Cognitive conflict increases processing of negative, task-irrelevant stimuli.

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Ligeza, Tomasz S; Wyczesany, Miroslaw

2017-10-01

The detection of cognitive conflict is thought to trigger adjustments in executive control. It has been recently shown that cognitive conflict increases processing of stimuli that are relevant to the ongoing task and that these modulations are exerted by the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). However, it is still unclear whether such control influences are unspecific and might also affect the processing of task-irrelevant stimuli. The aim of the study was to examine if cognitive conflict affects processing of neutral and negative, task-irrelevant pictures. Participants responded to congruent (non-conflict) or to incongruent (conflict-eliciting) trials of a modified flanker task. Each response was followed by a presentation of a neutral or negative picture. The late positive potential (LPP) in response to picture presentation was used to assess the level of picture processing after conflict vs non-conflict trials. Connectivity between the DLPFC and attentional and perceptual areas during picture presentation was analysed to check if the DLPFC might be a source of these modulations. ERP results showed an effect of cognitive conflict only on processing of negative pictures: LPP in response to negative pictures was increased after conflict trials, whereas LPP in response to neutral pictures remained unchanged. Cortical connectivity analysis showed that conflict trials intensified information flow from the DLPFC towards attentional and perceptual regions. Results suggest that cognitive conflict increases processing of task-irrelevant stimuli; however, they must display high biological salience. Increase in cognitive control exerted by the DLPFC over attentional and perceptual regions is a probable mechanism of the effect. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Negative symptoms, emotion and cognition in schizophrenia].

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Fakra, E; Belzeaux, R; Azorin, J-M; Adida, M

2015-12-01

For a long time, treatment of schizophrenia has been essentially focussed on positive symptoms managing. Yet, even if these symptoms are the most noticeable, negative symptoms are more enduring, resistant to pharmacological treatment and associated with a worse prognosis. In the two last decades, attention has shift towards cognitive deficit, as this deficit is most robustly associated to functional outcome. But it appears that the modest improvement in cognition, obtained in schizophrenia through pharmacological treatment or, more purposely, by cognitive enhancement therapy, has only lead to limited amelioration of functional outcome. Authors have claimed that pure cognitive processes, such as those evaluated and trained in lots of these programs, may be too distant from real-life conditions, as the latter are largely based on social interactions. Consequently, the field of social cognition, at the interface of cognition and emotion, has emerged. In a first part of this article we examined the links, in schizophrenia, between negative symptoms, cognition and emotions from a therapeutic standpoint. Nonetheless, investigation of emotion in schizophrenia may also hold relevant premises for understanding the physiopathology of this disorder. In a second part, we propose to illustrate this research by relying on the heuristic value of an elementary marker of social cognition, facial affect recognition. Facial affect recognition has been repeatedly reported to be impaired in schizophrenia and some authors have argued that this deficit could constitute an endophenotype of the illness. We here examined how facial affect processing has been used to explore broader emotion dysfunction in schizophrenia, through behavioural and imaging studies. In particular, fMRI paradigms using facial affect have shown particular patterns of amygdala engagement in schizophrenia, suggesting an intact potential to elicit the limbic system which may however not be advantageous. Finally, we

Familial hemiplegic migraine: a clinical comparison of families linked and unlinked to chromosome 19.DMG RG.

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Terwindt, G M; Ophoff, R A; Haan, J; Frants, R R; Ferrari, M D

1996-05-01

We compared the clinical characteristics of 46 patients from three unrelated families with familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) linked to chromosome 19, with those of 20 patients from two families with FHM not linked to chromosome 19. We found no significant differences for age at onset, frequency and duration of attacks, duration of the paresis, and occurrence of basilar migraine symptoms. In the linked families, significantly more patients reported unconsciousness during attacks (39% vs 15%; p < 0.05) and provocation of attacks by mild head trauma (70% vs 40%; p < 0.05). In one linked family patients also displayed chronic progressive cerebellar ataxia, whereas in one unlinked family benign infantile convulsions occurred in addition to FHM. Interestingly, so far an association with cerebellar ataxia was only described in chromosome 19-linked families. FHM linked to chromosome 19 and FHM unlinked to chromosome 19 do not differ with respect to clinical features.

A negative association between video game experience and proactive cognitive control.

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Bailey, Kira; West, Robert; Anderson, Craig A

2010-01-01

Some evidence demonstrates that video game experience has a beneficial effect on visuospatial cognition. In contrast, other evidence indicates that video game experience may be negatively related to cognitive control. In this study we examined the specificity of the influence of video game experience on cognitive control. Participants with high and low video game experience performed the Stroop task while event-related brain potentials were recorded. The behavioral data revealed no difference between high and low gamers for the Stroop interference effect and a reduction in the conflict adaptation effect in high gamers. The amplitude of the medial frontal negativity and a frontal slow wave was attenuated in high gamers, and there was no effect of gaming status on the conflict slow potential. These data lead to the suggestion that video game experience has a negative influence on proactive, but not reactive, cognitive control.

Positive and negative affect, depression, and cognitive processes in the Cognition in the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (Co-STAR) Trial.

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Danhauer, Suzanne C; Legault, Claudine; Bandos, Hanna; Kidwell, Kelley; Costantino, Joseph; Vaughan, Leslie; Avis, Nancy E; Rapp, Steve; Coker, Laura H; Naughton, Michelle; Naylor, Cecile; Terracciano, Antonio; Shumaker, Sally

2013-01-01

This study examined the relationship between positive and negative affect, depressive symptoms, and cognitive performance. The sample consisted of 1479 non-demented, postmenopausal women (mean age = 67 years) at increased risk of breast cancer enrolled in the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project's Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene. At each annual visit, women completed a standardized neuropsychological battery and self-report measures of affect and depression. Data from three visits were used in linear mixed models for repeated measures using likelihood ratio tests. Separate analyses were performed to relate positive/negative affect and depression to each cognitive measure. Higher positive affect was associated with better letter fluency (p = .006) and category fluency (p negative affect was associated with worse global cognitive function (p negatively associated with verbal knowledge (p = .004), figural memory (p positive affect and increased verbal fluency and between depressive symptoms and decreased memory. The most novel finding shows that negative affect is related to decreased global cognition and visuospatial ability. Overall, this research in a large, longitudinal sample supports the notion that positive affect is related to increases and negative affect to decreases in performance on distinct cognitive measures.

The structural model of pain, cognitive strategies, and negative emotions in functional gastrointestinal disorders

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Mina Mazaheri

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs may use specific coping strategies. We intend to provide a mediating role of the relationship between pain (intensity and acceptance, cognitive emotion regulation strategies, and negative emotions in patients with FGIDs. Materials and Methods: Participants were 176 inpatients, all experiencing significant FGIDs symptomatology as confirmed by gastroenterologists. Patients completed data on cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire, short form of depression, anxiety, stress scale, chronic pain acceptance questionnaire-revised, and pain intensity scale. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling method. Results: The pain intensity had significantly direct effect on cognitive emotion regulation strategies and indirect effect on negative emotions. Besides, the mediating role of negative emotions in the relationship between the strategies and pain acceptance were supported, whereas indirect relationships between pain intensity and acceptance through cognitive strategies were not confirmed. Conclusion: The results of the study emphasize the role of pain intensity in the development of negative emotions through cognitive strategies and the role of the strategies in pain acceptance through negative emotions. In fact, cognitive strategies to be related to pain and emotions.

Memory biases in remitted depression: the role of negative cognitions at explicit and automatic processing levels.

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Romero, Nuria; Sanchez, Alvaro; Vazquez, Carmelo

2014-03-01

Cognitive models propose that depression is caused by dysfunctional schemas that endure beyond the depressive episode, representing vulnerability factors for recurrence. However, research testing negative cognitions linked to dysfunctional schemas in formerly depressed individuals is still scarce. Furthermore, negative cognitions are presumed to be linked to biases in recalling negative self-referent information in formerly depressed individuals, but no studies have directly tested this association. In the present study, we evaluated differences between formerly and never-depressed individuals in several experimental indices of negative cognitions and their associations with the recall of emotional self-referent material. Formerly (n = 30) and never depressed individuals (n = 40) completed measures of explicit (i.e., scrambled sentence test) and automatic (i.e., lexical decision task) processing to evaluate negative cognitions. Furthermore participants completed a self-referent incidental recall task to evaluate memory biases. Formerly compared to never depressed individuals showed greater negative cognitions at both explicit and automatic levels of processing. Results also showed greater recall of negative self-referent information in formerly compared to never-depressed individuals. Finally, individual differences in negative cognitions at both explicit and automatic levels of processing predicted greater recall of negative self-referent material in formerly depressed individuals. Analyses of the relationship between explicit and automatic processing indices and memory biases were correlational and the majority of participants in both groups were women. Our findings provide evidence of negative cognitions in formerly depressed individuals at both automatic and explicit levels of processing that may confer a cognitive vulnerability to depression. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reduced cognitive capacity impairs the malleability of older adults' negative attitudes to stigmatized individuals.

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Krendl, Anne C

2018-05-21

Although engaging explicit regulatory strategies may reduce negative bias toward outgroup members, these strategies are cognitively demanding and thus may not be effective for older adults (OA) who have reduced cognitive resources. The current study therefore examines whether individual differences in cognitive capacity disrupt OA' ability to explicitly regulate their bias to stigmatized individuals. Young and OA were instructed to explicitly regulate their negative bias toward stigmatized individuals by using an explicit reappraisal strategy. Regulatory success was assessed as a function of age and individual differences in cognitive capacity (Experiment 1). In Experiment 2, the role of executive function in implementing cognitive reappraisal strategies was examined by using a divided attention manipulation. Results from Experiment 1 revealed that individual differences in OA' cognitive capacity disrupted their ability to regulate their negative emotional response to stigma. In Experiment 2, it was found that dividing attention in young adults (YA) significantly reduced their regulatory success as compared to YA' regulatory capacity in the full attention condition. As expected, dividing YA' attention made their performance similar to OA with relatively preserved cognitive capacity. Together, the results from this study demonstrated that individual differences in cognitive capacity predicted OA' ability to explicitly regulate their negative bias to a range of stigmatized individuals.

The moderating effects of aging and cognitive abilities on the association between work stress and negative affect.

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Hyun, Jinshil; Sliwinski, Martin J; Almeida, David M; Smyth, Joshua M; Scott, Stacey B

2018-05-01

Given that the association between work stress and negative affect can exacerbate negative health and workplace outcomes, it is important to identify the protective and risk factors that moderate this association. Socioemotional aging and cognitive abilities might influence how people utilize emotion regulation skills and engage in practical problem solving to manage their work stress. The aim of this study is to examine whether age and cognitive abilities independently and interactively moderate the association between work-related stress and negative affect. A diverse working adult sample (N = 139, age 25-65, 69% of females) completed a cross-sectional survey that assessed chronic work stress, negative affect, and fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities. Results from regression analyses suggested that both fluid and crystallized cognitive abilities, but not age, moderated the association between work stress and negative affect. Further, we found that crystallized cognition had a stronger attenuating effect on the work stress-negative affect association for older compared to younger workers. The moderating effect of fluid cognition was invariant across age. Our findings demonstrate that cognitive abilities are an important personal resource that might protect individuals against the negative impacts of work stress and negative affect. Although the role that fluid cognition plays in work stress-negative affect association is comparably important for both younger and older workers, crystallized cognition might play a more valuable role for older than younger workers.

Education attenuates the negative impact of traumatic brain injury on cognitive status.

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Sumowski, James F; Chiaravalloti, Nancy; Krch, Denise; Paxton, Jessica; Deluca, John

2013-12-01

To investigate whether the cognitive reserve hypothesis helps to explain differential cognitive impairment among survivors of traumatic brain injury (TBI), whereby survivors with greater intellectual enrichment (estimated with education) are less vulnerable to cognitive impairment. Cross-sectional study. Medical rehabilitation research center. Survivors of moderate or severe TBI (n=44) and healthy controls (n=36). Not applicable. Intellectual enrichment was estimated with educational attainment. Group was defined as TBI or healthy control. Current cognitive status (processing speed, working memory, episodic memory) was evaluated with neuropsychological tasks. TBI survivors exhibited worse cognitive status than healthy persons (Peducation was positively correlated with cognitive status in TBI survivors (r=.54, Peducation (R(2) change=.036, P=.004), whereas higher education attenuated the negative impact of TBI on cognitive status. TBI survivors with lower education performed much worse than matched healthy persons, but this TBI-related performance discrepancy was attenuated at higher levels of education. Higher intellectual enrichment (estimated with education) reduces the negative effect of TBI on cognitive outcomes, thereby supporting the cognitive reserve hypothesis in persons with TBI. Future work is necessary to investigate whether intellectual enrichment can build cognitive reserve as a rehabilitative intervention in survivors of TBI. Copyright © 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotion, working memory task demands and individual differences predict behavior, cognitive effort and negative affect.

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Storbeck, Justin; Davidson, Nicole A; Dahl, Chelsea F; Blass, Sara; Yung, Edwin

2015-01-01

We examined whether positive and negative affect motivates verbal and spatial working memory processes, respectively, which have implications for the expenditure of mental effort. We argue that when emotion promotes cognitive tendencies that are goal incompatible with task demands, greater cognitive effort is required to perform well. We sought to investigate whether this increase in cognitive effort impairs behavioural control over a broad domain of self-control tasks. Moreover, we predicted that individuals with higher behavioural inhibition system (BIS) sensitivities would report more negative affect within the goal incompatible conditions because such individuals report higher negative affect during cognitive challenge. Positive or negative affective states were induced followed by completing a verbal or spatial 2-back working memory task. All participants then completed one of three self-control tasks. Overall, we observed that conditions of emotion and working memory incompatibility (positive/spatial and negative/verbal) performed worse on the self-control tasks, and within the incompatible conditions individuals with higher BIS sensitivities reported more negative affect at the end of the study. The combination of findings suggests that emotion and working memory compatibility reduces cognitive effort and impairs behavioural control.

Effects of cognitive remediation on negative symptoms dimensions: exploring the role of working memory.

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Cella, M; Stahl, D; Morris, S; Keefe, R S E; Bell, M D; Wykes, T

2017-09-04

Recent theories suggest that poor working memory (WM) may be the cognitive underpinning of negative symptoms in people with schizophrenia. In this study, we first explore the effect of cognitive remediation (CR) on two clusters of negative symptoms (i.e. expressive and social amotivation), and then assess the relevance of WM gains as a possible mediator of symptom improvement. Data were accessed for 309 people with schizophrenia from the NIMH Database of Cognitive Training and Remediation Studies and a separate study. Approximately half the participants received CR and the rest were allocated to a control condition. All participants were assessed before and after therapy and at follow-up. Expressive negative symptoms and social amotivation symptoms scores were calculated from the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. WM was assessed with digit span and letter-number span tests. Participants who received CR had a significant improvement in WM scores (d = 0.27) compared with those in the control condition. Improvements in social amotivation levels approached statistical significance (d = -0.19), but change in expressive negative symptoms did not differ between groups. WM change did not mediate the effect of CR on social amotivation. The results suggest that a course of CR may benefit behavioural negative symptoms. Despite hypotheses linking memory problems with negative symptoms, the current findings do not support the role of this cognitive domain as a significant mediator. The results indicate that WM improves independently from negative symptoms reduction.

Cognitive Moderators of Children's Adjustment to Stressful Divorce Events: The Role of Negative Cognitive Errors and Positive Illusions.

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Mazur, Elizabeth; Wolchik, Sharlene A.; Virdin, Lynn; Sandler, Irwin N.; West, Stephen G.

1999-01-01

Examined whether children's cognitive biases moderated impact of stressful divorce-related events on adjustment in 9- to 12-year olds. Found that endorsing negative cognitive errors for hypothetical divorce events moderated relations between stressful divorce events and self- and maternal-reports of internalizing and externalizing symptoms for…

Cognitive dissonance, social comparison, and disseminating untruthful or negative truthful eWOM messages

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Liu, Y-L; Keng, Ching-Jui

2014-01-01

In this research we explored consumers' intentions to provide untruthful or negative truthful electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) messages when undergoing conflicting cognitive dissonance and after experiencing social comparison. We recruited 480 Taiwanese Internet users to participate in a scenario-based experiment. The findings show that after making downward comparisons on the Internet, consumers with high cognitive dissonance were more inclined to disseminate negative truthful eWOM messages c...

Negative cognitive style and cortisol recovery accentuate the relationship between life stress and depressive symptoms.

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Quinn, Meghan E; Grant, Kathryn E; Adam, Emma K

2018-03-01

When exposed to stressful life events, a significant number of adolescents will experience depressive symptoms. One model of depression suggests that individuals with a negative cognitive style are most vulnerable to depression following life stress. Alternatively, altered activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis may explain vulnerability to depression following life stress. Each of these models plausibly explains the emergence of depressive symptoms during adolescence and have been investigated largely independently. The current study recruited a sample of urban adolescents (N = 179) to evaluate whether cortisol response to a laboratory stress induction and negative cognitive style are related and whether they independently interact with exposure to stressful life events to predict symptoms of depression. Negative cognitive style was not associated with cortisol response to the laboratory stressor. Rather, negative cognitive style and cortisol recovery independently interacted with stressful life events to predict current symptoms of depression. Results support a heterogeneous etiology of depression.

The Influence of Negative Emotion on Cognitive and Emotional Control Remains Intact in Aging

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Artyom Zinchenko

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Healthy aging is characterized by a gradual decline in cognitive control and inhibition of interferences, while emotional control is either preserved or facilitated. Emotional control regulates the processing of emotional conflicts such as in irony in speech, and cognitive control resolves conflict between non-affective tendencies. While negative emotion can trigger control processes and speed up resolution of both cognitive and emotional conflicts, we know little about how aging affects the interaction of emotion and control. In two EEG experiments, we compared the influence of negative emotion on cognitive and emotional conflict processing in groups of younger adults (mean age = 25.2 years and older adults (69.4 years. Participants viewed short video clips and either categorized spoken vowels (cognitive conflict or their emotional valence (emotional conflict, while the visual facial information was congruent or incongruent. Results show that negative emotion modulates both cognitive and emotional conflict processing in younger and older adults as indicated in reduced response times and/or enhanced event-related potentials (ERPs. In emotional conflict processing, we observed a valence-specific N100 ERP component in both age groups. In cognitive conflict processing, we observed an interaction of emotion by congruence in the N100 responses in both age groups, and a main effect of congruence in the P200 and N200. Thus, the influence of emotion on conflict processing remains intact in aging, despite a marked decline in cognitive control. Older adults may prioritize emotional wellbeing and preserve the role of emotion in cognitive and emotional control.

The effect of negative affect on cognition: Anxiety, not anger, impairs executive function.

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Shields, Grant S; Moons, Wesley G; Tewell, Carl A; Yonelinas, Andrew P

2016-09-01

It is often assumed that negative affect impairs the executive functions that underlie our ability to control and focus our thoughts. However, support for this claim has been mixed. Recent work has suggested that different negative affective states like anxiety and anger may reflect physiologically separable states with distinct effects on cognition. However, the effects of these 2 affective states on executive function have never been assessed. As such, we induced anxiety or anger in participants and examined the effects on executive function. We found that anger did not impair executive function relative to a neutral mood, whereas anxiety did. In addition, self-reports of induced anxiety, but not anger, predicted impairments in executive function. These results support functional models of affect and cognition, and highlight the need to consider differences between anxiety and anger when investigating the influence of negative affect on fundamental cognitive processes such as memory and executive function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Changes in negative cognitions mediate PTSD symptom reductions during client-centered therapy and prolonged exposure for adolescents.

