Do markers of daily affect mediate associations between interpretation bias and depressive symptoms? A longitudinal study of early adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Early adolescence represents a time of heightened vulnerability for depression. Negative interpretation biases have been associated with increases in depressive symptoms during this developmental period; however, the mechanisms underlying the association between interpretation biases and depression remain poorly understood. Cognitive theories posit that interpretation biases give rise to depression by modulating daily affect, particularly in the context of stress. However, this has not yet been directly examined. The present study tested affect intensity and instability as mechanisms linking negative interpretation biases with change in adolescent depressive symptoms.

METHODS

Ninety-four adolescents (aged 11-13 years; 51% boys) from Vancouver, Canada, were recruited for this longitudinal study. At baseline (Time 1), participants self-reported depressive symptoms and completed the Scrambled Sentences Task to assess negative interpretation biases. Next, participants completed daily diaries to assess positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) during a naturalistic stressor-the first 2 weeks of high school (Time 2). Finally, participants self-reported depressive symptoms 3 months later (Time 3). Path models were conducted to test whether PA and NA intensity and instability mediated prospective associations between negative interpretation biases and depressive symptom changes.

RESULTS

Although NA intensity, NA instability, and PA instability predicted increases in depressive symptoms, only NA intensity mediated associations between interpretation biases and symptom changes. Neither PA intensity nor instability mediated these associations.

CONCLUSIONS

Elevated daily NA represents a specific mechanism through which stronger negative interpretation biases predict increases in depressive symptoms in adolescence.

Attentional biases in facial emotion processing in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis

Individuals at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis exhibit altered facial emotion processing (FEP) and poor social functioning. It is unclear whether FEP deficits result from attentional biases, and further, how these abnormalities are linked to symptomatology (e.g., negative symptoms) and highly comorbid disorders that are also tied to abnormal FEP (e.g., depression). In the present study, we employed an eye-tracking paradigm to assess attentional biases and clinical interviews to examine differences between CHR (N = 34) individuals and healthy controls (HC; N = 46), as well as how such biases relate to symptoms and functioning in CHR individuals. Although no CHR-HC differences emerged in attentional biases, within the CHR group, symptoms and functioning were related to biases. Depressive symptoms were related to some free-view attention switching biases (e.g., to and from fearful faces, r = .50). Negative symptoms were related to more slowly disengaging from happy faces (r = .44), spending less time looking at neutral faces (r =  - .42), and more time looking at no face (Avolition, r = .44). In addition, global social functioning was related to processes that overlapped with both depression and negative symptoms, including time looking at no face (r =  - .68) and free-view attention switching with fearful faces (r =  - .40). These findings are consistent with previous research, indicating that negative symptoms play a prominent role in the CHR syndrome, with distinct mechanisms relative to depression. Furthermore, the results suggest that attentional bias indices from eye-tracking paradigms may be predictive of social functioning.

Prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation over the right prefrontal cortex reduces proactive and reactive control performance towards emotional material in healthy individuals

The prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in cognitive processes, both during anticipatory and reactive modes of cognitive control. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) can modulate these cognitive resources. However, there is a lack of research exploring the impact of tDCS on emotional material processing in the prefrontal cortex, particularly in regard to proactive and reactive modes of cognitive control. In this study, 35 healthy volunteers underwent both real and sham tDCS applied to the right prefrontal cortex in a counterbalanced order, and then completed the Cued Emotion Control Task (CECT). Pupil dilation, a measure of cognitive resource allocation, and behavioral outcomes, such as reaction time and accuracy, were collected. The results indicate that, as compared to sham stimulation, active right-sided tDCS reduced performance and resource allocation in both proactive and reactive modes of cognitive control. These findings highlight the importance of further research on the effects of tDCS applied to the right prefrontal cortex on cognitive engagement, particularly for clinical trials utilizing the present electrode montage in combination with cognitive interventions.

