophysiology & Interventional Neuropsychiatry, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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20
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Natural sleep loss is associated with lower mPFC activity during negative distracter processing. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2021; 21:242-253. [PMID: 33469886 PMCID: PMC7994230 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00862-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that loss of sleep has a negative impact on both emotional and cognitive functioning. We examined whether subjectively reported natural sleep loss is associated with the interplay between emotion and cognition, as was probed by brain activity in response to emotional distraction during a working memory task. Forty-six healthy male adults reported their typical weekly sleep pattern using the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ), while recent sleep loss was enquired using a sleep diary in the 7 days preceding scanning. Participants performed a delayed match-to-sample task with negative and neutral distracters during the delay period inside the MRI scanner. Activity differences between negative and neutral distracters were associated to both sleep loss measures across participants. The amount of typically encountered sleep loss indicated by the MCTQ, but not sleep diary, was negatively associated with activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex during emotionally negative compared to neutral distraction (p < 0.025, whole brain corrected). Participants showed less distracter-related activity in the ACC and dorsomedial PFC with increasing sleep loss, which, in the long run, might contribute to less adaptive emotional processing, and therefore a greater vulnerability to develop affective disorders.
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21
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Weigard A, Wilson SJ, Shapiro Z, Galloway-Long H, Huang-Pollock C. Neural correlates of working memory's suppression of aversive olfactory distraction effects. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 15:2254-2268. [PMID: 33405095 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-020-00419-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/04/2020] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Human cognitive performance is often disrupted by distractions related to aversive stimuli and affective states, but, paradoxically, there is also evidence to suggest that high working memory demands reduce the impact of aversive distraction. Previous empirical work suggests this latter effect occurs because working memory demands reduce attention to off-task processes, but the brain regions that mediate this effect remain uncertain. The current study utilizes a novel distraction manipulation involving unpleasant odorants to identify neural structures that buffer performance from aversive distraction under high working memory demands, and to clarify their connectivity in this context. Twenty-one healthy young adults (12 women) completed a verbal n-back task under two levels of load and were concurrently exposed to either room air or aversive odorants. Three brain regions displayed increases in neural responses to olfactory distractors under high load only; the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and right cerebellar Crus I. Of these regions, only the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex also displayed context-specific connectivity with a region thought to be involved in off-task processes: the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Overall, results suggest that, under high working memory demands, areas of the prefrontal cortex and cerebellum shield cognition from aversive distraction, potentially through interactions with brain structures involved in off-task processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Weigard
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Rachel Upjohn Building, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
| | - Stephen J Wilson
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Moore Building, State College, PA, USA
| | - Zvi Shapiro
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Moore Building, State College, PA, USA
| | - Hilary Galloway-Long
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Moore Building, State College, PA, USA
| | - Cynthia Huang-Pollock
- Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Moore Building, State College, PA, USA
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22
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Shafer AT, Benoit JR, Brown MRG, Greenshaw AJ, Van Vliet KJ, Vohra S, Dolcos F, Singhal A. Differences in attentional control and white matter microstructure in adolescents with attentional, affective, and behavioral disorders. Brain Imaging Behav 2021; 14:599-614. [PMID: 31838614 DOI: 10.1007/s11682-019-00211-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Adolescence is a critical time of physiological, cognitive, and social development. It is also a time of increased risk-taking and vulnerability for psychopathology. White matter (WM) changes during adolescence have been better elucidated in the last decade, but how WM is impacted by psychopathology during this time remains unclear. Here, we examined the link between WM microstructure and psychopathology during adolescence. Twenty youth diagnosed with affective, attentional, and behavioral disorders (clinical sample), and 20 age-matched controls were recruited to examine group differences in WM microstructure, attentional control, and the link between them. The main results showed that clinical sample had relatively lower attentional control and fractional anisotropy (FA) in WM throughout the brain: two association tracts were identified, and many differences were found in areas rich in callosal and projection fibers. Moreover, increased FA was positively associated with attention performance in the clinical sample in structures supporting ventral WM pathways, whereas a similar link was identified in controls in dorsal WM association fibers. Overall, these results support a model of general impairment in WM microstructure combined with reliance on altered, perhaps less efficient, pathways for attentional control in youth with affective, attentional, and behavioral disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea T Shafer
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, USA.