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McLean, Carmen P; Yeh, Rebecca; Rosenfield, David; Foa, Edna B

2015-05-01

To assess whether changes in negative trauma-related cognitions play an important role in reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression during prolonged exposure therapy for adolescents (PE-A). Secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial comparing PE-A with client-centered therapy (CCT) for PTSD. Participants were 61 adolescent female sexual assault survivors ages 13-18 who received 8-14 weekly sessions of PE-A or CCT at a community rape crisis center. PTSD severity was assessed at baseline, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and 3-months post-treatment. Participants also completed self-report measures of negative posttraumatic cognitions and depressive symptoms at the same assessment points. Cross lag panel mediation analyses showed that change in negative trauma-related cognitions mediated change in PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms whereas change in PTSD and depressive symptoms did not mediate change in negative cognitions. Our findings support EPT and suggest that change in negative trauma-related cognitions is a mechanism of both PE-A and CCT. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parsing cognitive and emotional empathy deficits for negative and positive stimuli in frontotemporal dementia.

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Oliver, Lindsay D; Mitchell, Derek G V; Dziobek, Isabel; MacKinley, Julia; Coleman, Kristy; Rankin, Katherine P; Finger, Elizabeth C

2015-01-01

Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder characterized by frontal and temporal lobe atrophy primarily affecting social cognition and emotion, including loss of empathy. Many consider empathy to be a multidimensional construct, including cognitive empathy (the ability to adopt and understand another's perspective) and emotional empathy (the capacity to share another's emotional experience). Cognitive and emotional empathy deficits have been associated with bvFTD; however, little is known regarding the performance of patients with bvFTD on behavioural measures of emotional empathy, and whether empathic responses differ for negative versus positive stimuli. 24 patients with bvFTD and 24 healthy controls completed the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET; Dziobek et al., 2008), a performance-based task that taps both cognitive and emotional facets of empathy, and allows for the discrimination of responses to negative versus positive realistic images. MET scores were also compared with caregiver ratings of patient behaviour on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, which assesses patients' everyday demonstrations of perspective taking and empathic concern. Patients with bvFTD were less accurate than controls at inferring mental states for negative and positive stimuli. They also demonstrated lower levels of shared emotional experience, more positive emotional reactions, and diminished arousal to negative social stimuli relative to controls. Patients showed reduced emotional reactions to negative non-social stimuli as well. Lastly, the MET and IRI measures of emotional empathy were found to be significantly correlated within the bvFTD group. The results suggest that patients with bvFTD show a global deficit in cognitive empathy, and deficient emotional empathy for negative, but not positive, experiences. Further, a generalized emotional processing impairment for negative stimuli was observed, which could contribute to the

Fear, Negative Cognition, and Depression Mediate the Relationship Between Traumatic Exposure and Sleep Problems Among Flood Victims in China.

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Zhen, Rui; Quan, Lijuan; Zhou, Xiao

2017-10-09

To examine the prerequisites of sleep problems among a traumatized population, and assess the underlying mechanisms of sleep problems following trauma. The current study investigated 187 flood victims from 5 makeshift shelters in the Wuhu city of Anhui province after a major flood disaster that occurred in July 2016. A traumatic exposure questionnaire, a fear questionnaire, a posttraumatic cognition inventory, a depression inventory, and a sleep problems questionnaire were used. Traumatic exposure had a direct and positive association with sleep problems and could also be indirectly associated with sleep problems through fear, depression, but not negative cognitions. The positive association could be the result of a path from negative cognitions to depression, but not from fear to negative cognition, or from fear to depression. Furthermore, a threefold multipath from fear to depression via negative cognitions could also link traumatic exposure to sleep problems. Flood victims' sleep problems are elicited by the combined role of fear, negative cognitions, and depression following trauma. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

A tight association in two genetically unlinked dispersal related traits in sympatric and allopatric salt marsh beetle populations.

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Van Belleghem, Steven M; Hendrickx, Frederik

2014-02-01

Local adaptation likely involves selection on multiple, genetically unlinked traits to increase fitness in divergent habitats. Conversely, recombination is expected to counteract local adaptation under gene flow by breaking down adaptive gene combinations. Western European populations of the salt marsh beetle Pogonus chalceus are characterized by large interpopulation variation at various geographical ranges in two traits related to dispersal ability, i.e. wing size and different allozymes of the mitochondrial NADP(+)-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase (mtIdh) gene. In this study, we tested whether variation in wing length was as strongly genetically determined in locally adapted populations in a sympatric mosaic compared to allopatric populations, and if variation in mtIDH and wing size was genetically unlinked. We demonstrate that the genetic determination of wing size is very high (h (2) = 0.90) in sympatry and of comparable magnitude as geographically separated populations. Second, we show that, although frequencies of mtIDH allozymes are tightly associated with mean population wing size across Western European populations, the correlation is strongly reduced within some of the populations. These findings demonstrate that the divergence involves at least two traits under independent genetic control and that the genetically distinct ecotypes are retained at geographical distances with ample opportunity for gene flow.

Negative Academic Emotion and Psychological Well-being in Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents: Examining the Moderating Role of Cognitive Reappraisal.

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Wang, Daoyang; Li, Shuting; Hu, Mingming; Dong, Dan; Tao, Sha

2017-01-01

The study aimed to explore the relationship among negative academic emotions (e.g., anxiety, shame, anger, boredom, hopelessness, disappointment, and hatred), psychological well-being (including life vitality, health concern, altruism commitment, self-value, friendly relationship, and personal development), and cognitive reappraisal in rural-to-urban migrant adolescents in China. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the relationship between psychological well-being and negative academic emotions is moderated by cognitive reappraisal. A total of 311 migrant adolescents aged 14-20 years were selected, including 132 boys and 179 girls. Results of a regression analysis showed that cognitive reappraisal (positive) and negative academic emotions were significant predictors of psychological well-being. The interaction effect between cognitive reappraisal and negative academic emotion was also a significant predictor of psychological well-being. In the simple slope analysis the group with a below average cognitive reappraisal score the negative academic emotions were associated with lower psychological well-being, whereas in the group with above average cognitive reappraisal the effect of negative academic emotions on psychological well-being was not significant. However, for those with a cognitive reappraisal score of 1 standard deviation above the average, the effect of negative academic emotions on psychological well-being was not significant. These results suggest that cognitive reappraisal was a significant moderator in the relationship between negative academic emotion and psychological well-being.

Negative Academic Emotion and Psychological Well-being in Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents: Examining the Moderating Role of Cognitive Reappraisal

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Daoyang Wang

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The study aimed to explore the relationship among negative academic emotions (e.g., anxiety, shame, anger, boredom, hopelessness, disappointment, and hatred, psychological well-being (including life vitality, health concern, altruism commitment, self-value, friendly relationship, and personal development, and cognitive reappraisal in rural-to-urban migrant adolescents in China. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the relationship between psychological well-being and negative academic emotions is moderated by cognitive reappraisal. A total of 311 migrant adolescents aged 14–20 years were selected, including 132 boys and 179 girls. Results of a regression analysis showed that cognitive reappraisal (positive and negative academic emotions were significant predictors of psychological well-being. The interaction effect between cognitive reappraisal and negative academic emotion was also a significant predictor of psychological well-being. In the simple slope analysis the group with a below average cognitive reappraisal score the negative academic emotions were associated with lower psychological well-being, whereas in the group with above average cognitive reappraisal the effect of negative academic emotions on psychological well-being was not significant. However, for those with a cognitive reappraisal score of 1 standard deviation above the average, the effect of negative academic emotions on psychological well-being was not significant. These results suggest that cognitive reappraisal was a significant moderator in the relationship between negative academic emotion and psychological well-being.

Adverse Life Events and Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Adolescence: The Role of Non-Verbal Cognitive Ability and Negative Cognitive Errors

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Flouri, Eirini; Panourgia, Constantina

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to test whether negative cognitive errors (overgeneralizing, catastrophizing, selective abstraction, and personalizing) mediate the moderator effect of non-verbal cognitive ability on the association between adverse life events (life stress) and emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence. The sample consisted of 430…

Individual Differences in the Habitual Use of Cognitive Reappraisal Predict the Reward-related Feedback Negativity

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Liyang eSai

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Recent studies have shown that instructed cognitive reappraisal can regulate the neural processing of reward. However, it is still unclear whether the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life can influence brain activity associated with reward processing. In the present study, participant’s neural responses to reward were measured using electroencephalography (EEG recorded during a gambling task, while their tendency to use cognitive reappraisal was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ. Event-related potential (ERP results indicated that losses on the gambling task elicited greater negative reward-related feedback negativity (FN than gains. The differential FN between losses and gains was significantly correlated with cognitive reappraisal scores across participants, such that individuals with a higher tendency to use cognitive reappraisal showed stronger reward processing (i.e. amplified FN difference between losses and gains. This correlation remained significant after controlling for expressive suppression scores. However, expressive suppression per se was not correlated with FN differences. Taken together, these results suggest that the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal influences the neural processing of reward.

Relations of Parenting and Negative Life Events to Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children

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Bruce, Alanna E.; Cole, David A.; Dallaire, Danielle H.; Jacquez, Farrah M.; Pineda, Ashley Q.; LaGrange, Beth

2006-01-01

In a sample of 299 children (grades 2, 4, and 6), we examined parenting and negative life events as predictors of depressive cognitions, specifically low self-perceived competence, depressive cognitive schemas, and depressogenic attributional style. We also examined developmental trends in these relations. Children completed measures of parenting,…

Depressive cognition: a test of depressive realism versus negativity using general knowledge questions.

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Stone, E R; Dodrill, C L; Johnson, N

2001-11-01

This research is an examination of whether cognition in depressed individuals incorporates a realistic view of the world or a general tendency toward negativity. Participants provided two types of probability judgments of the likelihood that they correctly answered general knowledge questions: the probability that they correctly answered each of the individual questions and an aggregate judgment, after completing the questionnaire, of the percentage of all the questions they thought they had correctly answered. These tasks generally elicit overconfidence and accuracy in nondepressives. In accord with theories of both depressive realism and general negativity, in their item-by-item assessments of their answers to the individual questions, depressed participants demonstrated less overconfidence than nondepressed participants. In accord with the theory of general negativity but not with the theory of depressive realism, however, depressed participants demonstrated underconfidence in their aggregate judgments. The implications of these findings on theories of depressive cognition are discussed.

Performance-based interpretation bias in clinically anxious youths: relationships with attention, anxiety, and negative cognition.

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Rozenman, Michelle; Amir, Nader; Weersing, V Robin

2014-09-01

This preliminary investigation sought to examine basic interpretive biases, as assessed via performance-based means, in the context of anxious symptomatology, attention, and negative cognition in children and adolescents. At a single assessment, 26 youths diagnosed with primary separation anxiety, social phobia, or generalized anxiety disorder completed performance-based assessments of interpretation and attention. Youths and parents also completed diagnostic interviews and youths completed a measure of negative self-statements. Components of interpretation (threat-valence judgments and speed of responding) were examined, and interpretation was explored as a correlate of youth anxiety, attention bias, and negative self-statements. Results found percentage of negative interpretations endorsed as the strongest predictor of anxiety symptoms; this index was also correlated with attention bias. Slower rejection of benign interpretations was also associated with youth-reported negative self-statements.This initial investigation provides support for a relationship between interpretation bias and anxiety and preliminary evidence for a relationship between attention and interpretation biases. Continued research dismantling the stages of basic cognition within the chain of information processing may provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders in youths and lead to continued development and refinement of cognitive interventions. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The Integration of Negative Affect, Pain, and Cognitive Control in the Cingulate Cortex

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Shackman, Alexander J.; Salomons, Tim V.; Slagter, Heleen A.; Fox, Andrew S.; Winter, Jameel J.; Davidson, Richard J.

2011-01-01

Preface It has been argued that emotion, pain, and cognitive control are functionally segregated in distinct subdivisions of the cingulate cortex. But recent observations encourage a fundamentally different view. Imaging studies indicate that negative affect, pain, and cognitive control activate an overlapping region of dorsal cingulate, the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC). Anatomical studies reveal that aMCC constitutes a hub where information about reinforcers can be linked to motor centers responsible for expressing affect and executing goal-directed behavior. Computational modeling and other kinds of evidence suggest that this intimacy reflects control processes that are common to all three domains. These observations compel a reconsideration of dorsal cingulate’s contribution to negative affect and pain. PMID:21331082

The Role of Thought Suppression, Meta-Cognitive Factors and Negative Emotions in Prediction of Substance Dependency Disorder

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Omid Saed

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Introduction: This study investigated the role of thought suppression, meta- cognitive factors, and negative emotions in predicting of substance dependency disorder. Method: Subjects were 70 patients with substance dependence disorder and 70 normal individuals (total 140. Substance dependants were selected of outpatient treatment centers and the normal sample was selected of the general population too. Sampling methods in both samples were convenience sampling. All people were assessed by MCQ-30, White Bear Suppression Inventory, and Beck’s Anxiety and Depression Questionnaires. For data analysis, discriminant analysis were used. Results: Negative meta-cognitive beliefs about worry, depression, and thought suppression were the most significant predictors of substance dependence disorder. Conclusion: Through meta-cognitive beliefs, thought suppression and negative emotion (especially depression, substance dependency disorder can be predicted. Based on this model can be used to take a substance dependency disorder prevention approach and psychotherapy approach (based on cognitive and meta-cognitive therapies. In addition, the findings of this research can be applied in clinical and counseling environments to help substance dependant clients.

Residual Negative Symptoms Differentiate Cognitive Performance in Clinically Stable Patients with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

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Rajeev Krishnadas

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Cognitive deficits in various domains have been shown in patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The purpose of the present study was to examine if residual psychopathology explained the difference in cognitive function between clinically stable patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We compared the performance on tests of attention, visual and verbal memory, and executive function of 25 patients with schizophrenia in remission and 25 euthymic bipolar disorder patients with that of 25 healthy controls. Mediation analysis was used to see if residual psychopathology could explain the difference in cognitive function between the patient groups. Both patient groups performed significantly worse than healthy controls on most cognitive tests. Patients with bipolar disorder displayed cognitive deficits that were milder but qualitatively similar to those of patients with schizophrenia. Residual negative symptoms mediated the difference in performance on cognitive tests between the two groups. Neither residual general psychotic symptoms nor greater antipsychotic doses explained this relationship. The shared variance explained by the residual negative and cognitive deficits that the difference between patient groups may be explained by greater frontal cortical neurophysiological deficits in patients with schizophrenia, compared to bipolar disorder. Further longitudinal work may provide insight into pathophysiological mechanisms that underlie these deficits.

The relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts: A study of career-exploring adults

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Dennis Dahl

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Orientation: Career exploration can be a stressful experience, often manifested by negative career thoughts. In this article, the factors which influence the ability to cope with negative thinking are investigated.Research purpose: This study investigated the relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative thoughts pertaining to career in a sample of unemployed, non-student adults.Motivation for study: There is a need for research which investigates the psychological factors that contribute to successful career exploration and decision-making. Cognitive ability is one such factor, whilst emotional intelligence is another whose validity is not yet well established.Research design, approach and method: A survey design and quantitative procedures were used in gathering and analysing data gathered from 193 non-student, middle-aged adults attending a community-based career exploration programme in British Columbia, Canada. Cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts before and after a career exploration programme were measured.Main findings: Neither cognitive ability nor any aspect of emotional intelligence predicted negative career thinking change. Cognitive ability predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after the programme. The ability to manage emotions, however, predicted negative career thoughts both before and after the career decision-making programme.Practical/managerial implications: The managing emotions component of emotional intelligence is significantly associated with negative career thoughts. These findings suggest that career counselling requires that the role of emotions and their influence on behaviours must be given more consideration. Industrial and organisational (IO psychologists would benefit from engaging in programmes that train them to assist clients in becoming more aware of, and increasing, their own emotional

The relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts: A study of career-exploring adults

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dennis Dahl

2012-11-01

Research purpose: This study investigated the relationship between cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative thoughts pertaining to career in a sample of unemployed, non-student adults. Motivation for study: There is a need for research which investigates the psychological factors that contribute to successful career exploration and decision-making. Cognitive ability is one such factor, whilst emotional intelligence is another whose validity is not yet well established. Research design, approach and method: A survey design and quantitative procedures were used in gathering and analysing data gathered from 193 non-student, middle-aged adults attending a community-based career exploration programme in British Columbia, Canada. Cognitive ability, emotional intelligence and negative career thoughts before and after a career exploration programme were measured. Main findings: Neither cognitive ability nor any aspect of emotional intelligence predicted negative career thinking change. Cognitive ability predicted overall negative career thoughts as well as decision-making confusion, but only after the programme. The ability to manage emotions, however, predicted negative career thoughts both before and after the career decision-making programme. Practical/managerial implications: The managing emotions component of emotional intelligence is significantly associated with negative career thoughts. These findings suggest that career counselling requires that the role of emotions and their influence on behaviours must be given more consideration. Industrial and organisational (IO psychologists would benefit from engaging in programmes that train them to assist clients in becoming more aware of, and increasing, their own emotional intelligence. Contribution/value-add: The study added insights to the field of career psychology regarding the ability of emotional intelligence to predict important outcomes regarding the dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI as

Adolescents' aggressive and prosocial behaviors: links with social information processing, negative emotionality, moral affect, and moral cognition.

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Laible, Deborah J; Murphy, Tia Panfile; Augustine, Mairin

2014-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine whether moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases independently predicted adolescents' prosocial and aggressive behavior in adolescence. A total of 148 adolescents completed self-report measures of prosocial and aggressive behavior, moral affect, moral cognition, negative emotionality, and attribution biases. Although in general all 3 factors (emotional, moral, and social cognitive) were correlated with adolescent social behavior, the most consistent independent predictors of adolescent social behavior were moral affect and cognition. These findings have important implications for intervention and suggest that programs that promote adolescent perspective taking, moral reasoning, and moral affect are needed to reduce aggressive behavior and promote prosocial behavior.

The role of low cognitive effort and negative symptoms in neuropsychological impairment in schizophrenia.