The contextual goal dependent attentional flexibility (CoGoDAF) framework: A new approach to attention bias in depression

Successful adaptation to the environment requires attentional prioritization of emotional information relevant to the current situational demands. Accordingly, the presence of an attention bias (AB) for both positive and negative information may allow preferential processing of stimuli in line with the current situational goals. However, AB for negative information sometimes becomes maladaptive, being antithetical to the current adaptive needs and goals of an individual, such as in the case of affective disorders such as depression. Although difficulties in flexible shifting between emotional stimuli in depression have increasingly become a topic of discussion in the field, an integrative approach towards biased versus flexible emotional attentional processes remains absent. In the present paper, we advance a novel and integrative view of conceptualizing potentially aberrant affective attention patterns in depression as a function of the current contextual features. We propose that flexible emotional attention takes place as a result of attention prioritization towards goal-relevant emotional stimuli depending upon the current context of the individual. Specifically, the roles of context, distal and proximal goals, and approach and avoidance motivation processes are considered in a unified manner. The empirical, clinical, and interventional implications of this integrative framework provide a roadmap for future psychological and neurobiological experimental and translational research.

Attentional bias to food during free and instructed viewing in anorexia nervosa: An eye tracking study

Previous research has shown that patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) show an attentional bias to food. However, due to different conceptualizations of attentional bias and the use of various paradigms, results are inconclusive and more precise insights into the exact nature of this attentional bias are needed. Therefore, an eye-tracking paradigm with food (low and high caloric) and non-food (objects) pictures was used to investigate biases in AN patients (n = 25) compared to healthy controls (n = 22). Several indices of visual attention were examined, both during free (initial orientation, fixation frequency, fixation time) and explicitly instructed (engagement, disengagement) viewing. Our results during the free viewing phase indicated that AN patients (as compared to healthy matched controls) looked less frequently and spent less time fixating on food stimuli, compared to the comparison group. No differences between both groups (n = 47) in initial orientation could be observed. Interestingly, during the instructed viewing phase, no differences between the patient and the comparison group were observed in engagement or disengagement to food stimuli. These results suggest an (initial) attentional avoidance of food in AN patients when closely investigating spontaneous attentional processes, while this could not be observed during gaze behaviour when receiving clear instructions. Hence, future research should look into how attentional bias during spontaneous gaze patterns could serve as a potential marker of AN, and how targeting this bias could be applied in treatment interventions.

Interplay between uncertainty intolerance, emotion regulation, cognitive flexibility, and psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multi-wave study

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a significant mental health burden on the global population. Studies during the pandemic have shown that risk factors such as intolerance of uncertainty and maladaptive emotion regulation are associated with increased psychopathology. Meanwhile, protective factors such as cognitive control and cognitive flexibility have been shown to protect mental health during the pandemic. However, the potential pathways through which these risk and protective factors function to impact mental health during the pandemic remain unclear. In the present multi-wave study, 304 individuals (18 years or older, 191 Males), residing in the USA during data collection, completed weekly online assessments of validated questionnaires across a period of five weeks (27th March 2020-1st May 2020). Mediation analyses revealed that longitudinal changes in emotion regulation difficulties mediated the effect of increases in intolerance of uncertainty on increases in stress, depression, and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, individual differences in cognitive control and flexibility moderated the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty and emotion regulation difficulties. While intolerance of uncertainty and emotion regulation difficulties emerged as risk factors for mental health, cognitive control and flexibility seems to protect against the negative effects of the pandemic and promote stress resilience. Interventions aimed at enhancing cognitive control and flexibility might promote the protection of mental health in similar global crises in the future.

Online Contingent Attention Training (OCAT): transfer effects to cognitive biases, rumination, and anxiety symptoms from two proof-of-principle studies

The aim of the present research was to develop and test the efficacy of a novel online contingent attention training (i.e., OCAT) to modify attention and interpretation biases, improve emotion regulation, and reduce emotional symptom levels in the face of major stressors. Two proof-of-principle studies were carried out. In study 1, 64 undergraduates who were about to start a major stressful period (i.e., final exams) were randomized to undergo 10 days of active OCAT or a sham-control training. Emotion regulation (habitual use of rumination and reappraisal) and symptom levels (depression and anxiety) were assessed before and after the intervention. In study 2, the same 2 × 2 mixed design was used with 58 individuals from the general population undergoing a major stressful situation (the lockdown period at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020). In both studies, the OCAT group showed significant improvements on attention towards negative information and interpretation biases in comparison to the sham-control group. Additionally, changes in cognitive biases transferred to reductions of participants' use of rumination and anxiety symptom levels. These results show preliminary evidence regarding the efficacy of the OCAT to target attention and interpretation biases as well as to improve emotion regulation processes and to buffer against the effects of major stressors.