| | - James R Benoit
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Matthew R G Brown
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Andy J Greenshaw
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.,Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - K Jessica Van Vliet
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Sunita Vohra
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.,Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Florin Dolcos
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.,Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.,Psychology Department and Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA.,Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
| | - Anthony Singhal
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. .,Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
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23
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Nery FG, Wilson AR, Schneider MR, Strawn JR, Patino LR, McNamara RK, Adler CM, Strakowski SM, DelBello MP. Medication exposure and predictors of first mood episode in offspring of parents with bipolar disorder: a prospective study. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2020; 42:481-488. [PMID: 32401870 PMCID: PMC7524417 DOI: 10.1590/1516-4446-2019-0802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2019] [Accepted: 03/01/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To prospectively investigate whether baseline clinical characteristics and medication exposure predict development of major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder in offspring of parents with bipolar disorder. METHODS Youth aged 9-20 years with at least one biological parent with bipolar disorder and no prior history of mood or psychotic episodes (n=93) were prospectively evaluated and treated naturalistically during the study. Participants were divided into two groups: converters, defined as those who met DSM-IV criteria for a mood episode during follow-up (n=19); or non-converters (n=74). Logistic regression models were used to investigate associations between baseline clinical variables and medication exposure during follow-up and risk of developing a first mood episode (conversion). RESULTS Multivariate regression analyses showed that baseline anxiety disorders and subsyndromal mood disorders were associated with increased risk of conversion during follow-up. Adding medication exposure to the multivariate model showed that exposure to antidepressants during follow-up was associated with increased risk of conversion. CONCLUSIONS Caution should be used when treating bipolar offspring with anxiety and/or emerging depressive symptoms using antidepressant agents, given the increased risk of developing a major mood disorder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabiano G Nery
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Anna R Wilson
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | | | - Jeffrey R Strawn
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Luis R Patino
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Robert K McNamara
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Caleb M Adler
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Stephen M Strakowski
- Department of Psychiatry, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Melissa P DelBello
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
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24
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Pacios J, Caperos JM, Del Río D, Maestú F. Emotional distraction in working memory: Bayesian-based evidence of the equivalent effect of positive and neutral interference. Cogn Emot 2020; 35:282-290. [PMID: 33143521 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2020.1839382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
Evidence has shown that negative distracting stimuli are most difficult to control when we are focused in a relevant task, while positive and neutral distractors might be equally overcome. Still, recent meta-analytic evidence has pointed out that differences in the ability to cope with positive or neutral distractors may be difficult to detect in healthy people and in laboratory sets. Here we re-analyse memory performance in four already published working memory experiments in which affective and non-affective distractors were used. We focused on the positive versus neutral contrast, which did not reveal differences in the original analysis, with the aim of quantifying evidence for the null hypothesis using a Bayesian approach. Bayes factor (BF) estimates show substantial evidence in favour to the absence of differences in three out of four datasets. Further, BF aggregated from the four studies shows stronger evidence for the null hypothesis. Results from this analysis show that WM performance after positive and neutral interference can be considered equivalent, suggesting that positive distractors can be overcome to the same extent as neutral ones.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Pacios
- Department of Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.,Laboratory of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, Center for Biomedical Technology (Technical University of Madrid and Complutense University of Madrid), Madrid, Spain
| | - José M Caperos
- Department of Psychology, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain
| | - David Del Río
- Department of Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.,Laboratory of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, Center for Biomedical Technology (Technical University of Madrid and Complutense University of Madrid), Madrid, Spain
| | - Fernando Maestú
- Department of Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.,Laboratory of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience, Center for Biomedical Technology (Technical University of Madrid and Complutense University of Madrid), Madrid, Spain
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25
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Spangler DP, McGinley JJ. Vagal Flexibility Mediates the Association Between Resting Vagal Activity and Cognitive Performance Stability Across Varying Socioemotional Demands. Front Psychol 2020; 11:2093. [PMID: 33013534 PMCID: PMC7509204 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02093] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Vagal flexibility describes the ability to modulate cardiac vagal responses to fit a dynamic range of challenges. Extant theory on vagal function implies that vagal flexibility is a mediating mechanism through which resting vagal activity, a putative individual difference related to self-regulation, affects adaptive behavior and cognition. Nevertheless, little research has directly tested this hypothesis, thereby leaving fundamental mechanisms of vagal function and adaptability unclear. To this end, 47 healthy subjects completed a 5 min baseline followed by Stroop tasks combined with concurrent auditory distractors. There were four different Stroop task conditions that varied the social and emotional content of the auditory distractors. Electrocardiogram was continuously recorded to assess vagal responses to each condition as heart rate variability [root mean square of successive differences (RMSSDs)] reactivity. Vagal flexibility significantly mediated the association between resting vagal activity and stability of inhibition performance (Stroop interference) scores. In particular, higher resting RMSSD was related to higher standard deviation of RMSSD reactivity scores, reflecting greater differences in RMSSD reactivity between distractor conditions (i.e., greater vagal flexibility). Greater vagal flexibility was in turn related to more stability in Stroop interference across the same conditions. The mean of RMSSD reactivity scores across conditions was not significantly related to resting RMSSD or stability in Stroop performance, and mean RMSSD reactivity did not mediate relations between resting RMSSD and stability in Stroop performance. Overall, findings suggest that vagal flexibility may promote the effects of resting vagal activity on stabilizing cognitive inhibition in the face of environmental perturbations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek P Spangler
- Human Research and Engineering Directorate, U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, MD, United States
| | - Jared J McGinley
- Department of Psychology, Towson University, Towson, MD, United States
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26
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Liu P, Vandemeer MRJ, Joanisse MF, Barch DM, Dozois DJA, Hayden EP. Depressogenic self-schemas are associated with smaller regional grey matter volume in never-depressed preadolescents. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2020; 28:102422. [PMID: 32949875 PMCID: PMC7502366 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2020] [Revised: 09/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths' positive self-schemas were associated with greater regional GMV within the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), while negative self-schemas were associated with smaller regional GMV within vlPFC and PCC, areas important to emotion regulation and self-referential processing. These associations remained significant after controlling for youths' concurrent depressive symptoms. Exploratory mediation analysis suggested that adolescents' depressogenic self-schemas may mediate associations between GMV and depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that the observed GMV variations within vlPFC and PCC may serve as neurobiological markers of depressogenic self-schemas during preadolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pan Liu
- Department of Psychology, Western University, Westminster Hall, 361 Windermere Rd, London, ON N6G 2K3, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada.