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Strauss, Gregory P; Morra, Lindsay F; Sullivan, Sara K; Gold, James M

2015-03-01

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether insufficient effort, negative symptoms (e.g., avolition, anhedonia), and psychological variables (e.g., anhedonia and perception of low cognitive resources) predict generalized neurocognitive impairment in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ). In Experiment 1, participants included 97 individuals with SZ and 63 healthy controls (CN) who completed the Victoria Symptom Validity Test (VSVT), the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), and self-report anhedonia questionnaires. In Experiment 2, participants included 46 individuals with SZ and 33 CN who completed Green's Word Memory Test (WMT), the MCCB, and self-reports of anhedonia, defeatist performance beliefs, and negative expectancy appraisals. RESULTS indicated that a low proportion of individuals with SZ failed effort testing (1.0% Experiment 1; 15.2% Experiment 2); however, global neurocognitive impairment was significantly predicted by low effort and negative symptoms. Findings indicate that low effort does not threaten the validity of neuropsychological test results in the majority of individuals with schizophrenia; however, effort testing may be useful in SZ patients with severe negative symptoms who may be more likely to put forth insufficient effort due to motivational problems. Although the base rate of failure is relatively low, it may be beneficial to screen for insufficient effort in SZ and exclude individuals who fail effort testing from pharmacological or cognitive remediation trials. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Interview-based assessment of cognition is a strong predictor of quality of life in patients with schizophrenia and severe negative symptoms

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Breno F. Cruz

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: To analyze the correlation between quality of life, symptoms, and cognition assessed by the interview-based Schizophrenia Cognition Rating Scale (SCoRS. Methods: Seventy-nine outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia were evaluated with the Quality of Life Scale – Brazilian version (QLS-BR, the SCoRS, and symptoms scales (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale [PANSS]. After determining the potential explanatory variables using Spearman’s correlation and Student’s t test results, we ran simple, multivariate, and decision-tree regression analyses to assess the impact of SCoRS and PANSS ratings on mean overall quality of life. Results: Cognitive deficits and negative symptoms were the best predictors of quality of life. A low degree of negative symptoms (PANSS negative < 11 was a strong predictor of better quality of life (QLS ∼ 75, regardless of SCoRS rating. Among participants with more severe negative symptoms, elevated cognitive impairment (interviewer SCoRS ∼ 44 was a predictor of worse quality of life (QLS ∼ 44. Conclusions: Cognitive impairment determined by interview-based assessment seems to be a strong predictor of quality of life in subjects with severe negative symptoms. These results support the usefulness of SCoRS for cognitive assessment that is relevant to the everyday life of patients with schizophrenia.

How does social support relieve depression among flood victims? The contribution of feelings of safety, self-disclosure, and negative cognition.

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Zhen, Rui; Quan, Lijuan; Zhou, Xiao

2018-03-15

Depression is one of the most common post-trauma symptoms that can be alleivated by social support. The purpose of this study was to examine the multiple mediating effects of social support on depression via feelings of safety, disclosure, and negative cognition. One hundred and eighty-seven flood victims in Wuhu City, an area affected most severely by a flood during July 2016, were selected to complete a self-report questionnaire package. Social support has four indirect negative effects on depression, including a one-step indirect path to self-disclosure, 2 two-step paths from feelings of safety to self-disclosure, and from self-disclosure to negative cognition about self, and a three-step indirect path from feelings of life safety via self-disclosure to negative self-cognition. All variables were measured using self-report scales. Social support may relieve depression in flood victims by inducing feelings of safety and self-disclosure, and by relieving negative cognition. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Machismo, Marianismo, and Negative Cognitive-Emotional Factors: Findings From the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Sociocultural Ancillary Study.

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Nuñez, Alicia; González, Patricia; Talavera, Gregory A; Sanchez-Johnsen, Lisa; Roesch, Scott C; Davis, Sonia M; Arguelles, William; Womack, Veronica Y; Ostrovsky, Natania W; Ojeda, Lizette; Penedo, Frank J; Gallo, Linda C

2016-11-01

There is limited research on the traditional Hispanic male and female gender roles of machismo and marianismo, respectively, in relation to negative cognitions and emotions. Given the vulnerability of Hispanics to negative cognitions and emotions, it is important to examine sociocultural correlates of emotional distress. Therefore, we examined associations of machismo and marianismo with negative cognitive-emotional factors (i.e., depression symptoms; cynical hostility; and trait anxiety and anger) in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Sociocultural Ancillary Study, a cross-sectional cohort study of sociocultural and psychosocial correlates of cardiometabolic health. Participants were aged 18-74 years and self-identified as Hispanic of Central American, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South American, and other Hispanic background ( N = 4,426). Results revealed that specific components of machismo (traditional machismo) and marianismo (family and spiritual pillar dimensions) were associated with higher levels of negative cognitions and emotions after adjusting for socio-demographic factors ( p < .05); these associations remained consistent across sex, Hispanic background group, and acculturation. Findings can inform mental health interventions and contribute to our understanding of the importance of gender role socialization in the context of self-reported negative cognitive-emotional factors in Hispanics.

Harsh Parenting and Adolescent Depression: Mediation by Negative Self-Cognition and Moderation by Peer Acceptance

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Tang, Ai-Min; Deng, Xue-Li; Du, Xiu-Xiu; Wang, Ming-Zhong

2018-01-01

Guided by Beck's cognitive model of depression, this study examined the mediating role of negative self-cognition in the association between harsh parenting and adolescent depression and whether peer acceptance moderated this indirect relationship. Eight hundred and fifty-nine seventh to ninth graders (379 girls and 480 boys, mean age = 13.58…

Cognitive deficits after aneurysmal and angiographically negative subarachnoid hemorrhage : Memory, attention, executive functioning, and emotion recognition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buunk, Anne M; Groen, Rob J M; Veenstra, Wencke S; Metzemaekers, Joannes; van der Hoeven, Johannes H; van Dijk, J Marc C; Spikman, Jacoba M

2016-01-01

OBJECTIVE: The authors' aim was to investigate cognitive outcome in patients with aneurysmal and angiographically negative subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH and anSAH), by comparing them to healthy controls and to each other. Besides investigating cognitive functions as memory and attention, they

Cognitive reappraisal and secondary control coping: associations with working memory, positive and negative affect, and symptoms of anxiety/depression.

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Andreotti, Charissa; Thigpen, Jennifer E; Dunn, Madeleine J; Watson, Kelly; Potts, Jennifer; Reising, Michelle M; Robinson, Kristen E; Rodriguez, Erin M; Roubinov, Danielle; Luecken, Linda; Compas, Bruce E

2013-01-01

The current study examined the relations of measures of cognitive reappraisal and secondary control coping with working memory abilities, positive and negative affect, and symptoms of anxiety and depression in young adults (N=124). Results indicate significant relations between working memory abilities and reports of secondary control coping and between reports of secondary control coping and cognitive reappraisal. Associations were also found between measures of secondary control coping and cognitive reappraisal and positive and negative affect and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Further, the findings suggest that reports of cognitive reappraisal may be more strongly predictive of positive affect whereas secondary control coping may be more strongly predictive of negative affect and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Overall, the results suggest that current measures of secondary control coping and cognitive reappraisal capture related but distinct constructs and suggest that the assessment of working memory may be more strongly related to secondary control coping in predicting individual differences in distress.

Cognitive Impairments in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Associations With Positive and Negative Affect, Alexithymia, Pain Catastrophizing and Self-Esteem.

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Galvez-Sánchez, Carmen M; Reyes Del Paso, Gustavo A; Duschek, Stefan

2018-01-01

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain accompanied by symptoms like depression, anxiety, sleep disturbance and fatigue. In addition, affected patients frequently report cognitive disruption such as forgetfulness, concentration difficulties or mental slowness. Though cognitive deficits in FMS have been confirmed in various studies, not much is known about the mechanisms involved in their origin. This study aimed to investigate the contribution of affect-related variables to cognitive impairments in FMS. For this purpose, 67 female FMS patients and 32 healthy control subjects completed a battery of cognitive tests measuring processing speed, attention, visuospatial and verbal memory, cognitive flexibility and planning abilities. In addition, participants completed self-report questionnaires pertaining to positive and negative affect, alexithymia, pain catastrophizing and self-esteem. Clinical characteristics including pain severity, symptoms of depression and anxiety, insomnia and fatigue were also assessed. FMS patients showed markedly poorer performance than healthy controls in all of the cognitive domains assessed, in addition to greater levels of depression, anxiety, negative affect, alexithymia and pain catastrophizing, and lower self-esteem and positive affect. In exploratory correlation analysis in the FMS sample, lower cognitive performance was associated with higher pain severity, depression, anxiety, negative affect, alexithymia and pain catastrophizing, as well as lower self-esteem and positive affect. However, in regression analyses, pain, self-esteem, alexithymia, and pain catastrophizing explained the largest portion of the variance in performance. While interference effects of clinical pain in cognition have been previously described, the present findings suggest that affective factors also substantially contribute to the genesis of cognitive impairments. They support the notion that affective disturbances

Intensifying the Dominant Response II: Nonconscious Negative Affect, Cognitive Demand, and Conversations.

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Monahan, Jennifer L.; Laliker, Melanie

2002-01-01

Examines mechanisms that may account for why evaluations made by participants involved in conversations are more influenced by subliminal negative cues than are evaluations made by observers. Explains three studies in which subliminal priming tasks were used with differing cognitive loads and self-preservation concerns among a group of…

The relationship between parenting attitudes, negative cognition, and the depressive symptoms according to gender in Korean adolescents.

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Park, Subin; Kim, Bung-Nyun; Park, Min-Hyeon

2016-01-01

Parenting style is one potential contributor to the development of adolescents' cognitions, self-esteem and emotional problems. This study examined the relationship between maternal parenting attitudes and adolescents' negative cognitions, and depressive symptoms according to gender. A total of 401 middle and high school students were recruited (i.e. 221 males and 180 females; mean age, 13.92 ± 1.31 years). The Maternal Behavior Research Instrument assessed maternal parenting attitudes. Analyses examined the relationship between parenting attitudes and affective symptoms, with self-esteem and negative automatic thoughts as mediators of these relations. Maternal rejecting attitudes were positively associated with depressive symptoms via increasing negative autonomic thoughts and decreasing self-esteem among female adolescents. Among male adolescents, maternal rejecting attitudes were associated with low self-esteem, but they were not associated with depressive symptoms. Maternal parenting has a larger impact on the emotional adjustment of females compared to males. Interventions to increase self-esteem and correct negative cognitions may be helpful for depressed female adolescents, specifically for those whose mothers are rejecting.

Assessing Hepatitis C Burden and Treatment Effectiveness through the British Columbia Hepatitis Testers Cohort (BC-HTC): Design and Characteristics of Linked and Unlinked Participants.

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Janjua, Naveed Zafar; Kuo, Margot; Chong, Mei; Yu, Amanda; Alvarez, Maria; Cook, Darrel; Armour, Rosemary; Aiken, Ciaran; Li, Karen; Mussavi Rizi, Seyed Ali; Woods, Ryan; Godfrey, David; Wong, Jason; Gilbert, Mark; Tyndall, Mark W; Krajden, Mel

2016-01-01

The British Columbia (BC) Hepatitis Testers Cohort (BC-HTC) was established to assess and monitor hepatitis C (HCV) epidemiology, cost of illness and treatment effectiveness in BC, Canada. In this paper, we describe the cohort construction, data linkage process, linkage yields, and comparison of the characteristics of linked and unlinked individuals. The BC-HTC includes all individuals tested for HCV and/or HIV or reported as a case of HCV, hepatitis B (HBV), HIV or active tuberculosis (TB) in BC linked with the provincial health insurance client roster, medical visits, hospitalizations, drug prescriptions, the cancer registry and mortality data using unique personal health numbers. The cohort includes data since inception (1990/1992) of each database until 2012/2013 with plans for annual updates. We computed linkage rates by year and compared the characteristics of linked and unlinked individuals. Of 2,656,323 unique individuals available in the laboratory and surveillance data, 1,427,917(54%) were included in the final linked cohort, including about 1.15 million tested for HCV and about 1.02 million tested for HIV. The linkage rate was 86% for HCV tests, 89% for HCV cases, 95% for active TB cases, 48% for HIV tests and 36% for HIV cases. Linkage rates increased from 40% for HCV negatives and 70% for HCV positives in 1992 to ~90% after 2005. Linkage rates were lower for males, younger age at testing, and those with unknown residence location. Linkage rates for HCV testers co-infected with HIV, HBV or TB were very high (90-100%). Linkage rates increased over time related to improvements in completeness of identifiers in laboratory, surveillance, and registry databases. Linkage rates were higher for HCV than HIV testers, those testing positive, older individuals, and females. Data from the cohort provide essential information to support the development of prevention, care and treatment initiatives for those infected with HCV.

Assessing Hepatitis C Burden and Treatment Effectiveness through the British Columbia Hepatitis Testers Cohort (BC-HTC: Design and Characteristics of Linked and Unlinked Participants.

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Naveed Zafar Janjua

Full Text Available The British Columbia (BC Hepatitis Testers Cohort (BC-HTC was established to assess and monitor hepatitis C (HCV epidemiology, cost of illness and treatment effectiveness in BC, Canada. In this paper, we describe the cohort construction, data linkage process, linkage yields, and comparison of the characteristics of linked and unlinked individuals.The BC-HTC includes all individuals tested for HCV and/or HIV or reported as a case of HCV, hepatitis B (HBV, HIV or active tuberculosis (TB in BC linked with the provincial health insurance client roster, medical visits, hospitalizations, drug prescriptions, the cancer registry and mortality data using unique personal health numbers. The cohort includes data since inception (1990/1992 of each database until 2012/2013 with plans for annual updates. We computed linkage rates by year and compared the characteristics of linked and unlinked individuals.Of 2,656,323 unique individuals available in the laboratory and surveillance data, 1,427,917(54% were included in the final linked cohort, including about 1.15 million tested for HCV and about 1.02 million tested for HIV. The linkage rate was 86% for HCV tests, 89% for HCV cases, 95% for active TB cases, 48% for HIV tests and 36% for HIV cases. Linkage rates increased from 40% for HCV negatives and 70% for HCV positives in 1992 to ~90% after 2005. Linkage rates were lower for males, younger age at testing, and those with unknown residence location. Linkage rates for HCV testers co-infected with HIV, HBV or TB were very high (90-100%.Linkage rates increased over time related to improvements in completeness of identifiers in laboratory, surveillance, and registry databases. Linkage rates were higher for HCV than HIV testers, those testing positive, older individuals, and females. Data from the cohort provide essential information to support the development of prevention, care and treatment initiatives for those infected with HCV.

Assessing Hepatitis C Burden and Treatment Effectiveness through the British Columbia Hepatitis Testers Cohort (BC-HTC): Design and Characteristics of Linked and Unlinked Participants

Science.gov (United States)

Janjua, Naveed Zafar; Kuo, Margot; Chong, Mei; Yu, Amanda; Alvarez, Maria; Cook, Darrel; Armour, Rosemary; Aiken, Ciaran; Li, Karen; Mussavi Rizi, Seyed Ali; Woods, Ryan; Godfrey, David; Wong, Jason; Gilbert, Mark; Tyndall, Mark W.; Krajden, Mel

2016-01-01

Background The British Columbia (BC) Hepatitis Testers Cohort (BC-HTC) was established to assess and monitor hepatitis C (HCV) epidemiology, cost of illness and treatment effectiveness in BC, Canada. In this paper, we describe the cohort construction, data linkage process, linkage yields, and comparison of the characteristics of linked and unlinked individuals. Methods The BC-HTC includes all individuals tested for HCV and/or HIV or reported as a case of HCV, hepatitis B (HBV), HIV or active tuberculosis (TB) in BC linked with the provincial health insurance client roster, medical visits, hospitalizations, drug prescriptions, the cancer registry and mortality data using unique personal health numbers. The cohort includes data since inception (1990/1992) of each database until 2012/2013 with plans for annual updates. We computed linkage rates by year and compared the characteristics of linked and unlinked individuals. Results Of 2,656,323 unique individuals available in the laboratory and surveillance data, 1,427,917(54%) were included in the final linked cohort, including about 1.15 million tested for HCV and about 1.02 million tested for HIV. The linkage rate was 86% for HCV tests, 89% for HCV cases, 95% for active TB cases, 48% for HIV tests and 36% for HIV cases. Linkage rates increased from 40% for HCV negatives and 70% for HCV positives in 1992 to ~90% after 2005. Linkage rates were lower for males, younger age at testing, and those with unknown residence location. Linkage rates for HCV testers co-infected with HIV, HBV or TB were very high (90–100%). Conclusion Linkage rates increased over time related to improvements in completeness of identifiers in laboratory, surveillance, and registry databases. Linkage rates were higher for HCV than HIV testers, those testing positive, older individuals, and females. Data from the cohort provide essential information to support the development of prevention, care and treatment initiatives for those infected with HCV

Cognitive moderators of children's adjustment to stressful divorce events: the role of negative cognitive errors and positive illusions.

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Mazur, E; Wolchik, S A; Virdin, L; Sandler, I N; West, S G

1999-01-01

This study examined whether children's cognitive appraisal biases moderate the impact of stressful divorce-related events on psychological adjustment in 355 children ages 9 to 12, whose families had experienced divorce within the past 2 years. Multiple regression indicated that endorsement of negative cognitive errors for hypothetical divorce events moderates the relations between stressful divorce events and self- and maternal reports of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, but only for older children. Positive illusions buffer the effects of stressful divorce events on child-reported depression and mother-reported externalizing problems. Implications of these results for theories of stress and coping, as well as for interventions for children of divorced families, are discussed.

The Ups and Downs of Cognitive Function: Neuroticism and Negative Affect Drive Performance Inconsistency.

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Munoz, Elizabeth; Stawski, Robert S; Sliwinski, Martin J; Smyth, Joshua M; MacDonald, Stuart W S

2018-03-26

Response time inconsistency (RTI)-or trial-to-trial variability in speeded performance-is increasingly recognized as an indicator of transient lapses of attention, cognitive health status, and central nervous system integrity, as well as a potential early indicator of normal and pathological cognitive aging (Hultsch, Strauss, Hunter, & MacDonald, 2008; MacDonald, Li, & Bäckman, 2009). Comparatively, little research has examined personality predictors of RTI across adulthood. We evaluated the association between the personality trait neuroticism and RTI in a community-dwelling sample of 317 adults between the ages of 19 to 83 and tested for two indirect pathways through negative affect (NA) and cognitive interference (CI). The personality trait neuroticism predicted greater RTI independent of mean response time performance and demographic covariates; the results were age-invariant. Furthermore, NA (but not CI) accounted for this association and moderated mediation model results indicated that older adults were more vulnerable to the adverse effects of NA. Neuroticism predicts greater response time inconsistency irrespective of mean performance and this effect is driven largely by heightened negative emotionality that may be particularly detrimental for older adults.

The Effect of Negative Affect on Cognition: Anxiety, Not Anger, Impairs Executive Function

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Shields, Grant S.; Moons, Wesley G.; Tewell, Carl A.; Yonelinas, Andrew P.

2016-01-01

It is often assumed that negative affect impairs the executive functions that underlie our ability to control and focus our thoughts. However, support for this claim has been mixed. Recent work has suggested that different negative affective states like anxiety and anger may reflect physiologically separable states with distinct effects on cognition. However, the effects of these two affective states on executive function have never been assessed. As such, we induced anxiety or anger in parti...

The indirect effect of emotion dysregulation in terms of negative affect and smoking-related cognitive processes.

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Johnson, Adrienne L; McLeish, Alison C

2016-02-01

Although negative affect is associated with a number of smoking-related cognitive processes, the mechanisms underlying these associations have yet to be examined. The current study sought to examine the indirect effect of emotion regulation difficulties in terms of the association between negative affect and smoking-related cognitive processes (internal barriers to cessation, negative affect reduction smoking motives, negative affect reduction smoking outcome expectancies). Participants were 126 daily cigarette smokers (70.4% male, Mage=36.5years, SD=13.0; 69.8% Caucasian) who smoked an average of 18.5 (SD=8.7) cigarettes per day and reported moderate nicotine dependence. Formal mediation analyses were conducted using PROCESS to examine the indirect effect of negative affect on internal barriers to cessation and negative affect reduction smoking motives and outcome expectancies through emotion regulation difficulties. After accounting for the effects of gender, daily smoking rate, and anxiety sensitivity, negative affect was indirectly related to internal barriers to cessation and negative affect reduction smoking motives through emotion regulation difficulties. There was no significant indirect effect for negative affect reduction smoking outcome expectancies. These findings suggest that greater negative affect is associated with a desire to smoke to reduce this negative affect and perceptions that quitting smoking will be difficult due to negative emotions because of greater difficulties managing these negative emotions. Thus, emotion regulation difficulties may be an important target for smoking cessation interventions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Examining the interplay among negative emotionality, cognitive functioning, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom severity.