Associations between Social Support Dimensions and Resilience Factors and Pathways of Influence in Depression and Anxiety Rates in Young Adults

Emerging adulthood is an important developmental period, associated to mental health risk. Resilience research points to both social and personal protective factors against development of psychopathology, but there is paucity with their comprehensive study in young adults. This study provides and initial integrative approach to model multiple dimensions of perceived social support (i.e., from family, friends, significant others) and personal factor of trait resilience (i.e., coping and persistence during stress, tolerance to negative affect, positive appraisals, trust) and their hypothesized contributions to reducing depression and anxiety rates. The study was conducted with a sample of 500 Spanish emerging adults (18 to 29 years old). Regression analyses and multiple mediation models were performed to test our hypotheses. Results showed that social support from family was the dimension with the highest strength relating individual differences in resilience. Furthermore, analyses supported a differential mediating role of specific resilience factors (coping and persistence during stress, tolerance to negative affect, positive appraisals, trust) in partially accounting for the association between higher social support from family and lower depression and anxiety levels in young adults. These results may inform new programs of mental health during emerging adulthood via the promotion of different sources of social support and their related resilience pathways contributing to low emotional symptomatology at this stage of development.

Negative interpretation bias as a clinical marker and a scar of depression: New insights from a large-scale study of the scrambled sentence task in formerly, subclinically and clinically depressed individuals

Negative interpretation biases are thought to be clinical markers of depression and risk factors for its recurrence that would remain active after remission. Evidence on the conditions under which negative interpretation biases are active after remission is still unclear, and further studies are required to clarify whether negative interpretation biases are equivalent in magnitude at different depression conditions. A large-scale study of the Scrambled Sentence Task (SST) was conducted (639 participants), where different depression and never-depressed samples were compared in their performance in the SST through three experiments (i.e., formerly - Studies 1 and 2 -, subclinically - Study 2 - and clinically depressed individuals - Study 3 -). Cognitive load manipulations were used while completing the task. Formerly compared to never-depressed individuals showed higher negative interpretation biases at conditions of cognitive load only (Study 1). Formerly and subclinically depressed showed equivalent biases compared to never-depressed individuals (Study 2). Negative interpretation biases were further supported for clinically depressed (Study 3). Comparative analyses showed that both formerly and subclinically differed from clinically depressed individuals in their negative bias magnitude. These results prove the utility of the SST to detect negative interpretation biases in different depression conditions, including those recovered from depression. Results further show that negative bias magnitudes tend to decrease after remission but remain at subclinical levels, potentially conferring risk for depression recurrence.

Moment-to-Moment Interplay Among Stress Appraisals and Emotion Regulation Flexibility in Daily Life

Flexible use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies in daily life is theorized to depend on appraisals of occurring stressful events. Yet, to date, little is known about (a) how appraisals of the current situation modulate the use of ER strategies in daily life and (b) how individual differences in affective symptoms impact these relations among appraisals and ER strategy use. This study attempted to address these two limitations using a 5-day experience sampling protocol, with three surveys administered per day in a sample of 97 participants. Each survey measured momentary appraisals of stress intensity and controllability as well as ER strategy use (i.e., rumination, reappraisal, avoidance, and active coping). Results showed that, in situations of low-stress intensity, higher stress controllability was related to greater use of reappraisal and rumination. In situations of high-stress intensity, higher controllability was related to reduced use of rumination. This pattern of flexible use of ER strategies depending on momentary stress appraisals was found for both rumination and avoidance and occurred specifically in individuals reporting lower levels of depression and/or anxiety levels. These findings provide new insight into how flexible use of ER strategies in daily life is modulated by interactions between stress intensity and controllability appraisals at varying levels of affective symptoms.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00122-9.