| | - Matthew R J Vandemeer
- Department of Psychology, Western University, Westminster Hall, 361 Windermere Rd, London, ON N6G 2K3, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Marc F Joanisse
- Department of Psychology, Western University, Westminster Hall, 361 Windermere Rd, London, ON N6G 2K3, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1125, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - David J A Dozois
- Department of Psychology, Western University, Westminster Hall, 361 Windermere Rd, London, ON N6G 2K3, Canada
| | - Elizabeth P Hayden
- Department of Psychology, Western University, Westminster Hall, 361 Windermere Rd, London, ON N6G 2K3, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
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27
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Effects of load and emotional state on EEG alpha-band power and inter-site synchrony during a visual working memory task. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2020; 20:1122-1132. [PMID: 32839958 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00823-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Motivationally/emotionally engaging stimuli are strong competitors for the limited capacity of sensory and cognitive systems. Thus, they often act as distractors, interfering with performance in concurrent primary tasks. Keeping task-relevant information in focus while suppressing the impact of distracting stimuli is one of the functions of working memory (WM). Macroscopic brain oscillations in the alpha band (8-13 Hz) have recently been identified as a neural correlate of WM processing. Using electroencephalography, we examined the extent to which changes in alpha power and inter-site connectivity during a typical WM task are sensitive to load and emotional distraction. Participants performed a lateralized change-detection task with two levels of load (four vs. two items), which was preceded by naturalistic scenes rated either as unpleasant or neutral, acting as distractors. The results showed the expected parieto-occipital alpha reduction in the hemisphere contralateral to the WM task array, compared to the ipsilateral hemisphere, during the retention interval. Selectively heightened oscillatory coupling between frontal and occipital sensors was observed (1) during the retention interval as a function of load, and (2) upon the onset of the memory array, after viewing neutral compared to unpleasant distractors. At the end of the retention interval, we observed greater coupling during the unpleasant compared to the neutral condition. These findings are consistent with the notions that (1) representing more items in WM requires greater interconnectivity across cortical areas, and (2) unpleasant emotional distractors interfere with subsequent WM processing by disrupting processing during the encoding stage.
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The Impact of Focused Attention on Emotional Experience: A Functional MRI Investigation. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2020; 20:1011-1026. [PMID: 32770316 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-020-00816-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Emotional well-being depends on the ability to adaptively cope with various emotional challenges. Most studies have investigated the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation strategies deployed relatively later in the timing of processing that leads to full emotional experiences. However, less is known about strategies that are engaged in earlier stages of emotion processing, such as those involving attentional deployment. We investigated the neural mechanisms associated with self-guided Focused Attention (FA) in mitigating subjective negative emotional experiences. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were recorded while participants viewed a series of composite negative and neutral images with distinguishable foreground (FG) and background (BG) areas. Participants were instructed to focus either on the FG or BG components of the images, and then rated their emotional experiences. Behavioral results showed that FA was successful in decreasing emotional ratings for negative images viewed in BG Focus condition. At the neural level, the BG Focus was associated with increased activity in regions typically implicated in top-down executive control (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and lateral parietal cortex) and decreased activity in regions linked to affective processing (amygdala and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex). Dissociable brain activity linked to FA also was identified in visual cortices, including between the parahippocampal and fusiform gyri, showing increased versus decreased activity, respectively, during the BG Focus. These findings complement the evidence from prior FA studies with recollected emotional memories as internal stimuli and further demonstrate the effectiveness of self-guided FA in mitigating negative emotional experiences associated with processing of external unpleasant stimuli.
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Jones NP, Schlund M, Kerestes R, Ladouceur CD. Emotional Interference in Early Adolescence: Positive Reinforcement Modulates the Behavioral and Neural Effects of Negative Emotional Distracters. Cereb Cortex 2020; 30:2642-2657. [PMID: 31812998 PMCID: PMC7175015 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhz266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2019] [Revised: 08/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Limited research has examined functioning within fronto-limbic systems subserving the resistance to emotional interference in adolescence despite evidence indicating that alterations in these systems are implicated in the developmental trajectories of affective disorders. This study examined the functioning of fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference in early adolescence and whether positive reinforcement could modulate these systems to promote resistance to emotional distraction. Fifty healthy early adolescents (10-13 years old) completed an emotional delayed working memory (WM) paradigm in which no distractors (fixation crosshair) and emotional distracters (neutral and negative images) were presented with and without positive reinforcement for correct responses. WM accuracy decreased with negative distracters relative to neutral distracters and no distracters, and activation increased in amygdala and prefrontal cortical (PFC) regions (ventrolateral, dorsomedial, ventromedial, and subgenual anterior cingulate) with negative distracters compared with those with no distracters. Reinforcement improved performance and reduced activation in the amygdala, dorsomedial PFC, and ventrolateral PFC. Decreases in amygdala activation to negative distracters due to reinforcement mediated observed decreases in reaction times. These findings demonstrate that healthy adolescents recruit similar fronto-limbic systems subserving emotional interference as adults and that positive reinforcement can modulate fronto-limbic systems to promote resistance to emotional distraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil P Jones
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Michael Schlund
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
- Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA
| | - Rebecca Kerestes
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Cecile D Ladouceur
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