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Healey, Dione M; Marks, David J; Halperin, Jeffrey M

2011-05-01

Cognition and emotion, traditionally thought of as largely distinct, have recently begun to be conceptualized as dynamically linked processes that interact to influence functioning. This study investigated the moderating effects of cognitive functioning on the relationship between negative emotionality and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom severity. A total of 216 (140 hyperactive/inattentive; 76 typically developing) preschoolers aged 3-4 years were administered a neuropsychological test battery (i.e., NEPSY). To avoid method bias, child negative emotionality was rated by teachers (Temperament Assessment Battery for Children-Revised), and parents rated symptom severity on the ADHD Rating Scale (ADHD-RS-IV). Hierarchical Linear Regression analyses revealed that both negative emotionality and Perceptual-Motor & Executive Functions accounted for significant unique variance in ADHD symptom severity. Significant interactions indicated that when negative emotionality is low, but not high, neuropsychological functioning accounts for significant variability in ADHD symptoms, with lower functioning predicting more symptoms. Emotional and neuropsychological functioning, both individually and in combination, play a significant role in the expression of ADHD symptom severity.

Longitudinal and Incremental Relation of Cybervictimization to Negative Self-Cognitions and Depressive Symptoms in Young Adolescents.

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Cole, David A; Zelkowitz, Rachel L; Nick, Elizabeth; Martin, Nina C; Roeder, Kathryn M; Sinclair-McBride, Keneisha; Spinelli, Tawny

2016-10-01

Adolescents are among the most frequent users of social media websites, raising concern about the dangers of cyber bullying or cybervictimization (CV). A 12-month longitudinal study examined the unique, prospective relation of CV to the development of negative self-cognitions and depressive symptoms in a community sample of 827 children and young adolescents (ages 8-13; 55.1 % female) from the southeastern United States. Over and above conventional types of peer victimization, CV significantly predicted changes in self-referential negative cognitions, victimization-related cognitive reactions, and depressive symptoms, even after controlling for baseline levels of the dependent variables. Results also showed that CV was significantly less stable than other forms of victimization and tended to increase slightly with time. The study highlights the unique effects of CV and has implications for research and practice.

The effect of positive symptoms on social cognition in first-episode schizophrenia is modified by the presence of negative symptoms.

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Bliksted, Vibeke; Videbech, Poul; Fagerlund, Birgitte; Frith, Chris

2017-02-01

There is considerable evidence that patients with schizophrenia have neurocognitive and social-cognitive deficits. It is unclear how such deficits in first-episode schizophrenia relate to current clinical symptoms. Fifty-nine patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES) were tested using the Danish version of NART (premorbid IQ), subtests from WAIS-III (current IQ), and global cognition using Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrena (BACS), a neurocognitive test battery. Social perception was tested using film clips of everyday interactions (TASIT). Theory of mind (ToM) was tested using silent animations (Animated Triangles Task). The FES subjects had been experiencing psychotic symptoms for several years (mean duration 9.5 years 95% confidence interval (CI [7.6;11.3]). The FES patients were divided into clinical subgroups based on their level of positive and negative symptoms (using SANS and SAPS). Healthy controls were matched to the patients. High levels of negative symptoms were associated with low estimated functional IQ and poor neurocognition and social cognition. All SANS subscales, but Avolition-Apathy, had significant negative impact on social cognition. The effects of positive symptoms were complex. High levels of delusions were associated with higher premorbid IQ. In the presence of high levels of negative symptoms, high levels of positive symptoms were associated with the most comprehensive deficits in social perception, while, in the absence of negative symptoms, high levels of positive symptoms were not associated with such deficits. The results suggest that social-cognitive training will need to take account of the above mentioned effects of symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Vulnerability-specific stress generation: An examination of negative cognitive and interpersonal styles

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Liu, Richard T.; Alloy, Lauren B.; Mastin, Becky M.; Choi, Jimmy Y.; Boland, Elaine M.; Jenkins, Abby L.

2014-01-01

Although there is substantial evidence documenting the stress generation effect in depression (i.e., the tendency for depression-prone individuals to experience higher rates of life stress to which they contribute), additional research is required to advance current understanding of the specific types of dependent stress (i.e., events influenced by characteristics and attendant behaviors of the individual) relevant to this effect. The present study tested an extension of the stress generation hypothesis, in which the content of dependent stress that is produced by depression-prone individuals is contingent upon, and matches, the nature of their particular vulnerabilities. This extension was tested within the context of two cognitive models (i.e., hopelessness theory [Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989] and Cole’s [1990, 1991] competency-based model) and two interpersonal models (i.e., Swann’s [1987] self-verification theory and Coyne’s [1976] interpersonal theory) of depression. Overall, support was obtained for vulnerability-specific stress generation. Specifically, in analyses across vulnerability domains, evidence of stress-generation specificity was found for all domain-specific cognitive vulnerabilities except self-perceived social competence. The within-domain analyses for cognitive vulnerabilities produced more mixed results, but were largely supportive. Additionally, excessive reassurance-seeking was specifically predictive of dependent stress in the social domain, and moderated, but did not mediate, the relation between negative inferential styles overall and in the interpersonal domain and their corresponding generated stress. Finally, no evidence was found for a stress generation effect with negative feedback-seeking. PMID:24679143

Impact of negative cognitions about body image on inflammatory status in relation to health.

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Černelič-Bizjak, Maša; Jenko-Pražnikar, Zala

2014-01-01

Evidence suggests that body dissatisfaction may relate to biological processes and that negative cognitions can influence physical health through the complex pathways linking psychological and biological factors. The present study investigates the relationships between body image satisfaction, inflammation (cytokine levels), aerobic fitness level and obesity in 96 middle-aged men and women (48 normal and 48 overweight). All participants underwent measurements of body satisfaction, body composition, serological measurements of inflammation and aerobic capabilities assessment. Body image dissatisfaction uniquely predicted inflammation biomarkers, C-reactive protein and tumour necrosis factor-α, even when controlled for obesity indicators. Thus, body image dissatisfaction is strongly linked to inflammation processes and may promote the increase in cytokines, representing a relative metabolic risk, independent of most traditional risk factors, such as gender, body mass index and intra-abdominal (waist to hip ratio) adiposity. Results highlight the fact that person's negative cognitions need to be considered in psychologically based interventions and strategies in treatment of obesity, including strategies for health promotion. Results contribute to the knowledge base of the complex pathways in the association between psychological factors and physical illness and some important attempts were made to explain the psychological pathways linking cognitions with inflammation.

Habitual Cognitive Reappraisal Was Negatively Related to Perceived Immorality in the Harm and Fairness Domains

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Zhongquan Li

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Emotion plays an important role in moral judgment, and people always use emotion regulation strategies to modulate emotion, consciously or unconsciously. Previous studies had investigated only the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and moral judgment in the Harm domain, and revealed divergent results. Based on Moral Foundations Theory, the present study extended the investigation into moral judgment in all five moral domains and used a set of standardized moral vignettes. Two hundred and six college students filled in the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and completed emotional ratings and moral judgment on moral vignettes from Moral Foundations Vignettes. Correlation analysis indicated that habitual cognitive reappraisal was negatively related to immorality rating in Harm, Fairness, and Loyalty domains. Regression analysis revealed that after controlling the effect of other variables, cognitive reappraisal negatively predicted immorality ratings in the Harm and Fairness domains. Further mediation analysis showed that emotional valence only partially explained the association between cognitive reappraisal and moral judgment in Harm area. Some other factors beyond emotional valence were suggested for future studies.

Habitual Cognitive Reappraisal Was Negatively Related to Perceived Immorality in the Harm and Fairness Domains.

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Li, Zhongquan; Wu, Xiaoyuan; Zhang, Lisong; Zhang, Ziyuan

2017-01-01

Emotion plays an important role in moral judgment, and people always use emotion regulation strategies to modulate emotion, consciously or unconsciously. Previous studies had investigated only the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and moral judgment in the Harm domain, and revealed divergent results. Based on Moral Foundations Theory, the present study extended the investigation into moral judgment in all five moral domains and used a set of standardized moral vignettes. Two hundred and six college students filled in the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and completed emotional ratings and moral judgment on moral vignettes from Moral Foundations Vignettes. Correlation analysis indicated that habitual cognitive reappraisal was negatively related to immorality rating in Harm, Fairness, and Loyalty domains. Regression analysis revealed that after controlling the effect of other variables, cognitive reappraisal negatively predicted immorality ratings in the Harm and Fairness domains. Further mediation analysis showed that emotional valence only partially explained the association between cognitive reappraisal and moral judgment in Harm area. Some other factors beyond emotional valence were suggested for future studies.

Prospective evaluation of a cognitive vulnerability-stress model for depression: the interaction of schema self-structures and negative life events.

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Seeds, Pamela M; Dozois, David J A

2010-12-01

This study tested the diathesis-stress component of Beck's (1967) cognitive theory of depression. Initially, participants completed measures assessing cognitive organization of the self-schema and depressive symptoms. One year later, participants completed measures assessing cognitive organization of the self-schema, depressive symptoms, and negative life events. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses, controlling for initial depression, indicated that more tightly interconnected negative content was associated with greater elevations in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of life events. More diffusely interconnected positive content for interpersonal self-referent information also interacted with life events to predict depressive symptoms. Cognitive organization dimensions showed moderate to high stability across the follow-up, suggesting that they may be trait-like vulnerability factors. Implications for the cognitive vulnerability-stress model of depression are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dose reduction of risperidone and olanzapine can improve cognitive function and negative symptoms in stable schizophrenic patients: A single-blinded, 52-week, randomized controlled study.

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Zhou, Yanling; Li, Guannan; Li, Dan; Cui, Hongmei; Ning, Yuping

2018-05-01

The long-term effects of dose reduction of atypical antipsychotics on cognitive function and symptomatology in stable patients with schizophrenia remain unclear. We sought to determine the change in cognitive function and symptomatology after reducing risperidone or olanzapine dosage in stable schizophrenic patients. Seventy-five stabilized schizophrenic patients prescribed risperidone (≥4 mg/day) or olanzapine (≥10 mg/day) were randomly divided into a dose-reduction group ( n=37) and a maintenance group ( n=38). For the dose-reduction group, the dose of antipsychotics was reduced by 50%; for the maintenance group, the dose remained unchanged throughout the whole study. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Negative Symptom Assessment-16, Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects, and Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) Consensus Cognitive Battery were measured at baseline, 12, 28, and 52 weeks. Linear mixed models were performed to compare the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Negative Symptom Assessment-16, Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects and MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery scores between groups. The linear mixed model showed significant time by group interactions on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale negative symptoms, Negative Symptom Assessment-16, Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects, speed of processing, attention/vigilance, working memory and total score of MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery (all pNegative Syndrome Scale negative subscale, Negative Symptom Assessment-16, Rating Scale for Extrapyramidal Side Effects, speed of processing, working memory and total score of MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery for the dose reduction group compared with those for the maintenance group (all pnegative symptoms in patients with stabilized schizophrenia.

Inhibition of eating behavior: negative cognitive effects of dieting.

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Hart, K E; Chiovari, P

1998-06-01

This study tested the hypothesis that dieters would score higher than nondieters in terms of food rumination. Two hundred and thirty one college undergraduates completed the Eating Obsessive-Compulsiveness Scale (EOCS) and responded to a questionnaire that inquired about dieting status. Subjects also completed measures that tapped neuroticism and social desirability. Results showed that current dieters were significantly more obsessed with thoughts of eating and food than were nondieters. Neither dieting status nor EOCS scale scores were related to neuroticism or social desirability. These results are consistent with previous theory and research suggesting that inhibition of appetitive behaviors can have negative cognitive effects. Moreover, they indicate a potential target for therapeutic intervention.

Estimating effective population size from linkage disequilibrium between unlinked loci: theory and application to fruit fly outbreak populations.

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John A Sved

Full Text Available There is a substantial literature on the use of linkage disequilibrium (LD to estimate effective population size using unlinked loci. The Ne estimates are extremely sensitive to the sampling process, and there is currently no theory to cope with the possible biases. We derive formulae for the analysis of idealised populations mating at random with multi-allelic (microsatellite loci. The 'Burrows composite index' is introduced in a novel way with a 'composite haplotype table'. We show that in a sample of diploid size S, the mean value of x2 or r2 from the composite haplotype table is biased by a factor of 1-1/(2S-12, rather than the usual factor 1+1/(2S-1 for a conventional haplotype table. But analysis of population data using these formulae leads to Ne estimates that are unrealistically low. We provide theory and simulation to show that this bias towards low Ne estimates is due to null alleles, and introduce a randomised permutation correction to compensate for the bias. We also consider the effect of introducing a within-locus disequilibrium factor to r2, and find that this factor leads to a bias in the Ne estimate. However this bias can be overcome using the same randomised permutation correction, to yield an altered r2 with lower variance than the original r2, and one that is also insensitive to null alleles. The resulting formulae are used to provide Ne estimates on 40 samples of the Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni, from populations with widely divergent Ne expectations. Linkage relationships are known for most of the microsatellite loci in this species. We find that there is little difference in the estimated Ne values from using known unlinked loci as compared to using all loci, which is important for conservation studies where linkage relationships are unknown.

Estimating effective population size from linkage disequilibrium between unlinked loci: theory and application to fruit fly outbreak populations.

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Sved, John A; Cameron, Emilie C; Gilchrist, A Stuart

2013-01-01

There is a substantial literature on the use of linkage disequilibrium (LD) to estimate effective population size using unlinked loci. The Ne estimates are extremely sensitive to the sampling process, and there is currently no theory to cope with the possible biases. We derive formulae for the analysis of idealised populations mating at random with multi-allelic (microsatellite) loci. The 'Burrows composite index' is introduced in a novel way with a 'composite haplotype table'. We show that in a sample of diploid size S, the mean value of x2 or r2 from the composite haplotype table is biased by a factor of 1-1/(2S-1)2, rather than the usual factor 1+1/(2S-1) for a conventional haplotype table. But analysis of population data using these formulae leads to Ne estimates that are unrealistically low. We provide theory and simulation to show that this bias towards low Ne estimates is due to null alleles, and introduce a randomised permutation correction to compensate for the bias. We also consider the effect of introducing a within-locus disequilibrium factor to r2, and find that this factor leads to a bias in the Ne estimate. However this bias can be overcome using the same randomised permutation correction, to yield an altered r2 with lower variance than the original r2, and one that is also insensitive to null alleles. The resulting formulae are used to provide Ne estimates on 40 samples of the Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni, from populations with widely divergent Ne expectations. Linkage relationships are known for most of the microsatellite loci in this species. We find that there is little difference in the estimated Ne values from using known unlinked loci as compared to using all loci, which is important for conservation studies where linkage relationships are unknown.

Relationships among Negative Emotionality, Responsive Parenting and Early Socio-Cognitive Development in Korean Children

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Cha, Kijoo

2017-01-01

The present study examined the interplay among negative emotionality, responsive parenting and socio-cognitive developmental outcomes (i.e., communication, personal-social and problem-solving outcomes) in about 1620 Korean children using three waves of longitudinal data spanning the first 2 years of their life. Results from the Structural Equation…

No Negative Priming without Cognitive Control

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de Fockert, Jan W.; Mizon, Guy A.; D'Ubaldo, Mariangela

2010-01-01

There is evidence that the efficiency of selective attention depends on the availability of cognitive control mechanisms as distractor processing has been found to increase with high load on working memory or dual task coordination (Lavie, Hirst, de Fockert, & Viding, 2004). We tested the prediction that cognitive control load would also…

The relationship among self-efficacy, negative self-referent cognitions, and social anxiety in children: a multiple mediator model.

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Rudy, Brittany M; Davis, Thompson E; Matthews, Russell A

2012-09-01

Evidence suggests that general self-efficacy, an individual's beliefs about his global abilities, and social self-efficacy, an individual's beliefs in his ability to navigate social situations, are strongly connected to levels of social anxiety. Negative self-statements, also known as negative self-referent cognitions, have also been linked with levels of social anxiety. Although self-efficacy and negative self-statements have been shown to be important variables in the phenomenology and maintenance of social anxiety in children, they have yet to be examined in conjunction with one another. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between negative self-referent cognitions and self-efficacy and to examine both general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy as mediator variables in the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. Results were based on a sample of 126 children ages 11 to 14 years. A significant association between negative self-statements and both general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy was established. Results also indicated that general self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety; however, contrary to hypotheses, social self-efficacy did not mediate the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. Implications and future recommendations are discussed. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Using Emotion as Information in Future-Oriented Cognition: Individual Differences in the Context of State Negative Affect

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Marroquín, Brett; Boyle, Chloe C.; Nolen-Hoeksema, Susan; Stanton, Annette L.

2016-01-01

Predictions about the future are susceptible to mood-congruent influences of emotional state. However, recent work suggests individuals also differ in the degree to which they incorporate emotion into cognition. This study examined the role of such individual differences in the context of state negative emotion. We examined whether trait tendencies to use negative or positive emotion as information affect individuals' predictions of what will happen in the future (likelihood estimation) and how events will feel (affective forecasting), and whether trait influences depend on emotional state. Participants (N=119) reported on tendencies to use emotion as information (“following feelings”), underwent an emotion induction (negative versus neutral), and made likelihood estimates and affective forecasts for future events. Views of the future were predicted by both emotional state and individual differences in following feelings. Whereas following negative feelings affected most future-oriented cognition across emotional states, following positive feelings specifically buffered individuals' views of the future in the negative emotion condition, and specifically for positive future events, a category of future-event prediction especially important in psychological health. Individual differences may confer predisposition toward optimistic or pessimistic expectations of the future in the context of acute negative emotion, with implications for adaptive and maladaptive functioning. PMID:27041783

Reduced mismatch negativity in mild cognitive impairment: associations with neuropsychological performance.

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Mowszowski, Loren; Hermens, Daniel F; Diamond, Keri; Norrie, Louisa; Hickie, Ian B; Lewis, Simon J G; Naismith, Sharon L

2012-01-01

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) refers to a transitory state between healthy aging and dementia. Biomarkers are needed to facilitate early identification of MCI and predict progression to dementia. One potential neurophysiological biomarker, mismatch negativity (MMN), is an event-related potential reflecting fundamental, pre-attentive cognitive processes. MMN is reduced in normal aging and dementia and in neuropsychiatric samples and is associated with verbal memory deficits and poor executive functioning. This study aimed to investigate auditory MMN and its relationship to neuropsychological performance in MCI. Twenty-eight MCI participants and fourteen controls, aged ≥50 years, underwent neurophysiological and neuropsychological assessment, and completed questionnaires pertaining to disability. Relative to controls, the MCI group demonstrated reduced temporal MMN amplitude (p patients with MCI exhibit altered pre-attentive information processing, which in turn is associated with memory and psychosocial deficits. These findings overall suggest that MMN may be a viable neurophysiological biomarker of underlying disease in this 'at risk' group.