The mediating role of controllability appraisals and coping strategies on adaptive functioning after job loss: a path model

Job loss is a stressful event that increases the risk of experiencing depression and anxiety, especially during the initial months of unemployment. This study examined differences in psychological symptoms and resilient functioning accounted by employment status. The results pointed out that recently unemployed compared to currently employed individuals had lower levels of perceived controllability and resilience as well as higher levels of depression and anxiety. Path analyses showed that lower controllability appraisals at wave 1 of recently unemployed compared to employed individuals, in turn, predicted a lower use of active coping and reappraisal at wave 2, with the latter further accounting for lower levels in resilience. Higher use of distraction further mediated the relation between employment status and higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Our findings demonstrate the importance of controllability appraisals and coping strategies used to promote adaptive psychological functioning following job loss.

Relations between emotion regulation strategies and affect in daily life: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies using ecological momentary assessments

Emotion regulation (ER) is a central target in the study of psychological and neurobiological processes of emotions for numerous psychological disorders. Ecological momentary assessments, overcoming retrospective self-reports, allow a better understanding of the relation between the use of ER strategies and daily life affective experiences. A systematic review and meta-analyses of studies testing these relations through experience sampling methods (ESM) and daily diaries were conducted. ESM studies showed significant large effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between negative affect (NA) and rumination, suppression, and worry, and in both contemporaneous and prospective relations between positive affect (PA) and reappraisal; medium effect sizes in prospective relations between NA and rumination, and PA and distraction; and a small effect size in the prospective relation between NA and suppression. Daily diary studies showed significant large effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between NA and rumination and suppression, and in both contemporaneous and prospective relations between PA and reappraisal; medium effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between PA and acceptance, and problem-solving; and a small effect size in the prospective relation between NA and reappraisal. These findings shed light on the temporal relations between the use of ER strategies and affective experiences and highlight conceptual and methodological limitations in the field.

The impact of maternal child- and self-oriented pain-related injustice appraisals upon maternal attention to child pain, attention to anger, and pain-attending behavior

Objectives

The current study investigated the role of maternal child- and self-oriented injustice appraisals about child pain in understanding maternal attention for child pain and adult anger cues and pain-attending behavior.

Methods

Forty-four children underwent a painful cold pressor task (CPT) while their mother observed. Eye tracking was used to measure maternal attention to child pain and adult anger cues. Initial attention allocation and attentional maintenance were indexed by probability of first fixation and gaze duration, respectively. Maternal pain-attending behaviors toward the child were videotaped and coded after CPT completion. Mothers also rated the intensity of pain and anger cues used in the free-viewing tasks. All analyses controlled for maternal catastrophizing about child pain.

Results

Neither child-oriented nor self-oriented injustice was associated with maternal attentional bias toward child pain. Regarding attention toward self-relevant anger cues, differential associations were observed for self- and child-oriented injustice appraisals, with maternal self-oriented injustice being associated with a greater probability of first fixating on anger and with higher anger ratings, whereas maternal child-oriented injustice was associated with enhanced attentional maintenance toward anger. Neither type of maternal injustice appraisals was associated with maternal pain-attending behavior, which was only associated with maternal catastrophizing.

Conclusions

The current study sheds light on potential differential mechanisms through which maternal self- vs. child-oriented injustice appraisals may exert their impact on parent and child pain-related outcomes. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.

A Novel Experience Sampling Method Tool Integrating Momentary Assessments of Cognitive Biases: Two Compliance, Usability, and Measurement Reactivity Studies

BACKGROUND

Experience sampling methods (ESMs) are increasingly being used to study ecological emotion dynamics in daily functioning through repeated assessments taken over several days. However, most of these ESM approaches are only based on self-report assessments, and therefore, studies on the ecological trajectories of their underlying mechanisms are scarce (ie, cognitive biases) and require evaluation through experimental tasks. We developed a novel ESM tool that integrates self-report measures of emotion and emotion regulation with a previously validated app-based cognitive task that allows for the assessment of underlying mechanisms during daily functioning.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the study is to test this new tool and study its usability and the possible factors related to compliance with it in terms of latency and missing responses. Among the compliance predictors, we considered psychological and time-related variables, as well as usability, measurement reactivity, and participants' satisfaction with the tool.

METHODS

We conducted 2 extensive ESM studies-study 1 (N=84; a total of 3 assessments per day for 5 days) and study 2 (N=135; a total of 3 assessments per day for 10 days).