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Liu P, Vandermeer MRJ, Joanisse MF, Barch DM, Dozois DJA, Hayden EP. Neural Activity During Self-referential Processing in Children at Risk for Depression. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2020; 5:429-437. [PMID: 32081615 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.12.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2019] [Revised: 12/10/2019] [Accepted: 12/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND According to cognitive theories of depression, more negative and less positive self-schemas are thought to play a causal role in the disorder. Existing evidence speaks to the neural substrates of self-referential processes in both healthy and depressed individuals, but little is known about how the brain relates to self-referential processing in the context of depression risk in children. We therefore studied the neural substrates of self-referential processing in never-depressed preadolescent children at high and low risk for depression based on maternal depression history. METHODS A total of 87 never-depressed 10-12-year-old children (29 with maternal depression) completed a self-referential encoding task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging session, in which they were presented a series of positive and negative trait adjectives and endorsed whether each word was self-descriptive. Small volume correction analyses were conducted within 7 regions of interest that are important for self-referential and emotion-related processes. RESULTS Analyses of small volume correction indicated that high-risk children showed greater activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the positive-word self-referential encoding task condition than low-risk children. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation mediated the association between maternal depression and child depressive symptoms only when children had lower positive self-schemas, indicating that more positive self-schemas may protect at-risk children from developing depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Cortical midline and prefrontal regions are important to self-, emotion-, and regulation-related processes. Heightened activation within these regions in never-depressed high-risk children indicates that these neurobiological substrates may mediate early vulnerability to depression in the context of cognitive processes relevant to self-concepts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pan Liu
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
| | - Matthew R J Vandermeer
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Marc F Joanisse
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
| | - David J A Dozois
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Elizabeth P Hayden
- Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
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31
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Pereira DR, Sampaio A, Pinheiro AP. Is internal source memory recognition modulated by emotional encoding contexts? PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2020; 85:958-979. [PMID: 32060700 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-020-01294-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2019] [Accepted: 01/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
The influence of emotion on memory has been mainly examined by manipulating the emotional valence and/or arousal of critical items. Few studies probed how emotional information presented during the encoding of critical neutral items modulates memory recognition, particularly when considering source memory features. In this study, we specified the role of emotional encoding contexts in internal source memory performance (discrimination between encoding tasks) using a mixed (Experiment 1) and a blocked design (Experiment 2). During the study phase, participants were required to evaluate a set of neutral words, using either a self-referential or a semantic (common judgment) encoding strategy. Prior and concomitantly with each word, negative, neutral or positive pictures were presented in the background. The beneficial effect of self-referential encoding was observed for both item and internal source memory in both experiments. Remarkably, item and internal source memory recognition was not modulated by emotion, even though a secondary analysis indicated that the consistent exposure to negative (vs. positive) information led to worse source memory performance. These findings suggest that internal source memory of neutral items is not always affected by changing or repetitive emotional encoding contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Diana R Pereira
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal
| | - Adriana Sampaio
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal
| | - Ana P Pinheiro
- Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057, Braga, Portugal. .,Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013, Lisbon, Portugal.
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32
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Loos E, Schicktanz N, Fastenrath M, Coynel D, Milnik A, Fehlmann B, Egli T, Ehrler M, Papassotiropoulos A, de Quervain DJF. Reducing Amygdala Activity and Phobic Fear through Cognitive Top-Down Regulation. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:1117-1129. [PMID: 32013687 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The amygdala is critically involved in emotional processing, including fear responses, and shows hyperactivity in anxiety disorders. Previous research in healthy participants has indicated that amygdala activity is down-regulated by cognitively demanding tasks that engage the PFC. It is unknown, however, if such an acute down-regulation of amygdala activity might correlate with reduced fear in anxious participants. In an fMRI study of 43 participants (11 men) with fear of snakes, we found reduced amygdala activity when visual stimuli were processed under high cognitive load, irrespective of whether the stimuli were of neutral or phobic content. Furthermore, dynamic causal modeling revealed that this general reduction in amygdala activity was partially mediated by a load-dependent increase in dorsolateral PFC activity. Importantly, high cognitive load also resulted in an acute decrease in perceived phobic fear while viewing the fearful stimuli. In conclusion, our data indicate that a cognitively demanding task results in a top-down regulation of amygdala activity and an acute reduction of fear in phobic participants. These findings may inspire the development of novel psychological intervention approaches aimed at reducing fear in anxiety disorders.
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33
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Response interference by central foils is modulated by dimensions of depression and anxiety. Atten Percept Psychophys 2020; 82:1818-1834. [PMID: 31925735 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-019-01933-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
We used a maximum-likelihood-based model selection approach to investigate what aspects of affective traits influence flanker interference in a nonaffective task. A total of 153 undergraduates completed measures of anhedonic depression, anxious arousal, anxious apprehension, and a modified flanker task with two levels of perceptual load. For central foils, the most parsimonious model included load, depression, and anxious arousal. Participants scoring low on the depression and anxious arousal scales exhibited a typical perceptual load effect, with larger interference effects observed under low perceptual load compared with high perceptual load conditions. Increased depression symptoms were associated with a reduced perceptual load effect. However, the load effect reemerged in individuals who scored high on both depression and anxious arousal scales, but to a lesser extent than those scoring low on both. This pattern of results underscores the importance of studying co-occurring affective traits and their interactions in the same sample. For peripherally presented foils, the model that only included load as a factor was more parsimonious than any of the models incorporating affective traits. These findings suggest avenues for future research and highlight the role of diverse affective symptoms on various aspects of nonemotional attentional processing.