Negative rumination in social anxiety: A randomised trial investigating the effects of a brief intervention on cognitive processes before, during and after a social situation.

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Modini, Matthew; Abbott, Maree J

2017-06-01

According to cognitive models of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), negative rumination is a key maintaining factor in the vicious cycle of social anxiety. However, there is a scarcity of research investigating treatment effects on rumination in social anxiety, as well as other key cognitive variables. The current study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a brief intervention on a range of cognitive processes, most notably negative rumination. Additionally, predictors of negative rumination and state anxiety are also investigated. Participants with a diagnosis of SAD were randomly allocated to an intervention (n = 24) or control group (n = 23). Participant's initially completed trait and state based measures with the intervention group also completing a brief cognitive intervention. One-week later participants completed state anxiety and cognitive measures before and after a speech task. Finally, one-week post-speech task participants completed further trait and state based measures. While the brief cognitive intervention had positive effects on some of the cognitive processes measured at different time points of the study, levels of negative rumination remained stable. Predictors of negative rumination and state anxiety were consistent with cognitive models of SAD. The brief nature of the intervention and temporal stance of the intervention (delivered one-week before the speech) may have impacted outcomes. Cognitive technique can potentially impact a range of key processes that maintain SAD, however, more powerful and tailored interventions are needed that address the different processes at play before, during and after a social situation for socially anxious individuals. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract recall of a happy memory to repair sad mood in dysphoria: A possible link to negative cognition.

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Hetherington, Kate; Moulds, Michelle L

2015-01-01

The capacity to repair sad mood through the deliberate recall of happy memories has been found to be impaired in dysphoric individuals. Rumination, or adopting an abstract processing mode, has been proposed as a possible mechanism underpinning this effect. In low and high dysphoric participants, we examined the relative consequences of adopting an abstract or concrete processing mode during happy memory recall or engaging in distraction for (1) mood repair and (2) cognitive content. Recalling a happy memory in either an abstract or concrete way resulted in greater happiness than distraction. Engaging in abstract recall of a happy memory resulted in high dysphoric participants generating negative evaluations and negative generalisations. These findings raise the interesting possibility that abstract processing of positive memories has the potential to generate negative cognition.

EFFECTIVENESS OF MINDFULNESS BASED COGNITIVE THERAPY ON REDUCTION OF NEGATIVE AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS OF DEPRESSIVE PATIENTS

OpenAIRE

Farokhzad, Pegah; Yazdanfar, Tahmineh

2018-01-01

AbstractThe present research is aimed to study the effectiveness of mindfulness based cognitive therapy on reduction of negative automatic thoughts of depressive patients. It was a semi-experimental research, using pre-test post-test with control group design. The statistical population consists of 20-40 year old patients who were referred to Tehran Psychiatric Institute for depression in 2015. Out of them, on the basis of Cohen’s table, 30 patients who had negative automatic thoughts were sc...

Associations between social cognition, skills, and function and subclinical negative and positive symptoms in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vangkilde, A; Jepsen, J M R; Schmock, H

2016-01-01

-related symptoms. The aims of this study were to conduct a comprehensive investigation of social impairments at three different levels (function, skill, and cognition) and their interrelationship and to determine to what degree the social impairments correlate to subclinical levels of negative and positive...... symptoms, respectively, in a young cohort of 22q11.2DS not diagnosed with schizophrenia. METHODS: The level of social impairment was addressed using questionnaires and objective measures of social functioning (The Adaptive Behavior Assessment System), skills (Social Responsiveness Scale), and cognition....... Association between social impairment and negative and positive symptoms levels was examined in cases only. RESULTS: Subjects with 22q11.2DS were highly impaired in social function, social skills, and social cognition (p ≤ 6.2 × 10(-9)) relative to control peers and presented with more negative (p = 5.8 × 10...

Mismatch negativity, social cognition, and functional outcomes in patients after traumatic brain injury

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Hui-yan Sun

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Mismatch negativity is generated automatically, and is an early monitoring indicator of neuronal integrity impairment and functional abnormality in patients with brain injury, leading to decline of cognitive function. Antipsychotic medication cannot affect mismatch negativity. The present study aimed to explore the relationships of mismatch negativity with neurocognition, daily life and social functional outcomes in patients after brain injury. Twelve patients with traumatic brain injury and 12 healthy controls were recruited in this study. We examined neurocognition with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised China, and daily and social functional outcomes with the Activity of Daily Living Scale and Social Disability Screening Schedule, respectively. Mismatch negativity was analyzed from electroencephalogram recording. The results showed that mismatch negativity amplitudes decreased in patients with traumatic brain injury compared with healthy controls. Mismatch negativity amplitude was negatively correlated with measurements of neurocognition and positively correlated with functional outcomes in patients after traumatic brain injury. Further, the most significant positive correlations were found between mismatch negativity in the fronto-central region and measures of functional outcomes. The most significant positive correlations were also found between mismatch negativity at the FCz electrode and daily living function. Mismatch negativity amplitudes were extremely positively associated with Social Disability Screening Schedule scores at the Fz electrode in brain injury patients. These experimental findings suggest that mismatch negativity might efficiently reflect functional outcomes in patients after traumatic brain injury.

Modifying adolescent interpretation biases through cognitive training: effects on negative affect and stress appraisals.

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Telman, Machteld D; Holmes, Emily A; Lau, Jennifer Y F

2013-10-01

Adolescent anxiety is common, impairing and costly. Given the scale of adolescent anxiety and its impact, fresh innovations for therapy are in demand. Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) studies of adults show that by training individuals to endorse benign interpretations of ambiguous situations can improve anxious mood-states particularly in response towards stress. While, these investigations have been partially extended to adolescents with success, inconsistent training effects on anxious mood-states have been found. The present study investigated whether positive versus negative CBM-I training influenced appraisals of stress, in forty-nine adolescents, aged 15-18. Data supported the plasticity of interpretational styles, with positively-trained adolescents selecting more benign resolutions of new ambiguous situations, than negatively-trained adolescents. Positively-trained adolescents also rated recent stressors as having less impact on their lives than negatively-trained adolescents. Thus, while negative styles may increase negative responses towards stress, positive styles may boost resilience.

Automatic social comparison: Cognitive load facilitates an increase in negative thought accessibility after thin ideal exposure among women.

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Bocage-Barthélémy, Yvana; Chatard, Armand; Jaafari, Nematollah; Tello, Nina; Billieux, Joël; Daveau, Emmanuel; Selimbegović, Leila

2018-01-01

Women are routinely exposed to images of extremely slim female bodies (the thin ideal) in advertisements, even if they do not necessarily pay much attention to these images. We hypothesized that paradoxically, it is precisely in such conditions of low attention that the impact of the social comparison with the thin ideal might be the most pronounced. To test this prediction, one hundred and seventy-three young female participants were exposed to images of the thin ideal or of women's fashion accessories. They were allocated to either a condition of high (memorizing 10 digits) or low cognitive load (memorizing 4 digits). The main dependent measure was implicit: mean recognition latency of negative words, relative to neutral words, as assessed by a lexical decision task. The results showed that thin-ideal exposure did not affect negative word accessibility under low cognitive load but that it increased it under high cognitive load. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that social comparison with the thin ideal is an automatic process, and contribute to explain why some strategies to prevent negative effects of thin-ideal exposure are inefficient.

The relationship between parenting attitudes, negative cognition, and the depressive symptoms according to gender in Korean adolescents

OpenAIRE

Park, Subin; Kim, Bung-Nyun; Park, Min-Hyeon

2016-01-01

Background Parenting style is one potential contributor to the development of adolescents? cognitions, self-esteem and emotional problems. This study examined the relationship between maternal parenting attitudes and adolescents? negative cognitions, and depressive symptoms according to gender. Methods A total of 401 middle and high school students were recruited (i.e. 221 males and 180 females; mean age, 13.92???1.31?years). The Maternal Behavior Research Instrument assessed maternal parenti...

Communication subjective assessments of patients undergoing compulsory treatment with the severity of negative symptoms and cognitive functioning level

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Kabanov T.N.

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The article presents the results of studies on the relationship of subjective assessments of the mentally ill with the severity of negative symptoms and cognitive functioning level. The features of patients perception of various aspects of compulsory treatment and subjective satisfaction with treatment. In a study of 94 male patients with a diagnosis of organic mental disorder and schizophrenia was used diagnostic system, consisting of patopsihologicheskogo study, formal survey map, the scale of assessment of negative symptoms SANS, questionnaire symptom levels SCL-90, self-existing problems, as well as - in Test authoring tool sheet to treatment and hospital stay (VG Bulygin, Kabanov, TN, 2011. The differences in subjective assessments of aspects of compulsory treatment and social functioning of patients with varying degrees of severity of negative symptoms and dependence of subjective assessments of the level of cognitive functioning.

Understanding negative impacts of perceived cognitive load on job learning effectiveness: a social capital solution.

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Lin, Chieh-Peng

2010-12-01

This study proposes a model explaining how social capital helps ease excessively required mental effort. Although organizational researchers have studied both social capital and cognitive load, no prior research has critically examined the role of social capital in improving individuals' mental load and effort and consequently enhancing job learning effectiveness. This study surveys participants made up of professionals in Taiwan's information technology industry. It measures the constructs with the use of 5-point Likert-type scale items modified from existing literature. The survey data were analyzed with the use of structural equation modeling. Job learning effectiveness is negatively influenced by role ambiguity and role conflict. Time pressure has a positive influence on role ambiguity and role conflict Although the relationship between task complexity and role ambiguity is insignificant, task complexity has a positive influence on role conflict. Because the relationship between network ties and role conflict is insignificant, trust has a negative influence on role conflict. Last, shared vision has a negative influence on role ambiguity. This study provides an example of how social capital can be applied as a useful remedy to ease the negative impact of perceived cognitive load on job learning effectiveness. The negative relationship between shared vision and role ambiguity suggests that a shared vision helps in disseminating organizationally common goals and directions among employees to alleviate individuals' mental efforts in dealing with the ambiguity of their job roles. A firm's management team should take actions to decrease role conflict by strengthening trust among employees.

Do you remember your sad face? The roles of negative cognitive style and sad mood.

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Caudek, Corrado; Monni, Alessandra

2013-01-01

We studied the effects of negative cognitive style, sad mood, and facial affect on the self-face advantage in a sample of 66 healthy individuals (mean age 26.5 years, range 19-47 years). The sample was subdivided into four groups according to inferential style and responsivity to sad mood induction. Following a sad mood induction, we examined the effect on working memory of an incidental association between facial affect, facial identity, and head-pose orientation. Overall, head-pose recognition was more accurate for the self-face than for nonself face (self-face advantage, SFA). However, participants high in negative cognitive style who experienced higher levels of sadness displayed a stronger SFA for sad expressions than happy expressions. The remaining participants displayed an opposite bias (a stronger SFA for happy expressions than sad expressions), or no bias. These findings highlight the importance of trait-vulnerability status in the working memory biases related to emotional facial expressions.

Dealing with negative stereotypes in sports: the role of cognitive anxiety when multiple identities are activated in sensorimotor tasks.

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Martiny, Sarah E; Gleibs, Ilka H; Parks-Stamm, Elizabeth J; Martiny-Huenger, Torsten; Froehlich, Laura; Harter, Anna Lena; Roth, Jenny

2015-08-01

Based on research on stereotype threat and multiple identities, this work explores the beneficial effects of activating a positive social identity when a negative identity is salient on women's performance in sports. Further, in line with research on the effects of anxiety in sports, we investigate whether the activation of a positive social identity buffers performance from cognitive anxiety associated with a negative stereotype. Two experiments tested these predictions in field settings. Experiment 1 (N = 83) shows that the simultaneous activation of a positive (i.e., member of a soccer team) and a negative social identity (i.e., woman) led to better performance than the activation of only a negative social identity for female soccer players. Experiment 2 (N = 46) demonstrates that identity condition moderated the effect of cognitive anxiety on performance for female basketball players. Results are discussed concerning multiple identities' potential for dealing with stressful situations.

Randomized clinical trial of cognitive behavioral social skills training for schizophrenia: improvement in functioning and experiential negative symptoms.

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Granholm, Eric; Holden, Jason; Link, Peter C; McQuaid, John R

2014-12-01

Identifying treatments to improve functioning and reduce negative symptoms in consumers with schizophrenia is of high public health significance. In this randomized clinical trial, participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (N = 149) were randomly assigned to cognitive behavioral social skills training (CBSST) or an active goal-focused supportive contact (GFSC) control condition. CBSST combined cognitive behavior therapy with social skills training and problem-solving training to improve functioning and negative symptoms. GFSC was weekly supportive group therapy focused on setting and achieving functioning goals. Blind raters assessed functioning (primary outcome: Independent Living Skills Survey [ILSS]), CBSST skill knowledge, positive and negative symptoms, depression, and defeatist performance attitudes. In mixed-effects regression models in intent-to-treat analyses, CBSST skill knowledge, functioning, amotivation/asociality negative symptoms, and defeatist performance attitudes improved significantly more in CBSST relative to GFSC. In both treatment groups, comparable improvements were also found for positive symptoms and a performance-based measure of social competence. The results suggest CBSST is an effective treatment to improve functioning and experiential negative symptoms in consumers with schizophrenia, and both CBSST and supportive group therapy actively focused on setting and achieving functioning goals can improve social competence and reduce positive symptoms.

Past racial discrimination exacerbates the effects of racial exclusion on negative affect, perceived control, and alcohol-risk cognitions among Black young adults.

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Stock, Michelle L; Peterson, Laurel M; Molloy, Brianne K; Lambert, Sharon F

2017-06-01

Racial discrimination is associated with alcohol use and risky sex cognitions and behaviors, which are risk factors for negative health outcomes, including human immunodeficiency virus infection. The current study investigated the causal impact of racial discrimination on alcohol and sexual-risk cognitions while exploring potential mediators that might help explain this relation: negative affect, perceived control, and meaningful existence. We also examined if past discrimination impacts the strength of (moderates) these effects. Participants were 287 Black/African American young adults aged 18-25. They were randomly assigned to be excluded or included by White peers via the game Cyberball. Racial exclusion (vs. inclusion) predicted greater: perceived racial discrimination, negative affect, alcohol use willingness, and reduced perceived control and meaningful existence. Furthermore, excluded participants who experienced more past racial discrimination reported the lowest perceived control, and greatest negative affect and alcohol-risk cognitions. The findings suggest that past racial discrimination exacerbates the harmful health effects of immediate experiences of discrimination.

Gender differences in the pathway from adverse life events to adolescent emotional and behavioural problems via negative cognitive errors.

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Flouri, Eirini; Panourgia, Constantina

2011-06-01

The aim of this study was to test for gender differences in how negative cognitive errors (overgeneralizing, catastrophizing, selective abstraction, and personalizing) mediate the association between adverse life events and adolescents' emotional and behavioural problems (measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). The sample consisted of 202 boys and 227 girls (aged 11-15 years) from three state secondary schools in disadvantaged areas in one county in the South East of England. Control variables were age, ethnicity, special educational needs, exclusion history, family structure, family socio-economic disadvantage, and verbal cognitive ability. Adverse life events were measured with Tiet et al.'s (1998) Adverse Life Events Scale. For both genders, we assumed a pathway from adverse life events to emotional and behavioural problems via cognitive errors. We found no gender differences in life adversity, cognitive errors, total difficulties, peer problems, or hyperactivity. In both boys and girls, even after adjustment for controls, cognitive errors were related to total difficulties and emotional symptoms, and life adversity was related to total difficulties and conduct problems. The life adversity/conduct problems association was not explained by negative cognitive errors in either gender. However, we found gender differences in how adversity and cognitive errors produced hyperactivity and internalizing problems. In particular, life adversity was not related, after adjustment for controls, to hyperactivity in girls and to peer problems and emotional symptoms in boys. Cognitive errors fully mediated the effect of life adversity on hyperactivity in boys and on peer and emotional problems in girls.

Individuals with clinically significant insomnia symptoms are characterised by a negative sleep-related expectancy bias: Results from a cognitive-experimental assessment.

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Courtauld, Hannah; Notebaert, Lies; Milkins, Bronwyn; Kyle, Simon D; Clarke, Patrick J F

2017-08-01

Cognitive models of insomnia consistently suggest that negative expectations regarding the consequences of poor sleep contribute to the maintenance of insomnia. To date, however, no research has sought to determine whether insomnia is indeed characterised by such a negative sleep-related expectancy bias, using objective cognitive assessment tasks which are more immune to response biases than questionnaire assessments. Therefore, the current study employed a reaction-time task assessing biased expectations among a group with clinically significant insomnia symptoms (n = 30) and a low insomnia symptoms group (n = 40). The task involved the presentation of scenarios describing the consequences of poor sleep, and non-sleep related activities, which could be resolved in a benign or a negative manner. The results demonstrated that the high insomnia symptoms group were disproportionately fast to resolve sleep-related scenarios in line with negative outcomes, as compared to benign outcomes, relative to the low insomnia symptoms group. The two groups did not differ in their pattern of resolving non-sleep related scenarios. This pattern of findings is entirely consistent with a sleep-specific expectancy bias operating in individuals with clinically significant insomnia symptoms, and highlights the potential of cognitive-experimental assessment tasks to objectively index patterns of biased cognition in insomnia. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Effects of Positive and Negative Mood on Cognition and Motivation in Multimedia Learning Environment

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Liew, Tze Wei; Tan, Su-Mae

2016-01-01

The Cognitive-Affective Theory of Learning with Media framework posits that the multimedia learning process is mediated by the learner's mood. Recent studies have shown that positive mood has a facilitating effect on multimedia learning. Though literature has shown that negative mood encourages an individual to engage in a more systematic,…

What are the combined effects of negative emotions and illness cognitions on self-care in people with type 2 diabetes? A longitudinal structural equation model.

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Hudson, Joanna L; Bundy, Christine; Coventry, Peter; Dickens, Chris; Wood, Alex; Reeves, David

2016-07-01

To explore whether negative emotions mediate the effect of diabetes cognitions on diabetes self-care and conversely whether diabetes cognitions mediate the effect of negative emotions on diabetes self-care. Longitudinal observational study in adults with type 2 diabetes. Self-reported depression and anxiety (Diabetes Wellbeing Questionnaire), cognitions (Illness Perceptions Questionnaire-Revised; Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire), and diabetes self-care (Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Scale) were completed at baseline and six months. Analyses used structural equation modelling. Baseline medication concerns were associated with elevated symptoms of depression and anxiety at follow-up, but emotions did not mediate medication concern's effect on diabetes self-care. Baseline depression and anxiety symptoms were associated with specific diabetes cognitions over time, but these cognition domains did not mediate emotion's effect on diabetes self-care. Personal control remained independent of emotions and was associated with diabetes self-care over time. Negative emotions did not act directly or alongside cognitions to influence diabetes self-care. The reciprocal relationship between diabetes cognitions and emotions suggests cognitive restructuring, in addition to other mood management intervention techniques would likely improve the emotional wellbeing of adults with type 2 diabetes. Likewise, personal control beliefs are likely important intervention targets for improving self-care.

The impact of positive, negative and neutral stimuli in a virtual reality cognitive-motor rehabilitation task: a pilot study with stroke patients.