RESULTS

In both studies, participants found the tool highly usable (average usability score >81). By using mixed regression models, we found both common and specific results for the compliance predictors. In both study 1 and study 2, latency was significantly predicted by the day (P<.001 and P=.003, respectively). Participants showed slower responses to the notification as the days of the study progressed. In study 2 but not in study 1, latency was further predicted by individual differences in overload with the use of the app, and missing responses were accounted for by individual differences in stress reactivity to notifications (P=.04). Thus, by using a more extensive design, participants who experienced higher overload during the study were characterized by slower responses to notifications (P=.01), whereas those who experienced higher stress reactivity to the notification system were characterized by higher missing responses.

CONCLUSIONS

The new tool had high levels of usability. Furthermore, the study of compliance is of enormous importance when implementing novel ESM methods, including app-based cognitive tasks. The main predictors of latency and missing responses found across studies, specifically when using extensive ESM protocols (study 2), are methodology-related variables. Future research that integrates cognitive tasks in ESM designs should take these results into consideration by performing accurate estimations of participants' response rates to facilitate the optimal quality of novel eHealth approaches, as in this study.

The Role of Developmental Assets in Gender Differences in Anxiety in Spanish Youth

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychological disorders during emerging adulthood. Some consistent gender differences have been reported in anxiety with women suffering more anxiety than men, which has detrimental consequences in most life spheres in the youth and later life stages. The understanding of the development of anxiety in emerging adulthood requires a developmental perspective. The Developmental Assets Theory was postulated to describe the individual and the contextual resources which may foster positive youth development and mental health. The present study aims to analyze to what extent the gender differences in anxiety may be partly explained by gender differences in developmental assets. For this purpose, a cross-sectional study was conducted in which a sample of 1,044 youths (75.5% women; age range = 18-28; M age = 20.47, SD = 3.08) enrolled in 11 universities from different regions in Spain filled in self-report measures of developmental assets and anxiety symptoms. The participants completed an online survey with the scales, Developmental Assets Profile developed by the Search Institute (1) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) (2). The results showed more anxiety in the female subsample (at both the symptoms and clinical levels). Some gender differences in developmental assets were also observed. A partial mediation model, based on regression analyses, indicated that gender differences in anxiety were partly explained by gender differences in developmental assets. Thus, higher anxiety in the women was partly due to lower scores in positive identity and higher scores in positive values. These results suggested the need to design programs to prevent anxiety with specific measures for women youth to nurture positive identity and promote strengths and coping skills that allow them to get the benefits of well-being derived from positive values, thus, preventing worry and stress overload, which may lead to anxiety.

An Online Assessment to Evaluate the Role of Cognitive Biases and Emotion Regulation Strategies for Mental Health During the COVID-19 Lockdown of 2020: Structural Equation Modeling Study

BACKGROUND

Extant research supports causal roles of cognitive biases in stress regulation under experimental conditions. However, their contribution to psychological adjustment in the face of ecological major stressors has been largely unstudied.

OBJECTIVE

We developed a novel online method for the ecological examination of attention and interpretation biases during major stress (ie, the COVID-19 lockdown in March/April 2020) and tested their relations with the use of emotion regulation strategies (ie, reappraisal and rumination) to account for individual differences in psychological adjustment to major COVID-19-related stressors (ie, low depression and anxiety, and high well-being and resilience).

METHODS

Participants completed an online protocol evaluating the psychological impact of COVID-19-related stressors and the use of emotion regulation strategies in response to them, during the initial weeks of the lockdown of March/April 2020. They also completed a new online cognitive task designed to remotely assess attention and interpretation biases for negative information. The psychometric properties of the online cognitive bias assessments were very good, supporting their feasibility for ecological evaluation.

RESULTS

Structural equation models showed that negative interpretation bias was a direct predictor of worst psychological adjustment (higher depression and anxiety, and lower well-being and resilience; χ²₉=7.57; root mean square error of approximation=0.000). Further, rumination mediated the influence of interpretation bias in anxiety (P=.045; 95% CI 0.03-3.25) and resilience (P=.001; 95% CI -6.34 to -1.65), whereas reappraisal acted as a mediator of the influence of both attention (P=.047; 95% CI -38.71 to -0.16) and interpretation biases (P=.04; 95% CI -5.25 to -0.12) in well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

This research highlights the relevance of individual processes of attention and interpretation during periods of adversity and identifies modifiable protective factors that can be targeted through online interventions.