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34
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Neural correlates of emotion-attention interactions: From perception, learning, and memory to social cognition, individual differences, and training interventions. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 108:559-601. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.08.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/01/2019] [Revised: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 08/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Abo Aoun M, Meek BP, Modirrousta M. Cognitive profiles in major depressive disorder: Comparing remitters and non-remitters to rTMS treatment. Psychiatry Res 2019; 279:55-61. [PMID: 31302352 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2018] [Revised: 07/02/2019] [Accepted: 07/03/2019] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is typically accompanied by cognitive impairment. Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) treatment for MDD involves stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which plays an important role in cognition. This study aimed to identify differences in cognitive profiles between remitters and non-remitters to rTMS at baseline and across treatment. 25 patients with MDD performed cognitive tasks at baseline and after 6, 12 and 30 sessions of rTMS. At baseline, there was no difference in simple reaction time (RT) between groups, but remitters (n = 13) showed faster RTs than non-remitters (n = 12) in the Switch and No-Switch conditions of Task Switching. Across sessions, remitters showed a decrease in 3-Back omission errors and RTs to 3-Back, Stroop's Congruent and Incongruent, and Task Switching's Switch and No-Switch conditions, whereas non-remitters only showed improvements in Stroop Congruent and Incongruent RTs. Baseline and final scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were positively correlated with Switch and No-Switch RTs. This study demonstrates that eventual remitters to rTMS treatment for MDD perform better in cognitive tasks requiring shifting attention, and this difference is observable prior to the start of treatment. Remitters also show improvement in both their mood and cognitive performance.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Mandana Modirrousta
- St Boniface General Hospital, Winnipeg, MB, R2H2A6, Canada; University of Manitoba, Department of Psychiatry, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
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36
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Integration of spatio-temporal dynamics in emotion-cognition interactions: A simultaneous fMRI-ERP investigation using the emotional oddball task. Neuroimage 2019; 202:116078. [PMID: 31400532 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2019] [Revised: 07/09/2019] [Accepted: 08/06/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Although a large corpus of evidence has identified brain regions and networks involved in emotion-cognition interactions, it remains unclear how spatial and temporal dynamics of the mechanisms by which emotion interfaces with cognition are integrated. Capitalizing on multi-modal brain imaging approaches, we used simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and event-related potential (ERP) recordings, to investigate the link between spatial and temporal aspects of processing in an emotional oddball task, and in relation to personality measures reflecting basic affective responses and emotion control. First, fMRI captured expected dorso-ventral dissociations, with greater response to targets in regions of dorsal brain networks (e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and to emotional distracters in regions of ventral networks (e.g., ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, vlPFC). Also, ERP responses to targets were associated with a prominent P300, and responses to distracters with the late positive potential (LPP). Second, providing evidence for spatio-temporal integration of brain signals, ERP-informed fMRI analyses showed a link between LPP amplitude at parietal electrodes and the fMRI signal in the vlPFC, to emotional distraction. Third, regarding the link to personality measures, increased emotional arousability and attentional impulsiveness was associated with greater LPP differences between negative distracters and targets and enhanced response to negative distracters in the amygdala, respectively. Furthermore, we identified opposing relations between responses to emotional distraction and individual scores for cognitive reappraisal and self-control impulsiveness in posterior vlPFC. This suggests a greater engagement of this region in participants with reduced tendencies to employ reappraisal as a coping strategy and those with reduced ability to control impulsive responses during emotional distraction. Together, supporting the feasibility of integrating multi-dimensional approaches to clarify neural mechanisms of emotion-cognition interactions, these results point to convergence and complementarity between measures that differentially capture spatio-temporal dynamics of brain activity, and their associations with measures of individual differences in affective responses and control.
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37
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Pedale T, Macaluso E, Santangelo V. Enhanced insular/prefrontal connectivity when resisting from emotional distraction during visual search. Brain Struct Funct 2019; 224:2009-2026. [PMID: 31111208 PMCID: PMC6591190 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-019-01873-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2018] [Accepted: 04/11/2019] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
Previous literature demonstrated that the processing of emotional stimuli can interfere with goal-directed behavior. This has been shown primarily in the context of working memory tasks, but “emotional distraction” may affect also other processes, such as the orienting of visuo-spatial attention. During fMRI, we presented human subjects with emotional stimuli embedded within complex everyday life visual scenes. Emotional stimuli could be either the current target to be searched for or task-irrelevant distractors. Behavioral and eye-movement data revealed faster detection of emotional than neutral targets. Emotional distractors were found to be fixated later and for a shorter duration than emotional targets, suggesting efficient top-down control in avoiding emotional distraction. The fMRI data demonstrated that negative (but not positive) stimuli were mandatorily processed by limbic/para-limbic regions (namely, the right amygdala and the left insula), irrespective of current task relevance: that is, these regions activated for both emotional targets and distractors. However, analyses of inter-regional connectivity revealed a functional coupling between the left insula and the right prefrontal cortex that increased specifically during search in the presence of emotional distractors. This indicates that increased functional coupling between affective limbic/para-limbic regions and control regions in the frontal cortex can attenuate emotional distraction, permitting the allocation of spatial attentional resources toward task-relevant neutral targets in the presence of distracting emotional signals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tiziana Pedale
- Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi, 78, 00158, Rome, Italy. .,Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Via Ardeatina, 306, 00179, Rome, Italy. .,Umeå Center for Functional Brain Imaging (UFBI), Department of Integrative Medical Biology, Umeå University, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden.
| | - Emiliano Macaluso
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Via Ardeatina, 306, 00179, Rome, Italy.,ImpAct Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, 16, av. du Doyen Lépine, 69676, Bron Cedex, France
| | - Valerio Santangelo
- Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Via Ardeatina, 306, 00179, Rome, Italy. .,Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences and Education, University of Perugia, Piazza G. Ermini, 1, 06123, Perugia, Italy.