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Cameirão, Mónica S; Faria, Ana Lúcia; Paulino, Teresa; Alves, Júlio; Bermúdez I Badia, Sergi

2016-08-09

Virtual Reality (VR) based methods for stroke rehabilitation have mainly focused on motor rehabilitation, but there is increasing interest in integrating motor and cognitive training to increase similarity to real-world settings. Unfortunately, more research is needed for the definition of which type of content should be used in the design of these tools. One possibility is the use of emotional stimuli, which are known to enhance attentional processes. According to the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, as people age, the emotional salience arises for positive and neutral, but not for negative stimuli. For this study we developed a cognitive-motor VR task involving attention and short-term memory, and we investigated the impact of using emotional images of varying valence. The task consisted of finding a target image, shown for only two seconds, among fourteen neutral distractors, and selecting it through arm movements. After performing the VR task, a recall task took place and the patients had to identify the target images among a valence-matched number of distractors. Ten stroke patients participated in a within-subjects experiment with three conditions based on the valence of the images: positive, negative and neutral. Eye movements were recorded during VR task performance with an eye tracking system. Our results show decreased attention for negative stimuli in the VR task performance when compared to neutral stimuli. The recall task shows significantly more wrongly identified images (false memories) for negative stimuli than for neutral. Regression and correlation analyses with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Geriatric Depression Scale revealed differential effects of cognitive function and depressive symptomatology in the encoding and recall of positive, negative and neutral images. Further, eye movement data shows reduced search patterns for wrongly selected stimuli containing emotional content. The results of this study suggest that it is feasible

Pain perception in schizophrenia: influence of neuropeptides, cognitive disorders, and negative symptoms

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Urban-Kowalczyk M

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Małgorzata Urban-Kowalczyk,1 Justyna Pigońska,2 Janusz Śmigielski3 1Department of Affective and Psychotic Disorders, Medical University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland; 2Department of Neurology and Movement Disorders, Medical University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland; 3Department of Geriatrics, Healthy Ageing Research Centre (HARC, Medical University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland Objectives: The causes and nature of insensitivity to pain in schizophrenia remain unknown. The role of endorphins and the association of cognitive dysfunction and negative symptoms are postulated.Methods: In this study, 43 patients with schizophrenia, five first-degree relatives, and 34 healthy controls were examined. Participants’ plasma concentrations of substance P, β-endorphin, and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP were assessed. In patients, the Trail-Making Test, the Color Reading Interference Test (Stroop test, and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale Negative Syndrome subscale (PANSS N test were performed. We also evaluated pain threshold using nociceptive reflex (RTIII testing.Results: The mean β-endorphin concentration was about 20% higher in patients than in healthy controls (P<0.05. CGRP concentrations were significantly higher in patients than in controls (5.34 ng/mL versus 4.16 ng/mL; P<0.01. Subjects treated with antipsychotic polytherapy had higher concentrations of CGRP than did patients treated with second-generation antipsychotic monotherapy (5.92 ng/mL versus 5.02 ng/mL; P<0.05. There were no correlations between any biochemical parameters and Trail-Making Test, Stroop test, and PANSS N scores. There were no differences in RTIII among study groups. Strong negative correlation (P<0.001 was found between PANSS N scores and subjective pain threshold on the right lower limb.Conclusion: The insensitivity to pain in schizophrenia is a complex phenomenon that is probably not related to changes in nociceptive pathways. Increase in β-endorphin level

Negative Emotions and Suicidal Ideation during Psychosocial Treatments in Older Adults with Major Depression and Cognitive Impairment.

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Kiosses, Dimitris N; Gross, James J; Banerjee, Samprit; Duberstein, Paul R; Putrino, David; Alexopoulos, George S

2017-06-01

To examine the relationship of negative emotions with suicidal ideation during 12 weeks of Problem Adaptation Therapy (PATH) versus Supportive Therapy of Cognitively Impaired Older Adults (ST-CI), hypothesizing that improved negative emotions are associated with reduced suicidal ideation, PATH improves negative emotions more than ST-CI, and improved negative emotions, rather than other depression symptoms, predict reduction in suicidal ideation. In a randomized controlled trial of two home-delivered psychosocial interventions, 74 older participants (65-95 years old) with major depressive disorder and cognitive impairment were recruited in collaboration with community agencies. The sample reported less intense feelings than suicidal intention. Interventions and assessments were conducted in participants' homes. PATH focuses on improving emotion regulation, whereas ST-CI focuses on nonspecific therapeutic factors, such as understanding and empathy. Improved negative emotions were measured as improvement in Montgomery Asberg's Depression Rating Scales' (MADRS) observer ratings of sadness, anxiety, guilt, hopelessness, and anhedonia. Suicidal ideation was assessed with the MADRS Suicide Item. MADRS Negative Emotions scores were significantly associated with suicidal ideation during the course of treatment (F [1,165]  = 12.73, p = 0.0005). PATH participants had significantly greater improvement in MADRS emotions than ST-CI participants (treatment group by time: F [1,63.2]  = 7.02, p = 0.0102). Finally, improved negative emotions, between lagged and follow-up interview, significantly predicted reduction in suicidal ideation at follow-up interview (F [1, 96]  = 9.95, p = 0.0022). Findings thatimprovement in negative emotions mediates reduction in suicidal ideation may guide the development of psychosocial interventions for reduction of suicidal ideation (clinicaltrials.gov; NCT00368940). Copyright © 2017 American Association for Geriatric

Mismatch Negativity as an Indicator of Cognitive Sub-Domain Dysfunction in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

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Parameswaran Mahadeva Iyer

2017-08-01

Full Text Available ObjectiveTo evaluate the utility of mismatch negativity (MMN, a neurophysiologic marker of non-motor cognitive processing, in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS.Methods89 patients, stratified into 4 different phenotypic presentations of ALS (67 spinal-onset, 15 bulbar-onset, 7 ALS-FTD, 7 C9ORF72 gene careers, and 19 matched controls underwent 128-channel EEG data recording. Subjects were presented with standard auditory tones interleaved with pitch-deviant tones in three recording blocks. The MMN response was quantified by peak amplitude, peak delay, average amplitude, and average delay, 100–300 ms after stimuli. 64 patients underwent cognitive screening using the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS, and 38 participants underwent contemporaneous cognitive assessment using the Stroop Color–Word Interference test (CWIT, which measures attention shift, inhibitory control, and error monitoring.ResultsThe MMN response was observed in frontal and frontocentral regions of patient and control groups. Compared to controls, waveforms were attenuated in early onset, and the average delay was significantly increased in all of the ALS subgroups, with no significant difference between subgroups. Comparing with the control response, the ALS MMN response clustered into four new subgroups characterized by differences in response latency. The increased average delay correlated with changes in the Stroop CWIT; however, it did not show a direct relationship with age, gender, traditional phenotypes, revised ALS Functional Rating Scale, or ECAS scores.Conclusion and significanceThe MMN response in ALS patients reflects the cognitive dysfunction in specific sub-domains, as the new patient subgroups, identified by cluster analysis, do not segregate with existing clinical or cognitive classifications. Event-related potentials can provide additional quantitative neurophysiologic measures of impairment in specific cognitive sub-domains from which it

Negative cognitions about the self in patients with persecutory delusions: An empirical study of self-compassion, self-stigma, schematic beliefs, self-esteem, fear of madness, and suicidal ideation.

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Collett, Nicola; Pugh, Katherine; Waite, Felicity; Freeman, Daniel

2016-05-30

There has been growing awareness of the high prevalence of negative cognitions about the self in patients with persecutory delusions, and it has been proposed that paranoid fears build upon these perceived vulnerabilities. This study aimed to investigate for the first time a wide range of different conceptualisations of the negative self, and to examine associations with suicidal ideation, in patients with persecutory delusions. Twenty-one patients with persecutory delusions and twenty-one non-clinical individuals completed measures relating to negative self cognitions. The delusions group also completed a measure of suicidal ideation. It was found that the patients with persecutory delusions had low self-compassion, low self-esteem, increased fears of being mad, beliefs of inferiority to others, negative self-schemas, and low positive self-schemas when compared to the non-clinical control group. The effect sizes (Cohen's d) were large, and the different conceptualisations of negative self cognitions were highly associated with one another. Self-stigma did not differ between the two groups. Furthermore, suicidal ideation was highly associated with low self-compassion, low self-esteem, fears of madness, and negative self-schema but not self-stigma. This study shows marked negative self cognitions in patients with persecutory delusions. These are likely to prove targets of clinical interventions, with patient preference most likely determining the best conceptualisation of negative self cognitions for clinicians to use. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Application of a cognitive neuroscience perspective of cognitive control to late-life anxiety

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Beaudreau, Sherry A.; MacKay-Brandt, Anna; Reynolds, Jeremy

2013-01-01

Recent evidence supports a negative association between anxiety and cognitive control. Given age-related reductions in some cognitive abilities and the relation of late life anxiety to cognitive impairment, this negative association may be particularly relevant to older adults. This critical review conceptualizes anxiety and cognitive control from cognitive neuroscience and cognitive aging theoretical perspectives and evaluates the methodological approaches and measures used to assess cognitive control. Consistent with behavioral investigations of young adults, the studies reviewed implicate specific and potentially negative effects of anxiety on cognitive control processes in older adults. Hypotheses regarding the role of both aging and anxiety on cognitive control, the bi-directionality between anxiety and cognitive control, and the potential for specific symptoms of anxiety (particularly worry) to mediate this association, are specified and discussed. PMID:23602352

Depression and selection of positive and negative social feedback: motivated preference or cognitive balance?

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Alloy, L B; Lipman, A J

1992-05-01

In this commentary we examine Swann, Wenzlaff, Krull, and Pelham's (1992) findings with respect to each of 5 central propositions in self-verification theory. We conclude that although the data are consistent with self-verification theory, none of the 5 components of the theory have been demonstrated convincingly as yet. Specifically, we argue that depressed subjects' selection of social feedback appears to be balanced or evenhanded rather than biased toward negative feedback and that there is little evidence to indicate that depressives actively seek negative appraisals. Furthermore, we suggest that the studies are silent with respect to the motivational postulates of self-verification theory and that a variety of competing cognitive and motivational models can explain Swann et al.'s findings as well as self-verification theory.

Close relation of interpersonal sensitivity with negative core beliefs about the self, the central construct of cognitive vulnerability to depression.

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Otani, Koichi; Suzuki, Akihito; Matsumoto, Yoshihiko; Shirata, Toshinori

2018-05-01

Interpersonal sensitivity is a personality trait linked with anxious attachment conceptualized in attachment theory. This personality trait is comprised of four components, i.e., interpersonal awareness, separation anxiety, timidity and fragile inner-self, which are measured by the corresponding subscales of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM). Meanwhile, one study showed that six items of the IPSM tentatively used as negative self-schemas predicted the onset of depression. To clarify if interpersonal sensitivity reflects cognitive vulnerability, we examined the relation of this personality trait with negative core beliefs about the self. The study population consisted of 335 Japanese volunteers. Interpersonal sensitivity was measured by the IPSM, and negative core beliefs about the self were assessed by the negative-self subscale of the Brief Core Schema Scales (BCSS). Multiple regression analysis showed that scores of the four subscales of the IPSM were strongly correlated with those of the negative-self subscale of the BCSS (P < 0.001). Similarly, sequential equation modeling demonstrated that the four components of interpersonal sensitivity were strongly predicted by core beliefs of negative-self (P < 0.001). The present study shows that interpersonal sensitivity is closely related to negative core beliefs about the self, suggesting that this personality trait can be regarded as a cognitive vulnerability to depression. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of personal narratives as a mediator of the impact of deficits in social cognition and social withdrawal on negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

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Lysaker, Paul H; Erikson, Molly; Macapagal, Kathryn R; Tunze, Chloe; Gilmore, Emily; Ringer, Jamie M

2012-04-01

Although negative symptoms are a barrier to recovery from schizophrenia, little is understood about the psychological processes that reinforce and sustain them. To explore this issue, this study used structural equation modeling to test whether the impact of social withdrawal and emotion recognition deficits upon negative symptoms is mediated by the richness or poverty of personal narratives. The participants were 99 adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Social cognition was assessed using the Bell-Lysaker Emotional Recognition Task; social withdrawal, using the Quality of Life Scale; narrative coherence, using the Scale To Assess Narrative Development; and negative symptoms, using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. The findings reveal that although social cognition deficits and social withdrawal are significantly associated with negative symptom severity, these relationships become nonsignificant when personal narrative integrity is examined as a mediating factor. These results indicate that the development of personal narratives may be directly linked to the severity of negative symptoms; this construct may be a useful target for future interventions.

Individual differences in cognitive control over emotional material modulate cognitive biases linked to depressive symptoms.

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Everaert, Jonas; Grahek, Ivan; Koster, Ernst H W

2017-06-01

Deficient cognitive control over emotional material and cognitive biases are important mechanisms underlying depression, but the interplay between these emotionally distorted cognitive processes in relation to depressive symptoms is not well understood. This study investigated the relations among deficient cognitive control of emotional information (i.e. inhibition, shifting, and updating difficulties), cognitive biases (i.e. negative attention and interpretation biases), and depressive symptoms. Theory-driven indirect effect models were constructed, hypothesising that deficient cognitive control over emotional material predicts depressive symptoms through negative attention and interpretation biases. Bootstrapping analyses demonstrated that deficient inhibitory control over negative material was related to negative attention bias which in turn predicted a congruent bias in interpretation and subsequently depressive symptoms. Both shifting and updating impairments in response to negative material had an indirect effect on depression severity through negative interpretation bias. No evidence was found for direct effects of deficient cognitive control over emotional material on depressive symptoms. These findings may help to formulate an integrated understanding of the cognitive foundations of depressive symptoms.

Anticholinergic load negatively correlates with recovery of cognitive activities of daily living for geriatric patients after stroke in the convalescent stage.

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Kose, E; Hirai, T; Seki, T; Hidaka, S; Hamamoto, T

2018-05-16

Anticholinergic drugs are associated with risks of falls, confusion and cognitive dysfunction. However, the effect of anticholinergic drug use on rehabilitation outcomes after a stroke is poorly documented. We therefore aimed to establish whether the anticholinergic load was associated with functional recovery among geriatric patients convalescing after stroke. Consecutive geriatric stroke patients admitted and discharged from a convalescence rehabilitation ward between 2010 and 2016 were included in this retrospective cohort study. Anticholinergic load was assessed by the Anticholinergic Risk Scale (ARS), and functional recovery was assessed by the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). The primary outcome was cognitive FIM (FIM-C) gain, but we also assessed the interaction of other putative factors identified from univariate analysis. Multivariate analyses were performed, adjusting for confounding factors. We included 418 participants (171 males, 247 females) with a median age of 78 years (interquartile range, 72-84 years). Multiple regression analysis revealed that ARS change, length of stay, and epilepsy were independently and negatively correlated with cognitive FIM gain. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that the "Comprehension" and "Memory" items of the cognitive FIM gain were independently and negatively associated with anticholinergic load. A causal relationship cannot be established, but increased ARS scores during hospitalization may predict limited cognitive functional improvement in geriatric patients after stroke. Alternatively, cognitive impairment may lead to increased use of anticholinergic drugs. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Perfectionism and negative/positive affect associations: the role of cognitive emotion regulation and perceived distress/coping.

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Castro, Juliana; Soares, Maria João; Pereira, Ana T; Macedo, António

2017-01-01

To explore 1) if perfectionism, perceived distress/coping, and cognitive emotion regulation (CER) are associated with and predictive of negative/positive affect (NA/PA); and 2) if CER and perceived distress/coping are associated with perfectionism and if they mediate the perfectionism-NA/PA associations. There is a distinction between maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism in its association with NA/PA. CER and perceived distress/coping may mediate the maladaptive/adaptive perfectionism and NA/PA associations. 344 students (68.4% girls) completed the Hewitt & Flett and the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scales, the Composite Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Profile of Mood States, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. NA predictors were maladaptive/adaptive perfectionism, maladaptive CER and perceived distress (positively), positive reappraisal and planning, and perceived coping (negatively). PA predictors were maladaptive/adaptive perfectionism and perceived distress (negatively), positive reappraisal and planning, positive refocusing and perceived coping (positively). The association between maladaptive perfectionism and NA was mediated by maladaptive CER/low adaptive CER, perceived distress/low coping. Maladaptive perfectionism and low PA association was mediated by perceived distress. High PA was determined by low maladaptive perfectionism and this association was mediated by adaptive REC and coping. Adaptive perfectionism and NA association was mediated by maladaptive CER and perceived distress. CER and perceived distress/coping are associated and mediate the perfectionism-NA/PA associations.

Visual attention and emotional reactions to negative stimuli: The role of age and cognitive reappraisal.

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Wirth, Maria; Isaacowitz, Derek M; Kunzmann, Ute

2017-09-01

Prominent life span theories of emotion propose that older adults attend less to negative emotional information and report less negative emotional reactions to the same information than younger adults do. Although parallel age differences in affective information processing and age differences in emotional reactivity have been proposed, they have rarely been investigated within the same study. In this eye-tracking study, we tested age differences in visual attention and emotional reactivity, using standardized emotionally negative stimuli. Additionally, we investigated age differences in the association between visual attention and emotional reactivity, and whether these are moderated by cognitive reappraisal. Older as compared with younger adults showed fixation patterns away from negative image content, while they reacted with greater negative emotions. The association between visual attention and emotional reactivity differed by age group and positive reappraisal. Younger adults felt better when they attended more to negative content rather than less, but this relationship only held for younger adults who did not attach a positive meaning to the negative situation. For older adults, overall, there was no significant association between visual attention and emotional reactivity. However, for older adults who did not use positive reappraisal, decreases in attention to negative information were associated with less negative emotions. The present findings point to a complex relationship between younger and older adults' visual attention and emotional reactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Asthma-specific cognitions, self-focused attention, and fear of negative evaluation in adolescents and young adults diagnosed with childhood-onset asthma.

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Junghans-Rutelonis, Ashley N; Tackett, Alayna P; Suorsa, Kristina I; Chaney, John M; Mullins, Larry L

2018-01-01

The present study examined the impact of asthma-specific thought intrusion (TI) and thought suppression (TS) on two cognitive-affective variables (self-focused attention and fear of negative evaluation) among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with childhood-onset asthma. Participants were 290 AYAs who completed assessment questionnaires and participated in a written exercise electronically. Asthma-TI and TS were reported by participants following participation in a writing assignment. Asthma-TI was associated with increased private, public, and social anxiety self-focused attention, and greater fear of negative evaluation. Interestingly, asthma-TS was not associated with these same outcome variables. Findings suggest illness-specific cognitions are associated with cognitive-affective variables and it may be important to assess for illness-specific intrusive thoughts following asthma-focused medical appointments. Additionally, findings suggest the importance of assessing asthma-TI and TS separately in order to better understand thoughts about health and psychological functioning.

Beyond negative thinking: illness cognitions and demographics as ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Despite ample research evidence suggesting a strong link between illness cognitions and patients\\' psychological health, research in this direction in Nigeria is rather scanty, especially in a chronic condition like HIV/AIDS. This study explored the relationship between illness cognitions (helplessness, acceptance and ...