Prefrontal tDCS Attenuates Self-Referential Attentional Deployment: A Mechanism Underlying Adaptive Emotional Reactivity to Social-Evaluative Threat

Social-evaluative threat (SET) - a situation in which one could be negatively evaluated by others - elicits profound (psycho)physiological reactivity which, if chronically present and not adaptively regulated, has deleterious effects on mental and physical health. Decreased self-awareness and increased other-awareness are understood to be an adaptive response to SET. Attentional deployment - the process of selectively attending to certain aspects of emotional stimuli to modulate emotional reactivity - is supported by fronto-parietal and fronto-limbic networks, with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex being a central hub. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of active (versus sham) prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on self and other-attentional deployment during the exposure to a SET context. Seventy-four female participants received active or sham tDCS and were subsequently exposed to a rigged social feedback paradigm. In this paradigm a series of social evaluations were presented together with a photograph of the supposed evaluator and a self- photograph of the participant, while gaze behavior (time to first fixation, total fixation time) and skin conductance responses (SCRs; a marker of emotional reactivity) were measured. For half of the evaluations, participants could anticipate the valence (negative or positive) of the evaluation a priori. Analyses showed that participants receiving active tDCS were (a) slower to fixate on their self-photograph, (b) spent less time fixating on their self-photograph, and (c) spent more time fixating on the evaluator photograph. During unanticipated evaluations, active tDCS was associated with less time spent fixating on the evaluation. Furthermore, among those receiving active tDCS, SCRs were attenuated as a function of slower times to fixate on the self-photograph. Taken together, these results suggest that in a context of SET, prefrontal tDCS decreases self-attention while increasing other-attention, and that attenuated self-referential attention specifically may be a neurocognitive mechanism through which tDCS reduces emotional reactivity. Moreover, the results suggest that tDCS reduces vigilance toward stimuli that possibly convey threatening information, corroborating past research in this area.

Combined effects of tDCS over the left DLPFC and gaze-contingent training on attention mechanisms of emotion regulation in low-resilient individuals

Low resilience is characterized by impairments in attention and emotion regulation mechanisms that depend on prefrontal cortical activity. The aim of this study was to test whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) can augment the effectiveness of a new computerized mouse-based (gaze)contingent training (MCAT) to improve attention and emotion regulation processes (improved reappraisal, reduced rumination) in individuals reporting low resilience levels. The study used a full-factorial between-subject design combining active and sham MCAT and tDCS interventions. One hundred participants reporting low resilience levels were randomly assigned to receive either a single session of: tDCS with sham MCAT treatment (tDCS group), MCAT with sham tDCS (MCAT group), a combination of tDCS and MCAT (combined group), or sham tDCS and sham MCAT (control group). Transfer to attention regulation, reappraisal success, and state rumination was evaluated using an eye-tracking disengagement task and an emotion regulation paradigm, respectively. MCAT, either alone or combined with tDCS, resulted in improved attention regulation. Furthermore, the group receiving combined MCAT and tDCS also showed some evidence of increased reappraisal ability and reduced rumination. MCAT in combination with left DLPFC neuromodulation has potential to maximize transfer to emotion regulation capacities and to promote resilience.

Contextual goal-dependent attention flexibility or rule-based learning? An investigation of a new attention flexibility paradigm

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES

Deficits in the ability to process contextual changes have been proposed to be crucial for emotion dysregulation. A recent study found evidence for the role of contextual changes in exacerbating attention switching towards valence-specific goals using a novel attention flexibility paradigm. Despite the task indicating good reliability, the role of rule-based learning has not been clarified in this paradigm. Therefore, we examined whether the novel attention flexibility task is an index of context-based attention switching or does it reflect impact of rule-based learning on attention.

METHOD

We employed a neutral version of the attention flexibility task. A sample of dysphoric and non-dysphoric participants were introduced to neutral contexts which required them to shift between neutral categories of pictures depending upon the cueing shape.

RESULTS

There was an existence of a switch cost for shifting between different rules owing to the features of the rules. Further, non-dysphorics were faster at set-shifting between different rules as compared to dysphoric individuals. However, unlike in the affective version of the attention flexibility task, we found no significant differences between dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals in attention switching patterns owing to switching between different rules.