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38
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Mikels JA, Reuter-Lorenz PA. Affective Working Memory: An Integrative Psychological Construct. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2019; 14:543-559. [PMID: 31059662 DOI: 10.1177/1745691619837597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
When people ruminate about an unfortunate encounter with a loved one, savor a long-sought accomplishment, or hold in mind feelings from a marvelous or regretfully tragic moment, what mental processes orchestrate these psychological phenomena? Such experiences typify how affect interacts with working memory, which we posit can occur in three primary ways: emotional experiences can modulate working memory, working memory can modulate emotional experiences, and feelings can be the mental representations maintained by working memory. We propose that this last mode constitutes distinct neuropsychological processes that support the integration of particular cognitive and affective processes: affective working memory. Accumulating behavioral and neural evidence suggests that affective working memory processes maintain feelings and are partially separable from their cognitive working memory counterparts. Affective working memory may be important for elucidating the contribution of affect to decision making, preserved emotional processes in later life, and mechanisms of psychological dysfunction in clinical disorders. We review basic behavioral, neuroscience, and clinical research that provides evidence for affective working memory; consider its theoretical implications; and evaluate its functional role within the psychological architecture. In sum, the perspective we advocate is that affective working memory is a fundamental mechanism of mind.
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39
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Lake JI, Spielberg JM, Infantolino ZP, Crocker LD, Yee CM, Heller W, Miller GA. Reward anticipation and punishment anticipation are instantiated in the brain via opponent mechanisms. Psychophysiology 2019; 56:e13381. [PMID: 31062381 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2018] [Revised: 03/23/2019] [Accepted: 03/25/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
fMRI investigations have examined the extent to which reward and punishment motivation are associated with common or opponent neural systems, but such investigations have been limited by confounding variables and methodological constraints. The present study aimed to address limitations of earlier approaches and more comprehensively evaluate the extent to which neural activation associated with reward and punishment motivation reflects opponent or shared systems. Participants completed a modified monetary incentive delay task, which involved the presentation of a cue followed by a target to which participants were required to make a speeded button press. Using a factorial design, cues indicated whether monetary reward and/or loss (i.e., cues signaled probability of reward, punishment, both, or neither) could be expected depending upon response speed. Neural analyses evaluated evidence of (a) directionally opposing effects by testing for regions of differential activation for reward and punishment anticipation, (b) mutual inhibition by testing for interactive effects of reward and punishment anticipation within a factorial design, and (c) opposing effects on shared outputs via a psychophysiological interaction analysis. Evidence supporting all three criteria for opponent systems was obtained. Collectively, present findings support conceptualizing reward and punishment motivation as opponent forces influencing brain and behavior and indicate that shared activation does not suggest the operation of a common neural mechanism instantiating reward and punishment motivation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica I Lake
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
| | - Jeffrey M Spielberg
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
| | | | | | - Cindy M Yee
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.,Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
| | - Wendy Heller
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois
| | - Gregory A Miller
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.,Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.,Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois
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40
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González-Garrido AA, Gallardo-Moreno GB, Gómez-Velázquez FR. Type 1 diabetes and working memory processing of emotional faces. Behav Brain Res 2019; 363:173-181. [PMID: 30738100 DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2019.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2018] [Revised: 01/22/2019] [Accepted: 02/04/2019] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Several executive functions decline with the development of type-1 diabetes (T1D), particularly working memory (WM). In adults, WM ensures efficient cognitive processing by focusing on task-relevant information while suppressing distractors. It has been well documented that WM can be influenced by emotional stimuli, which may facilitate the retention of information, interfere with uptake, or even affect its capacity. We evaluated the effect of T1D on visual WM processing using emotional faces as stimuli, in young patients with satisfactory clinical evolution, and matched controls without T1D. All subjects performed a 2-back task detecting facial identity using neutral, happy or fearful faces in a block design for fMRI. Behavioral performance was similar with the exception that patients responded significantly slower. Most importantly, between-group differences were found in patterns of brain activation. In comparison, more widespread brain activation -predominantly prefrontal- was found in the participants with T1D when processing neutral faces, while a decrease was observed when processing happy and fearful ones. Statistical contrasts demonstrated significantly-different activation patterns between groups when processing emotional faces, as controls exhibited greater activation in the cuneus, posterior cortex and parahippocampal gyrus, while the patients showed greater activation in the prefrontal structures. Results may reflect compensatory efforts made to minimize the deleterious effects of disease development on attention allocation processes and the operational efficiency of WM. The results suggest that emotional parameters should be periodically assessed in individuals with T1D in order to anticipate the emergence of attention and WM impairment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrés A González-Garrido
- Instituto de Neurociencias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico; Antiguo Hospital Civil de Guadalajara "Fray Antonio Alcalde", Mexico.
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Grützmann R, Riesel A, Kaufmann C, Kathmann N, Heinzel S. Emotional interference under low versus high executive control. Psychophysiology 2019; 56:e13380. [PMID: 31020677 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13380] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2018] [Revised: 04/04/2019] [Accepted: 04/04/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated that task-irrelevant emotional distractors interfere with task performance especially under low phasic executive control (i.e., in nonconflict trials). In the present study, we measured medio-frontal ERPs (N2 and correct-related negativity, CRN) to elucidate which aspects of task performance are affected by emotional interference in a flanker task. To create emotional interference, negative and neutral pictures were presented during the flanker stimuli. N2 and CRN were reduced after negative pictures, indicating that conflict processing and performance monitoring are both affected by emotional interference. On the behavioral level, prolonged response times after negative pictures were observed under low phasic executive control (i.e., in compatible trials). Additionally, we explored whether emotional interference is modulated not only by phasic changes in executive control (i.e., conflict vs. nonconflict trials) but also by tonic changes in executive control (i.e., low vs. high overall conflict frequency). To this end, the flanker task consisted of two blocks with 25% versus 75% incompatible trials. Prolonged response times after negative pictures in compatible trials were observed only under low tonic executive control but not under high executive control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rosa Grützmann
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Anja Riesel
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Christian Kaufmann
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Norbert Kathmann
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Stephan Heinzel
- Department of Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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Hur J, Stockbridge MD, Fox AS, Shackman AJ. Dispositional negativity, cognition, and anxiety disorders: An integrative translational neuroscience framework. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2019; 247:375-436. [PMID: 31196442 PMCID: PMC6578598 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.03.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
When extreme, anxiety can become debilitating. Anxiety disorders, which often first emerge early in development, are common and challenging to treat, yet the underlying mechanisms have only recently begun to come into focus. Here, we review new insights into the nature and biological bases of dispositional negativity, a fundamental dimension of childhood temperament and adult personality and a prominent risk factor for the development of pediatric and adult anxiety disorders. Converging lines of epidemiological, neurobiological, and mechanistic evidence suggest that dispositional negativity increases the likelihood of psychopathology via specific neurocognitive mechanisms, including attentional biases to threat and deficits in executive control. Collectively, these observations provide an integrative translational framework for understanding the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in adults and youth and set the stage for developing improved intervention strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juyoen Hur
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.