Trauma and Depression among North Korean Refugees: The Mediating Effect of Negative Cognition

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Subin Park

2018-03-01

Full Text Available North Korean refugees experience adaptation difficulties, along with a wide range of psychological problems. Accordingly, this study examined the associations between early traumatic experiences, negative automatic thoughts, and depression among young North Korean refugees living in South Korea. Specifically, we examined how different factors of negative automatic thoughts would mediate the relationship between early trauma and depressive symptoms. A total of 109 North Korean refugees aged 13–29 years were recruited from two alternative schools. Our path analysis indicated that early trauma was positively linked with thoughts of personal failure, physical threat, and hostility, but not with thoughts of social threat. The link with depressive symptoms was only significant for thoughts of personal failure. After removing all non-significant pathways, the model revealed that early traumatic experiences were positively associated with depressive symptoms (ß = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.48–0.73 via thoughts of personal failure (ß = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.08–0.28, as well as directly (ß = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.27–0.59. Interventions that target negative cognitions of personal failure may be helpful for North Korean refugees at risk of depression.

Are negative symptoms in schizophrenia a distinct therapeutic target?

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MICLUTIA, IOANA VALENTINA

2018-01-01

Background and aims The relationship between negative symptoms and cognition in schizophrenia is not clear, inconsistent findings have been reported by multiple authors and meta analyses. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognition and primary negative symptoms. Methods 67 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia were evaluated using PANSS and the NSA-16 scale. Correlation and regression analyses were used in the present study to investigate the relationship between the primary negative symptoms and cognition. Results No relationship was found between the PANSS Cognitive factor and Negative factor, but when investigating the relationship of the Cognitive PANSS factor with the negative symptoms evaluated with the NSA-16 scale, it was shown that there is a significant association between cognition and motor retardation. Conclusions Our study reveals the relative independence of cognitive factor from the global negative domain of the psychopathology, even though the association with motor retardation was clear. These findings also support the need of using appropriate assessment tools in order to gain a more refined understanding of the phenomenology of schizophrenia. PMID:29440953

Psilocybin disrupts sensory and higher order cognitive processing but not pre-attentive cognitive processing-study on P300 and mismatch negativity in healthy volunteers.

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Bravermanová, Anna; Viktorinová, Michaela; Tylš, Filip; Novák, Tomáš; Androvičová, Renáta; Korčák, Jakub; Horáček, Jiří; Balíková, Marie; Griškova-Bulanova, Inga; Danielová, Dominika; Vlček, Přemysl; Mohr, Pavel; Brunovský, Martin; Koudelka, Vlastimil; Páleníček, Tomáš

2018-02-01

Disruption of auditory event-related evoked potentials (ERPs) P300 and mismatch negativity (MMN), electrophysiological markers of attentive and pre-attentive cognitive processing, is repeatedly described in psychosis and schizophrenia. Similar findings were observed in a glutamatergic model of psychosis, but the role of serotonergic 5-HT 2A receptors in information processing is less clear. We studied ERPs in a serotonergic model of psychosis, induced by psilocybin, a psychedelic with 5-HT 2A/C agonistic properties, in healthy volunteers. Twenty subjects (10M/10F) were given 0.26 mg/kg of psilocybin orally in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over design. ERPs (P300, MMN) were registered during the peak of intoxication. Correlations between measured electrophysiological variables and psilocin serum levels and neuropsychological effects were also analyzed. Psilocybin induced robust psychedelic effects and psychotic-like symptoms, decreased P300 amplitude (p = 0.009) but did not affect the MMN. Psilocybin's disruptive effect on P300 correlated with the intensity of the psychedelic state, which was dependent on the psilocin serum levels. We also observed a decrease in N100 amplitude (p = 0.039) in the P300 paradigm and a negative correlation between P300 and MMN amplitude (p = 0.014). Even though pre-attentive cognition (MMN) was not affected, processing at the early perceptual level (N100) and in higher-order cognition (P300) was significantly disrupted by psilocybin. Our results have implications for the role of 5-HT 2A receptors in altered information processing in psychosis and schizophrenia.

A randomized trial of a cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis intervention on positive and negative affect during breast cancer radiotherapy

OpenAIRE

Schnur, Julie B.; David, Daniel; Kangas, Maria; Green, Sheryl; Bovbjerg, Dana H.; Montgomery, Guy H.

2009-01-01

Breast cancer radiotherapy can be an emotionally difficult experience. Despite this, few studies have examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions to reduce negative affect, and none to date have explicitly examined interventions to improve positive affect among breast cancer radiotherapy patients. The present study examined the effectiveness of a multimodal psychotherapeutic approach, combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis (CBTH), to reduce negative affect and incre...

Testing the cognitive catalyst model of rumination with explicit and implicit cognitive content.

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Sova, Christopher C; Roberts, John E

2018-06-01

The cognitive catalyst model posits that rumination and negative cognitive content, such as negative schema, interact to predict depressive affect. Past research has found support for this model using explicit measures of negative cognitive content such as self-report measures of trait self-esteem and dysfunctional attitudes. The present study tested whether these findings would extend to implicit measures of negative cognitive content such as implicit self-esteem, and whether effects would depend on initial mood state and history of depression. Sixty-one undergraduate students selected on the basis of depression history (27 previously depressed; 34 never depressed) completed explicit and implicit measures of negative cognitive content prior to random assignment to a rumination induction followed by a distraction induction or vice versa. Dysphoric affect was measured both before and after these inductions. Analyses revealed that explicit measures, but not implicit measures, interacted with rumination to predict change in dysphoric affect, and these interactions were further moderated by baseline levels of dysphoria. Limitations include the small nonclinical sample and use of a self-report measure of depression history. These findings suggest that rumination amplifies the association between explicit negative cognitive content and depressive affect primarily among people who are already experiencing sad mood. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is Perceived Control a Critical Factor in Understanding the Negative Relationship between Cognitive Test Anxiety and Examination Performance?

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Putwain, David W.; Aveyard, Ben

2018-01-01

A well established finding is that the cognitive component of test anxiety (worry) is negatively related to examination performance. The present study examined how 3 self-beliefs (academic buoyancy, perceived control, and test competence) moderated the strength of the relationship between worry and examination performance in a sample of 270 final…

The effect of arousal on regulation of negative emotions using cognitive reappraisal: An ERP study.

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Langeslag, Sandra J E; Surti, Kruti

2017-08-01

Because the effectiveness of the emotion regulation strategy cognitive reappraisal may vary with emotion intensity, we investigated how stimulus arousal affects reappraisal success. Participants up- and down-regulated emotional responses using cognitive reappraisal to low and high arousing unpleasant pictures while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Up-regulation resulted in more negative self-reported valence, while down-regulation resulted in less negative self-reported valence regardless of stimulus arousal, suggesting that subjective reappraisal success does not vary with emotional intensity. Participants felt that down-regulation of emotional responses to low arousing unpleasant pictures was easiest, which is in line with previous findings that participants showed a greater preference for reappraisal in low than high arousing situations. The late positive potential (LPP) amplitude was enhanced by down-regulation of high arousing unpleasant pictures. Even though this effect was unexpected and is opposite to the typical effect of down-regulation on the LPP, it is in line with several previous studies. Potential explanations for LPP regulation effects in the unexpected direction, such as strategy selection and task design, are evaluated. Suggestions and recommendations for future research are discussed, including using trial-by-trial manipulation of regulation instructions and studying the effect of stimulus arousal on up- and down-regulation of positive emotions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Relationships among Career and Life Stress, Negative Career thoughts, and Career Decision State: A Cognitive Information Processing Perspective

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Bullock-Yowell, Emily; Peterson, Gary W.; Reardon, Robert C.; Leierer, Stephen J.; Reed, Corey A.

2011-01-01

According to cognitive information processing theory, career thoughts mediate the relationship between career and life stress and the ensuing career decision state. Using a sample of 232 college students and structural equation modeling, this study found that an increase in career and life stress was associated with an increase in negative career…

Emotion Risk-Factor in Patients with Cardiac Diseases: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies, Positive Affect and Negative Affect (A Case-Control Study).

Science.gov (United States)

Bahremand, Mostafa; Alikhani, Mostafa; Zakiei, Ali; Janjani, Parisa; Aghei, Abbas

2015-05-17

Application of psychological interventions is essential in classic treatments for patient with cardiac diseases. The present study compared cognitive emotion regulation strategies, positive affect, and negative affect for cardiac patients with healthy subjects. This study was a case-control study. Fifty subjects were selected using convenient sampling method from cardiac (coronary artery disease) patients presenting in Imam Ali medical center of Kermanshah, Iran in the spring 2013. Fifty subjects accompanied the patients to the medical center, selected as control group, did not have any history of cardiac diseases. For collecting data, the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire and positive and negative affect scales were used. For data analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) Was applied using the SPSS statistical software (ver. 19.0). In all cognitive emotion regulation strategies, there was a significant difference between the two groups. A significant difference was also detected regarding positive affect between the two groups, but no significant difference was found regarding negative affect. We found as a result that, having poor emotion regulation strategies is a risk factor for developing heart diseases.

Emotion Risk-Factor in Patients With Cardiac Diseases: The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies, Positive Affect and Negative Affect (A Case-Control Study)

Science.gov (United States)

Bahremand, Mostafa; Alikhani, Mostafa; Zakiei, Ali; Janjani, Parisa; Aghaei, Abbas

2016-01-01

Application of psychological interventions is essential in classic treatments for patient with cardiac diseases. The present study compared cognitive emotion regulation strategies, positive affect, and negative affect for cardiac patients with healthy subjects. This study was a case-control study. Fifty subjects were selected using convenient sampling method from cardiac (coronary artery disease) patients presenting in Imam Ali medical center of Kermanshah, Iran in the spring 2013. Fifty subjects accompanied the patients to the medical center, selected as control group, did not have any history of cardiac diseases. For collecting data, the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire and positive and negative affect scales were used. For data analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was applied using the SPSS statistical software (ver. 19.0). In all cognitive emotion regulation strategies, there was a significant difference between the two groups. A significant difference was also detected regarding positive affect between the two groups, but no significant difference was found regarding negative affect. We found as a result that, having poor emotion regulation strategies is a risk factor for developing heart diseases. PMID:26234976

Cholinergic Oculomotor Nucleus Activity Is Induced by REM Sleep Deprivation Negatively Impacting on Cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Santos, Patrícia Dos; Targa, Adriano D S; Noseda, Ana Carolina D; Rodrigues, Lais S; Fagotti, Juliane; Lima, Marcelo M S

2017-09-01

Several efforts have been made to understand the involvement of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep for cognitive processes. Consolidation or retention of recognition memories is severely disrupted by REM sleep deprivation (REMSD). In this regard, pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPT) and other brainstem nuclei, such as pontine nucleus (Pn) and oculomotor nucleus (OCM), appear to be candidates to take part in this REM sleep circuitry with potential involvement in cognition. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate a possible association between the performance of Wistar rats in a declarative memory and PPT, Pn, and OCM activities after different periods of REMSD. We examined c-Fos and choline acetyltransferase (ChaT) expressions as indicators of neuronal activity as well as a familiarity-based memory test. The animals were distributed in groups: control, REMSD, and sleep rebound (REB). At the end of the different REMSD (24, 48, 72, and 96 h) and REB (24 h) time points, the rats were immediately tested in the object recognition test and then the brains were collected. Results indicated that OCM neurons presented an increased activity, due to ChaT-labeling associated with REMSD that negatively correlated (r = -0.32) with the cognitive performance. This suggests the existence of a cholinergic compensatory mechanism within the OCM during REMSD. We also showed that 24 h of REMSD impacted similarly in memory, compared to longer periods of REMSD. These data extend the notion that REM sleep is influenced by areas other than PPT, i.e., Pn and OCM, which could be key players in both sleep processes and cognition.

Mismatch Negativity Encoding of Prediction Errors Predicts S-ketamine-Induced Cognitive Impairments

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Schmidt, André; Bachmann, Rosilla; Kometer, Michael; Csomor, Philipp A; Stephan, Klaas E; Seifritz, Erich; Vollenweider, Franz X

2012-01-01

Psychotomimetics like the N-methyl--aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist ketamine and the 5-hydroxytryptamine2A receptor (5-HT2AR) agonist psilocybin induce psychotic symptoms in healthy volunteers that resemble those of schizophrenia. Recent theories of psychosis posit that aberrant encoding of prediction errors (PE) may underlie the expression of psychotic symptoms. This study used a roving mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm to investigate whether the encoding of PE is affected by pharmacological manipulation of NMDAR or 5-HT2AR, and whether the encoding of PE under placebo can be used to predict drug-induced symptoms. Using a double-blind within-subject placebo-controlled design, S-ketamine and psilocybin, respectively, were administrated to two groups of healthy subjects. Psychological alterations were assessed using a revised version of the Altered States of Consciousness (ASC-R) questionnaire. As an index of PE, we computed changes in MMN amplitudes as a function of the number of preceding standards (MMN memory trace effect) during a roving paradigm. S-ketamine, but not psilocybin, disrupted PE processing as expressed by a frontally disrupted MMN memory trace effect. Although both drugs produced positive-like symptoms, the extent of PE processing under placebo only correlated significantly with the severity of cognitive impairments induced by S-ketamine. Our results suggest that the NMDAR, but not the 5-HT2AR system, is implicated in PE processing during the MMN paradigm, and that aberrant PE signaling may contribute to the formation of cognitive impairments. The assessment of the MMN memory trace in schizophrenia may allow detecting early phases of the illness and might also serve to assess the efficacy of novel pharmacological treatments, in particular of cognitive impairments. PMID:22030715

Differences in the relationship between traumatic experiences, self-esteem, negative cognition, and Internet addiction symptoms among North Korean adolescent defectors and South Korean adolescents: A preliminary study.

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Park, Subin; Lee, Yeeun; Jun, Jin Yong

2017-11-01

North Korean adolescent defectors experience adaptation difficulties along with a wide range of psychosocial problems, but no study has yet examined their Internet addiction symptoms. We compared early traumatic experiences, self-esteem, negative cognition, and Internet addiction symptoms, as well as the relationships between these variables, between North Korean adolescent defectors and South Korean adolescents. Fifty-six North Korean adolescent defectors and 112 age- and sex- matched South Korean adolescents participated. The analyses examined the relationship between traumatic experiences and Internet addiction symptoms, with negative automatic thoughts or low self-esteem as mediators of these relations. North Korean adolescent defectors tended to have higher levels of negative automatic thoughts and more severe Internet addiction symptoms, as well as better self-esteem, than did South Korean adolescents. Furthermore, only among North Korean adolescent defectors, traumatic experiences were positively associated with Internet addition symptoms via increasing negative automatic thoughts. North Korean adolescent defectors are more susceptible to Internet addiction, negative cognitions, and early traumatic experiences compared to South Korean adolescents. However, the cross-sectional design of this study precludes consideration of the causality of these relationships. Interventions aiming to correct negative cognitions and increase self-esteem may be helpful for North Korean adolescent defectors with problematic Internet use. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reductions in negative repetitive thinking and metacognitive beliefs during transdiagnostic internet cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) for mixed anxiety and depression

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Newby, Jill M; Williams, Alishia D; Andrews, Gavin

We explored whether transdiagnostic internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) for mixed anxiety and depression effectively reduces repetitive negative thinking (RNT), and whether reductions in RNT and positive metacognitive beliefs mediate symptom improvement during iCBT. Participants

Social anxiety and work status: the role of negative metacognitive beliefs, symptom severity and cognitive-behavioural factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Nordahl, Henrik; Wells, Adrian

2017-06-24

Psychological health has a profound effect on personal and occupational functioning with Social Anxiety Symptoms in particular having a major effect on ability to work. Recent initiatives have focused on treating psychological illness with cognitive-behavioural models with a view to increasing return to work. However, the psychological correlates of work status amongst individuals with elevated mental health symptoms such as social anxiety are under-explored. This study reports a test of unique predictors of work status drawing on variables that have been given centre stage in cognitive-behavioural models and in the metacognitive model of psychological disorder. The sample consisted of high socially anxious individuals who reported to be working (n = 102) or receiving disability benefits (n = 102). A comparison of these groups showed that those out of work and receiving benefits had greater symptom severity, higher avoidance and use of safety behaviours, greater self-consciousness, and elevated negative metacognitive beliefs and beliefs about the need to control thoughts. However, when the covariance's between these variables were controlled, only negative metacognitive beliefs significantly predicted out-of-work status. Our finding might be important because CBT does not focus on metacognitive beliefs, but targets components that in our analysis had no unique predictive value for work status.

Effects of cariprazine, a novel antipsychotic, on cognitive deficit and negative symptoms in a rodent model of schizophrenia symptomatology.

Science.gov (United States)

Neill, Jo C; Grayson, Ben; Kiss, Béla; Gyertyán, István; Ferguson, Paul; Adham, Nika

2016-01-01

Negative symptoms and cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia are strongly associated with poor functional outcome and reduced quality of life and remain an unmet clinical need. Cariprazine is a dopamine D3/D2 receptor partial agonist with preferential binding to D3 receptors, recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of schizophrenia and manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder. The aim of this study is to evaluate effects of cariprazine in an animal model of cognitive deficit and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Following sub-chronic PCP administration (2mg/kg, IP for 7 days followed by 7 days drug-free), female Lister Hooded rats were administered cariprazine (0.05, 0.1, or 0.25mg/kg, PO) or risperidone (0.16 or 0.1mg/kg, IP) before testing in novel object recognition (NOR), reversal learning (RL), and social interaction (SI) paradigms. As we have consistently demonstrated, sub-chronic PCP significantly impaired behavior in these tests. Deficits were significantly improved by cariprazine, in a dose dependent manner in the operant RL test with efficacy at lower doses in the NOR and SI tests. Locomotor activity was reduced at the highest doses of 0.1mg/kg and 0.25mg/kg in NOR and SI. Risperidone also reversed the PCP-induced deficit in all tests. In conclusion, cariprazine was effective to overcome PCP-induced deficits in cognition and social behavior in a thoroughly validated rat model in tests representing specific symptom domains in schizophrenia patients. These findings support very recent results showing efficacy of cariprazine in the treatment of negative symptoms in schizophrenia patients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. and ECNP. All rights reserved.

Stress-Related Cognitive Interference Predicts Cognitive Function in Old Age

OpenAIRE

Stawski, Robert S.; Sliwinski, Martin J.; Smyth, Joshua M.; University, Syracuse

2006-01-01

Both subjective distress and cognitive interference have been proposed as mechanisms underlying the negative effects of stress on cognition. Studies of aging have shown that distress is associated with lower cognitive performance, but none have examined the effects of cognitive interference. One hundred eleven older adults (Mage = 80) completed measures of working memory, processing speed, and episodic memory as well as self-report measures of subjective distress and cognitive interference. C...

Corrugator Activity Confirms Immediate Negative Affect in Surprise

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sascha eTopolinski

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The emotion of surprise entails a complex of immediate responses, such as cognitive interruption, attention allocation to, and more systematic processing of the surprising stimulus. All these processes serve the ultimate function to increase processing depth and thus cognitively master the surprising stimulus. The present account introduces phasic negative affect as the underlying mechanism responsible for these consequences. Surprising stimuli are schema-discrepant and thus entail cognitive disfluency, which elicits immediate negative affect. This affect in turn works like a phasic cognitive tuning switching the current processing mode from more automatic and heuristic to more systematic and reflective processing. Directly testing the initial elicitation of negative affect by suprising events, the present experiment presented high and low surprising neutral trivia statements to N = 28 participants while assessing their spontaneous facial expressions via facial electromyography. High compared to low suprising trivia elicited higher corrugator activity, indicative of negative affect and mental effort, while leaving zygomaticus (positive affect and frontalis (cultural surprise expression activity unaffected. Future research shall investigate the mediating role of negative affect in eliciting surprise-related outcomes.