LIMITATIONS

Although the current study aimed to replicate the design of the previous study, a depressed patient sample must be employed to further clarify the different aspects of the attention flexibility paradigm.

CONCLUSION

Our findings were able to clarify the non-existent role of rule-based learning in the attention flexibility paradigm.

Effects of HF-rTMS over the left and right DLPFC on proactive and reactive cognitive control

Previous research supports the distinction between proactive and reactive control. Although the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) has been consistently related to these processes, lateralization of proactive and reactive control is still under debate. We manipulated brain activity to investigate the role of the left and right DLPFC in proactive and reactive cognitive control. Using a single-blind, sham-controlled crossover within-subjects design, 25 young healthy females performed the 'AX' Continuous Performance Task after receiving sham versus active High-Frequency repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (HF-rTMS) to increase left and right DLPFC activity. RTs and pupillometry were used to assess patterns of proactive and reactive cognitive control and task-related resource allocation respectively. We observed that, compared to sham, HF-rTMS over the left DLPFC increased proactive control. After right DLPFC HF-rTMS, participants showed slower RTs on AX trials, suggesting more reactive control. However, this latter result was not supported by RTs on BX trials (i.e. the trial that specifically assess reactive control). Pupil measures showed a sustained increase in resource allocation after both active left and right HF-rTMS. Our results with RT data provide evidence on the role of the left DLPFC in proactive control and suggest that the right DLPFC is implicated in reactive control.

Mind the social feedback: effects of tDCS applied to the left DLPFC on psychophysiological responses during the anticipation and reception of social evaluations

The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (lDLPFC) is implicated in anticipatory (i.e. during anticipation of emotional stimuli) and online (i.e. during confrontation with emotional stimuli) emotion regulatory processes. However, research that investigates the causal role of the lDLPFC in these processes is lacking. In this study, 74 participants received active or sham transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over the lDLPFC. Participants were told strangers evaluated them. These (rigged) social evaluations were presented, and in 50% of the trials, participants could anticipate the valence (positive or negative) of the upcoming social feedback. Pupil dilation (a marker of cognitive resource allocation), and skin conductance responses (a marker of arousal) were measured. The results indicate that active (compared to sham) tDCS reduced arousal during the confrontation with anticipated feedback, but only marginally during the confrontation with unanticipated feedback. When participants were given the opportunity to anticipate the social feedback, tDCS reduced arousal, irrespective of whether one was anticipating or being confronted with the anticipated feedback. Moreover, tDCS reduced cognitive resource allocation during anticipation, which was associated with resource allocation increases during the subsequent confrontation. Altogether, results suggest that the lDLPFC is causally implicated in the interplay between anticipatory and online emotion regulatory processes.

Inverse effects of tDCS over the left versus right DLPC on emotional processing: A pupillometry study

Background and objectives

The Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is implicated in cognitive and emotional responses. Yet, research that investigates the causal role of the left versus right DLPFC during the processes of emotion appraisal is lacking. In the current study, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was used to disentangle the functional lateralization of the DLPFC on emotional processing in response to the anticipation of, and subsequent confrontation with emotional stimuli in healthy volunteers.

Methods

Forty-eight subjects received both active and sham (on separate days) anodal tDCS over either the left (N = 24) or right (N = 24) DLPFC. Subjects’ pupil dilation (PD, a physiological marker of cognitive resource allocation) was recorded while performing an appraisal task in which negative and positive emotion eliciting images were presented, each preceded by an informative cue indicating the valence of the upcoming stimulus.

Results

As compared to sham stimulation, left DLPFC anodal tDCS resulted in increased PD when confronted with negative emotional images, whereas right DLPFC anodal tDCS resulted in decreased PD when confronted with emotional images, irrespective of valence.

Limitations

The interpretation of pupil dilation in response to emotional stimuli is limited.

Conclusion

These findings suggest inverse lateralized DLPFC effects on cognitive resource allocation (as measured by pupillary responses) when confronted with emotional stimuli. The current findings may shed some light on mechanisms that explain the antidepressant effects of non-invasive brain stimulation of the left DLPFC.