| | | | - Andrew S Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA, United States; California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, CA, United States
| | - Alexander J Shackman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States; Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States.
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43
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Ziaei M, Samrani G, Persson J. Age differences in the neural response to emotional distraction during working memory encoding. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2018; 18:869-883. [PMID: 29949112 PMCID: PMC6105189 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-018-0610-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Age-related declines in attention and working memory (WM) are well documented and may be worsened by the occurrence of distracting information. Emotionally valenced stimuli may have particularly strong distracting effects on cognition. We investigated age-related differences in emotional distraction using task-fMRI. WM performance in older adults was lower for emotional compared with neutral distractors, suggesting a disproportional impairment elicited by emotional task-irrelevant information. Critically, older adults were particularly distracted by task-irrelevant positive information, whereas the opposite pattern was found for younger adults. Age groups differed markedly in the brain response to emotional distractors; younger adults activated posterior cortical regions and the striatum, and older adults activated frontal regions. Also, an age by valence interaction was found for IFG and ACC, suggesting differential modulation of attention to task-relevant emotional information. These results provide new insights into age-related changes in emotional processing and the ability to resolve interference from emotional distraction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maryam Ziaei
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
| | - George Samrani
- Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Tomtebodavägen 18A, 17165, Solna, Sweden
| | - Jonas Persson
- Aging Research Center (ARC), Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Tomtebodavägen 18A, 17165, Solna, Sweden.
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Weintraub-Brevda RR, Chua EF. The role of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in emotional enhancement of memory: A TMS study. Cogn Neurosci 2018; 9:116-126. [PMID: 29987973 DOI: 10.1080/17588928.2018.1496905] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Negative stimuli are often remembered better than neutral stimuli, which is called the emotional enhancement of memory (EEM). We tested whether the role of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) in the EEM depended on stimulus valence and/or arousal, and attentional resources. Continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) was applied over the left VLPFC, right VLPFC and vertex before encoding 'negative arousing,' 'negative nonarousing,' and 'neutral' words under full and divided attention, followed by a recognition test. The vertex condition showed the EEM effect for 'negative arousing' and 'negative nonarousing' words. However, the right VLPFC condition showed no evidence of the EEM effect for 'negative arousing' or 'negative nonarousing' words, under full attention. In contrast, the left VLPFC condition showed the EEM effect for 'negative arousing' words, but not 'negative nonarousing' words, under full attention. Thus, the left and right VLPFC have different roles in the EEM, depending on valence and arousal.
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Affiliation(s)
- R Rachel Weintraub-Brevda
- a Department of Psychology , Brooklyn College of the City University of New York , Brooklyn , NY , USA.,b Department of Psychology , Graduate Center of the City University of New York , New York , NY , USA
| | - Elizabeth F Chua
- a Department of Psychology , Brooklyn College of the City University of New York , Brooklyn , NY , USA.,b Department of Psychology , Graduate Center of the City University of New York , New York , NY , USA
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Cavalera C, Pepe A, Zurloni V, Diana B, Realdon O, Todisco P, Castelnuovo G, Molinari E, Pagnini F. Negative social emotions and cognition: Shame, guilt and working memory impairments. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2018; 188:9-15. [PMID: 29800767 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.05.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2017] [Revised: 03/09/2018] [Accepted: 05/13/2018] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Negative emotions can have an impact on a variety of cognitive domains, including Working Memory (WM). The present work investigated whether shame and guilt modulate WM performance in a dual-task test both in a non-clinical and a clinical population. In Experiment 1, 76 non-clinical participants performed a dual-task before and after being randomly assigned to shame, guilt or neutral inductions elicited by the writing of autobiographical past experiences. Shame and guilt elicitations were related to impaired WM performances. In Experiment 2, 65 clinical inpatients with eating disorders were assigned to the same procedure. The negative relationship of self-conscious emotions and WM was confirmed. Taken together these results suggest that shame and guilt are related to impairments of WM in both clinical and non-clinical participants.