Can't look Away: Attention control deficits predict Rumination, depression symptoms and depressive affect in daily Life

BACKGROUND

Rumination and a reduced capacity to disengage attention as appropriate to context (attention control deficits) have each been implicated in the etiology and maintenance of depressive disorders. However, it remains unclear whether rumination is a mechanism by which attention control deficits predict depression, and whether these relations are observed outside of laboratory settings. We tested whether rumination mediates the effects of attention control deficits marked by slow disengagement from negative-valenced stimuli (sad faces) and fast disengagement from positive-valenced stimuli (happy faces) on depression symptoms and depressive affects in the daily lives of adults with various depression histories.

METHOD

Forty-six participants (n = 23 with histories of Major Depressive Disorder) completed a clinical evaluation, an eye-tracking task that indexed attention control, and a 7-day Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) follow-up during which Negative (NA) and Positive Affect (PA) were measured at times of peak distress that occurred in the hour preceding each EMA prompt.

RESULTS

Delayed disengagement from sad faces predicted elevated depression and NA levels, and low PA levels, independent of depression histories. Rumination mediated the effects of delayed disengagement from sad, and rapid disengagement from happy, faces on depression and NA levels. Effects of disengagement on rumination were maintained independent of depression levels.

LIMITATIONS

Our sample size limited the detection of small statistical effects, and we could not clarify temporal relationships between attention control deficits and rumination.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that attention inflexibility and rumination persist independent of depressive states and should be targets of clinical intervention.

Attentional scope, rumination, and processing of emotional information: An eye-tracking study

Rumination is considered as a relatively maladaptive form of repetitive thinking that has a marked impact on mood. Individual differences in attentional scope have been proposed as an important mechanism rendering some individuals more prone to ruminate than others. The attentional scope model of rumination posits that rumination is related to a narrowed attentional scope, which may affect processing of neutral and emotional information. This study (n = 56) aimed to extend research on the relation between rumination and attentional scope while processing neutral, positive, and negative information. To assess attentional scope, a moving window task was applied which involved reading both neutral and emotional sentences. The result of reading rate indicated that individuals with higher levels of trait rumination showed a narrower attentional scope in general. In addition, the total reading time of individuals with higher levels of trait rumination was shorter when processing neutral and positive sentences through a constrained window frame, but this was not the case when processing negative sentences. These findings suggest that even though high trait ruminators use an overall constrained manner of processing, they may still process negative information differently compared to other types of information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Central obesity and altered peripheral adipose tissue gene expression characterize the NAFLD patient with insulin resistance: Role of nutrition and insulin challenge

OBJECTIVE

Insulin resistance (IR) and white adipose tissue (WAT) dysfunction frequently are associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); however, the pathogenic mechanisms contributing to their clustering are not well defined. The aim of this study was to define some nutritional, anthropometric, metabolic, and genetic mechanisms contributing to their clustering.

METHODS

Forty-five (20 men, 25 women) patients (age 45.7 ± 11.1 y) with recent diagnosis of NAFLD were grouped according to IR state. Energy balance was assessed using a food questionnaire and indirect calorimetry, and body composition with anthropometry and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. Biochemical and hormonal parameters combined with adipose tissue gene expression were determined. Microarray analysis of gene expression was performed in a subset of WAT samples from IR patients (n = 9), in the fasted state, after specific test meals (monounsaturated fatty acid [MUFA], saturated fat [SAT], and carbohydrate-rich) and after being challenged with insulin.

RESULTS

IR patients exhibited higher trunk fat to leg fat ratio (P < 0.05) and had a higher ratio of SAT/MUFA fat intake (P < 0.05) than insulin-sensitive (IS) individuals. Deposition of fat in the trunk but not in the leg was directly related to liver enzyme levels (P < 0.05). IR patients also had lower adiponectin serum levels and leptin (LEP) mRNA expression in WAT compared with IS patients (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). Microarray analysis after insulin challenge confirmed that insulin treatment induces the expression of PPARG gene and LEP and decreases GCGR gene (P < 0.05 for all) in WAT. No changes in these genes were observed in the postprandial state induced after the acute effect of specific diets.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients exhibiting NAFLD and IR had preferential central fat deposition directly related to their serum alanine aminotransferase levels. These patients showed peripheral adipose tissue dysfunction and exhibited inappropriately low LEP biosynthesis that could be partially restored after anabolic conditions induced by insulin signaling.