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46
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Pessoa L. Emotion and the Interactive Brain: Insights From Comparative Neuroanatomy and Complex Systems. EMOTION REVIEW 2018; 10:204-216. [PMID: 31537985 PMCID: PMC6752744 DOI: 10.1177/1754073918765675] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Although emotion is closely associated with motivation, and interacts with perception, cognition, and action, many conceptualizations still treat emotion as separate from these domains. Here, a comparative/evolutionary anatomy framework is presented to motivate the idea that long-range, distributed circuits involving the midbrain, thalamus, and forebrain are central to emotional processing. It is proposed that emotion can be understood in terms of large-scale network interactions spanning the neuroaxis that form "functionally integrated systems." At the broadest level, the argument is made that we need to move beyond a Newtonian view of causation to one involving complex systems where bidirectional influences and nonlinearities abound. Therefore, understanding interactions between subsystems and signal integration becomes central to unraveling the organization of the emotional brain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luiz Pessoa
- Department of Psychology and Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, USA
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47
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Iordan AD, Dolcos S, Dolcos F. Brain Activity and Network Interactions in the Impact of Internal Emotional Distraction. Cereb Cortex 2018; 29:2607-2623. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhy129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2018] [Revised: 05/03/2018] [Accepted: 05/10/2018] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- A D Iordan
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Current affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - S Dolcos
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Psychology Department, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
| | - F Dolcos
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
- Psychology Department, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
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48
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Taylor MJ, Robertson A, Keller AE, Sato J, Urbain C, Pang EW. Inhibition in the face of emotion: Characterization of the spatial-temporal dynamics that facilitate automatic emotion regulation. Hum Brain Mapp 2018; 39:2907-2916. [PMID: 29573366 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2017] [Revised: 02/16/2018] [Accepted: 03/07/2018] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Emotion regulation mediates socio-cognitive functions and is essential for interactions with others. The capacity to automatically inhibit responses to emotional stimuli is an important aspect of emotion regulation; the underlying neural mechanisms of this ability have been rarely investigated. Forty adults completed a Go/No-go task during magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings, where they responded rapidly to either a blue or purple frame which contained angry or happy faces. Subjects responded to the target color in an inhibition (75% Go trials) and a vigilance condition (25% Go trials). As expected, inhibition processes showed early, sustained activation (200-450 ms) in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Emotion-related inhibition processes showed greater activity with angry faces bilaterally in the orbital-frontal gyri (OFG) starting at 225 ms and temporal poles from 250 ms, with right hemisphere dominance. The presence of happy faces elicited earlier activity in the right OFG. This study demonstrates that the timing of inhibition processes varies with the emotional context and that there is much greater activation in the presence of angry faces. It underscores the importance of the right IFG for inhibition processes, but the OFG in automatic emotion regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margot J Taylor
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Amanda Robertson
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Anne E Keller
- Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Division of Neurology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Julie Sato
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Charline Urbain
- Department of Diagnostic Imaging, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Elizabeth W Pang
- Neuroscience & Mental Health Program, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.,Division of Neurology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Oei NYL, Jansen SW, Veer IM, Slagboom PE, van de Grond J, van Heemst D. Stress evokes stronger medial posterior cingulate deactivations during emotional distraction in slower paced aging. Biol Psychol 2018; 135:84-92. [PMID: 29505812 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.02.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2017] [Revised: 02/27/2018] [Accepted: 02/27/2018] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Middle-aged offspring from long-lived families are thought to have a slower pace of aging, possibly related to HPA-axis function. Here, we investigated the neural and behavioral effects of social stress in offspring compared to their regular aging partners on emotional distraction during working memory (WM). METHODS 104 middle-aged participants (53 males) consisting of offspring and their partners underwent the Trier Social Stress Test or a control procedure. Hereafter, a WM task with emotional distracters was performed using fMRI. Saliva cortisol levels were obtained during the procedure. RESULTS Partners had higher overall cortisol levels than offspring. In addition, partners had decreased deactivations compared to offspring in the medial posterior cingulate cortex (mPCC) during emotional distraction, which were significantly correlated with lower accuracy during emotional distraction. DISCUSSION mPCC-deactivations are known to be modulated by chronological aging, with more deactivations in the young than in the old. Here we show the same pattern in familial longevity versus regular aging after mild stress, with more deactivations related to better accuracy during emotional distraction. Functional mPCC deactivations might thus be related to pace of aging, and can be revealed by inducing mild stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole Y L Oei
- Department of Developmental Psychology (ADAPT-lab), Institute of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
| | - Steffy W Jansen
- Department of Internal Medicine, Section Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Ilya M Veer
- Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy CCM, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
| | - P Eline Slagboom
- Department of Medical Statistics and Bioinformatics, Section Molecular Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Jeroen van de Grond
- Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Diana van Heemst
- Department of Internal Medicine, Section Gerontology and Geriatrics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Free will in addictive behaviors: A matter of definition. Addict Behav Rep 2018; 5:94-103. [PMID: 29450231 PMCID: PMC5800588 DOI: 10.1016/j.abrep.2017.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2016] [Accepted: 03/11/2017] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Certain people are at risk for using alcohol or other drugs excessively and for developing problems with their use. Their susceptibility might arise from a variety of factors, including their genetic make-up, brain chemistry, family background, personality and other psychological variables, and environmental and sociocultural variables. Moreover, after substance use has become established, there are additional cognitive-motivational variables (e.g., substance-related attentional bias) that contribute to enacting behaviors consistent with the person's motivation to acquire and use the substance. People who are at such risk are likely to choose to use addictive substances even though doing so entails negative consequences. In the sense of complete freedom from being determined by causal factors, we believe that there is no such thing as free will, but defined as ability to make choices from among multiple options, even though the choices are ultimately governed by natural processes, addicted individuals are free to choose. Although they might appear unable to exercise this kind of free will in decisions about their substance use, addictive behaviors are ultimately always goal-directed and voluntary. Such goal pursuits manifest considerable flexibility. Even some severely addicted individuals can cease their use when the value of continuing the use abruptly declines or when the subjective cost of continuing the use is too great with respect to the incentives in other areas of their lives. Formal treatment strategies (e.g., contingency management, Systematic Motivational Counseling, cognitive training) can also be used to facilitate this reversal.
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