Suggestibility and negative priming: two replication studies.

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David, Daniel; Brown, Richard J

2002-07-01

Research suggests that inhibiting the effect of irrelevant stimuli on subsequent thought and action (cognitive inhibition) may be an important component of suggestibility. Two small correlation studies were conducted to address the relationship between different aspects of suggestibility and individual differences in cognitive inhibition, operationalized as the degree of negative priming generated by to-be-ignored stimuli in a semantic categorization task. The first study found significant positive correlations between negative priming, hypnotic suggestibility, and creative imagination; a significant negative correlation was obtained between negative priming and interrogative suggestibility, demonstrating the discriminant validity of the study results. The second study replicated the correlation between negative priming and hypnotic suggestibility, using a different suggestibility measurement procedure that assessed subjective experience and hypnotic involuntariness as well as objective responses to suggestions. These studies support the notion that the ability to engage in cognitive inhibition may be an important component of hypnotic responsivity and maybe of other forms of suggestibility.

Bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control among individuals with bilingual aphasia: evidence based on negative priming and flanker tasks.

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Dash, Tanya; Kar, Bhoomika R

2014-01-01

Bilingualism results in an added advantage with respect to cognitive control. The interaction between bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control systems can also be understood by studying executive control among individuals with bilingual aphasia. objectives: The current study examined the subcomponents of cognitive control in bilingual aphasia. A case study approach was used to investigate whether cognitive control and language control are two separate systems and how factors related to bilingualism interact with control processes. Four individuals with bilingual aphasia performed a language background questionnaire, picture description task, and two experimental tasks (nonlinguistic negative priming task and linguistic and nonlinguistic versions of flanker task). A descriptive approach was used to analyse the data using reaction time and accuracy measures. The cumulative distribution function plots were used to visualize the variations in performance across conditions. The results highlight the distinction between general purpose cognitive control and bilingual language control mechanisms. All participants showed predominant use of the reactive control mechanism to compensate for the limited resources system. Independent yet interactive systems for bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control were postulated based on the experimental data derived from individuals with bilingual aphasia.

Poor sleep quality is associated with a negative cognitive bias and decreased sustained attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Gobin, Christina M; Banks, Jonathan B; Fins, Ana I; Tartar, Jaime L

2015-10-01

Poor sleep quality has been demonstrated to diminish cognitive performance, impair psychosocial functioning and alter the perception of stress. At present, however, there is little understanding of how sleep quality affects emotion processing. The aim of the present study was to determine the extent to which sleep quality, measured through the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, influences affective symptoms as well as the interaction between stress and performance on an emotional memory test and sustained attention task. To that end, 154 undergraduate students (mean age: 21.27 years, standard deviation = 4.03) completed a series of measures, including the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, the Sustained Attention to Response Task, an emotion picture recognition task and affective symptom questionnaires following either a control or physical stress manipulation, the cold pressor test. As sleep quality and psychosocial functioning differ among chronotypes, we also included chronotype and time of day as variables of interest to ensure that the effects of sleep quality on the emotional and non-emotional tasks were not attributed to these related factors. We found that poor sleep quality is related to greater depressive symptoms, anxiety and mood disturbances. While an overall relationship between global Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index score and emotion and attention measures was not supported, poor sleep quality, as an independent component, was associated with better memory for negative stimuli and a deficit in sustained attention to non-emotional stimuli. Importantly, these effects were not sensitive to stress, chronotype or time of day. Combined, these results suggest that individuals with poor sleep quality show an increase in affective symptomatology as well as a negative cognitive bias with a concomitant decrease in sustained attention to non-emotional stimuli. © 2015 European Sleep Research Society.

Risk of long-lasting negative cognitive consequences after electroconvulsive therapy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Anne Marie; Miskowiak, Kamilla; Vinberg, Maj

2013-01-01

This case study describes a patient who had a unipolar depression and experienced long-lasting cognitive problems after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Neuropsychological testing revealed lower scores on measures of learning, memory and sustained attention. These results stress the importance...... of informing patients who have ECT of the potential cognitive consequences of this treatment as it may influence the patients' functional capabilities. Prospective studies are needed since we do not have sufficient knowledge regarding the 3-5% of these patients who experience sustained cognitive problems....

Negative affect varying in motivational intensity influences scope of memory.

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Threadgill, A Hunter; Gable, Philip A

2018-04-06

Emotions influence cognitive processes involved in memory. While some research has suggested that cognitive scope is determined by affective valence, recent models of emotion-cognition interactions suggest that motivational intensity, rather than valence, influences these processes. The present research was designed to clarify how negative affects differing in motivational intensity impact memory for centrally or peripherally presented information. Experiments 1 & 2 found that, relative to a neutral condition, high intensity negative affect (anger) enhances memory for centrally presented information. Experiment 3 replicated this effect using another high intensity negative affect (threat). Experiment 4 extended this by finding that, relative to a neutral condition, low intensity negative affect (sadness) enhanced memory for peripherally presented information. Finally, in Experiment 5, the effects of sadness and threat on scope of memory were directly compared, finding that threat narrowed scope of memory, while sadness broadened scope of memory. Together, these results provide additional support for the motivational dimensional model of cognitive scope, in that high intensity emotions narrow cognitive scope, while low intensity emotions broaden cognitive scope.

PTSD symptoms and perception of cognitive problems: The roles of posttraumatic cognitions and trauma coping self-efficacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Samuelson, Kristin W; Bartel, Alisa; Valadez, Racquel; Jordan, Joshua T

2017-09-01

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with mild neurocognitive deficits, yet clients often complain of cognitive problems that exceed what their objective performance demonstrates. In addition, PTSD is associated with negative appraisals about the self, traumatic event, and one's ability to cope. This study examined posttraumatic cognitions as a moderator, and trauma coping self-efficacy as a mediator, of the relationship between PTSD symptoms and self-report of cognitive problems. A sample of 268 trauma-exposed adults completed the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory, the Trauma Coping Self-Efficacy Scale, the Cognitive Self-Report Questionnaire, and the Quality of Life Scale. Negative self-appraisals was a significant moderator in the relationship between PTSD symptoms and perception of cognitive problems (β = -.252, p = .001). In participants with high levels of negative posttraumatic cognitions, perception of cognitive problems was high regardless of PTSD symptom level. In a mediator analysis, there was a significant indirect effect of trauma coping self-efficacy (b = .125, 95% CI [.088, .172]). Finally, there was evidence of moderated mediation, such that trauma coping self-efficacy was a mediator only when posttraumatic cognitions were low or average. Results indicate that posttraumatic appraisals and coping self-efficacy play significant roles in perception of cognitive problems following trauma. Clinically, in patients for which there is a perception of cognitive impairment that is not borne out in neuropsychological testing, cognitive-behavioral therapy focused on altering negative self-perceptions and appraisals may be beneficial. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Bilingual Language Control and General Purpose Cognitive Control among Individuals with Bilingual Aphasia: Evidence Based on Negative Priming and Flanker Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Dash, Tanya; Kar, Bhoomika R.

2014-01-01

Background. Bilingualism results in an added advantage with respect to cognitive control. The interaction between bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control systems can also be understood by studying executive control among individuals with bilingual aphasia. Objectives. The current study examined the subcomponents of cognitive control in bilingual aphasia. A case study approach was used to investigate whether cognitive control and language control are two separate systems and how factors related to bilingualism interact with control processes. Methods. Four individuals with bilingual aphasia performed a language background questionnaire, picture description task, and two experimental tasks (nonlinguistic negative priming task and linguistic and nonlinguistic versions of flanker task). Results. A descriptive approach was used to analyse the data using reaction time and accuracy measures. The cumulative distribution function plots were used to visualize the variations in performance across conditions. The results highlight the distinction between general purpose cognitive control and bilingual language control mechanisms. Conclusion. All participants showed predominant use of the reactive control mechanism to compensate for the limited resources system. Independent yet interactive systems for bilingual language control and general purpose cognitive control were postulated based on the experimental data derived from individuals with bilingual aphasia. PMID:24982591

Negative Posttrauma Cognitions Mediate the Association Between Morally Injurious Events and Trauma‐Related Psychopathology in Treatment‐Seeking Veterans

OpenAIRE

Held, Philip; Klassen, Brian J.; Zou, Denise S.; Schroedter, Blake S.; Karnik, Niranjan S.; Pollack, Mark H.; Zalta, Alyson K.

2017-01-01

Abstract Exposure to potentially morally injurious events has been shown to be associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptoms in military personnel. Few studies have examined factors that help to explain how potentially morally injurious events may contribute to the development of trauma‐related psychopathology. Negative posttrauma cognitions are thought to play a role in the etiology of PTSD and depression following trauma; however, it is unclear whether more gl...

Why expressive suppression does not pay? Cognitive costs of negative emotion suppression: The mediating role of subjective tense-arousal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Szczygieł Dorota

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper was to contribute to a broader understanding of the cognitive consequences of expressive suppression. Specifically, we examined whether the deteriorating effect of expressive suppression on cognitive functioning is caused by tense arousal enhanced by suppression. Two experiments were performed in order to test this prediction. In both studies we tested the effect of expressive suppression on working memory, as measured with a backwards digit-span task (Study 1, N = 43 and anagram problem-solving task (Study 2, N = 60. In addition, in Study 2 we tested whether expressive suppression degrades memory of the events that emerged during the period of expressive suppression. Both studies were conducted in a similar design: Participants watched a film clip which evoked negative emotions (i.e. disgust in Study 1 and a combination of sadness and anxiety in Study 2 under the instruction to suppress those negative emotions or (in the control condition to simply watch the film. The results of these experiments lead to three conclusions. First, the results reveal that expressive suppression degrades memory of the events that emerged during the period of expressive suppression and leads to poorer performance on working memory tasks, as measured with a backwards digit-span task and anagram problem-solving task. Second, the results indicate that expressive suppression leads to a significant increase in subjective tense arousal. Third, the results support our prediction that expressive suppression decreases cognitive performance through its effects on subjective tense arousal. The results of the Study 1 show that tense arousal activated during expressive suppression of disgust fully mediates the negative effect of suppression on working memory as measured with a backwards digit-span task. The results of Study 2 reveal that subjective tense arousal elicited while suppressing sadness and anxiety mediates both the effect of suppression on

Cognitive Defusion versus Thought Distraction: A Clinical Rationale, Training, and Experiential Exercise in Altering Psychological Impacts of Negative Self-Referential Thoughts

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Masuda, Akihiko; Feinstein, Amanda B.; Wendell, Johanna W.; Sheehan, Shawn T.

2010-01-01

Using two modes of intervention delivery, the present study compared the effects of a cognitive defusion strategy with a thought distraction strategy on the emotional discomfort and believability of negative self-referential thoughts. One mode of intervention delivery consisted of a clinical rationale and training (i.e., Partial condition). The…

Oscillatory underpinnings of mismatch negativity and their relationship with cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia.

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Muzaffer Kaser

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Impairments in mismatch negativity (MMN generation have been consistently reported in patients with schizophrenia. However, underlying oscillatory activity of MMN deficits in schizophrenia and the relationship with cognitive impairments have not been investigated in detail. Time-frequency power and phase analyses can provide more detailed measures of brain dynamics of MMN deficits in schizophrenia. METHOD: 21 patients with schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls were tested with a roving frequency paradigm to generate MMN. Time-frequency domain power and phase-locking (PL analysis was performed on all trials using short-time Fourier transforms with Hanning window tapering. A comprehensive battery (CANTAB was used to assess neurocognitive functioning. RESULTS: Mean MMN amplitude was significantly lower in patients with schizophrenia (95% CI 0.18 - 0.77. Patients showed significantly lower EEG power (95% CI -1.02 - -0.014 in the ~4-7 Hz frequency range (theta band between 170 and 210 ms. Patients with schizophrenia showed cognitive impairment in multiple domains of CANTAB. However, MMN impairments in amplitude and power were not correlated with clinical measures, medication dose, social functioning or neurocognitive performance. CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggested that while MMN may be a useful marker to probe NMDA receptor mediated mechanisms and associated impairments in gain control and perceptual changes, it may not be a useful marker in association with clinical or cognitive changes. Trial-by-trial EEG power analysis can be used as a measure of brain dynamics underlying MMN deficits which also can have implications for the use of MMN as a biomarker for drug discovery.

Positive and Negative Thinking in Tinnitus: Factor Structure of the Tinnitus Cognitions Questionnaire.

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Handscomb, Lucy E; Hall, Deborah A; Shorter, Gillian W; Hoare, Derek J

Researchers and clinicians consider thinking to be important in the development and maintenance of tinnitus distress, and altering thoughts or thinking style is an object of many forms of psychological therapy for tinnitus. Those working with people with tinnitus require a reliable, psychometrically robust means of measuring both positive and negative thinking related to it. The Tinnitus Cognitions Questionnaire (TCQ) was designed as such a measure and its authors showed it to be reliable, with good psychometric properties. However, no research teams have yet carried out independent validation. This study aimed to use the TCQ to investigate thinking amongst members of the general population with both bothersome and nonbothersome tinnitus and also to verify its factor structure. Three hundred forty-two members of the public with tinnitus completed the TCQ online or on paper. They also rated their tinnitus on a scale as "not a problem," "a small problem," "a moderate problem," "a big problem," or a "very big problem." The authors tested the original factor structure of the TCQ using confirmatory factor analysis and then calculated the mean scores for each item, comparing mean total scores across "problem categories" for the full questionnaire and for the positive and negative subscales. The original two-factor structure of the TCQ was a good fit to the data when the correlation between positive and negative factors was fixed at zero (root mean square error of approximation = 0.064, 90% confidence interval = 0.058 to 0.070). Items pertaining to wishing the tinnitus would go away and despairing that it would ever get better had the highest mean scores. The mean total score for the "no problem" group (M = 31.17, SD = 16.03) was not significantly different from the mean total score for the "small problem" group (M = 34.00, SD = 12.44, p = 0.99). Differences between mean scores for all other groups were statistically significant. For the negative subscale, differences

Joint effect of unlinked genotypes: application to type 2 diabetes in the EPIC-Potsdam case-cohort study.

Science.gov (United States)

Knüppel, Sven; Meidtner, Karina; Arregui, Maria; Holzhütter, Hermann-Georg; Boeing, Heiner

2015-07-01

Analyzing multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is a promising approach to finding genetic effects beyond single-locus associations. We proposed the use of multilocus stepwise regression (MSR) to screen for allele combinations as a method to model joint effects, and compared the results with the often used genetic risk score (GRS), conventional stepwise selection, and the shrinkage method LASSO. In contrast to MSR, the GRS, conventional stepwise selection, and LASSO model each genotype by the risk allele doses. We reanalyzed 20 unlinked SNPs related to type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the EPIC-Potsdam case-cohort study (760 cases, 2193 noncases). No SNP-SNP interactions and no nonlinear effects were found. Two SNP combinations selected by MSR (Nagelkerke's R² = 0.050 and 0.048) included eight SNPs with mean allele combination frequency of 2%. GRS and stepwise selection selected nearly the same SNP combinations consisting of 12 and 13 SNPs (Nagelkerke's R² ranged from 0.020 to 0.029). LASSO showed similar results. The MSR method showed the best model fit measured by Nagelkerke's R² suggesting that further improvement may render this method a useful tool in genetic research. However, our comparison suggests that the GRS is a simple way to model genetic effects since it does not consider linkage, SNP-SNP interactions, and no non-linear effects. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/University College London.

Relationship of low vitamin D status with positive, negative and cognitive symptom domains in people with first-episode schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, K A; Keefe, R S; Lieberman, J A; Calikoglu, A S; Lansing, K M; Perkins, D O

2015-10-01

Deficient vitamin D levels are very common among Americans of all ages and ethnicities, but little is known about its prevalence or associated problems among those with schizophrenia. Stored plasma from 20 recent onset schizophrenia subjects and 20 matched healthy comparison subjects were analysed for 25 OH vitamin D, and related to measures of symptom severity and neurocognition. There was no significant difference in mean 25 OH vitamin D between the schizophrenia and the healthy comparison subjects (28.2 standard deviation (SD) 12.6 ng mL(-1) vs. 29.9 SD 14.3 ng mL(-1) ), and about half the subjects in each group had insufficient levels (vitamin D status (r = -0.55, P = 0.012); the correlations of overall symptom severity and positive symptom severity with 25 OH vitamin D levels approached significance (r = -0.42, P = 0.07 and r = -0.36, P = 0.12, respectively). There was no relationship of vitamin D with depressive symptoms. Among the schizophrenia subjects, lower 25 OH vitamin D levels were associated with more severe overall cognitive deficits (r = 0.56, P = 0.019). This study found that lower vitamin D levels in schizophrenia subjects were associated with more severe negative symptoms and overall cognitive deficits. However, the cross-sectional design precludes any conclusions about whether low vitamin D status in fact causes more severe negative symptoms and cognitive impairments. No relationship was found between lower vitamin D levels and depressive symptoms. © 2014 The Authors Early Intervention in Psychiatry Published by Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

The Effects of Mood, Cognitive Style, and Cognitive Ability on Implicit Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Pretz, Jean E.; Totz, Kathryn Sentman; Kaufman, Scott Barry

2010-01-01

In an experiment with 109 undergraduates, we examined the effect of mood, cognitive style, and cognitive ability on implicit learning in the Artificial Grammar (AG) and Serial Reaction Time (SRT) tasks. Negative mood facilitated AG learning, but had no significant effect on SRT learning. Rational cognitive style predicted greater learning on both…

Daily stressors and emotional reactivity in individuals with mild cognitive impairment and cognitively healthy controls.

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Rickenbach, Elizabeth Hahn; Condeelis, Kristen L; Haley, William E

2015-06-01

Daily experiences of stress are common and have been associated with worse affect among older adults. People with mild cognitive impairment (PWMCI) have measurable memory deficits in between normal cognition and dementia and have been identified as having greater psychological distress than cognitively healthy older adults (CHOAs). Little is known about whether daily stressors contribute to distress among PWMCI. We hypothesized that compared with CHOAs, PWMCI would have higher daily negative affect and lower daily positive affect, report greater numbers and severity of daily stressors, and experience greater emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Fifteen clinically diagnosed PWMCI and 25 CHOAs completed daily reports of stressors, stressor severity, and positive and negative affect over an 8-day period. PWMCI reported higher daily negative affect, lower daily positive affect, and higher numbers and greater severity of memory stressors but did not differ from CHOAs in numbers or severity of general stressors. Cognitive status was a moderator of the daily stress-affect relationship. Days with greater numbers and severity of general daily stressors were associated with higher negative affect only for PWMCI. The numbers and severity of memory stressors were not associated with negative affect. In addition, more severe general daily stressors and memory stressors were associated with lower positive affect for all participants. Results suggest that PWMCI are less resilient in the face of daily stress than are CHOAs in terms of negative affect, perhaps because of declines in reserve capacity. The study presents a promising approach to understanding stress and coping in predementia states of cognition. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

The influence of cognitive-behavioural stress management therapy on self-concept personality trait and negative emotions in women with Bulimia nervosa disorder

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Masiha Eskandari

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Background: The etiology of Bulimia nervosa disorder has not been determined yet. The somatic psychological problems need to be addressed in the treatment of these patients. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of cognitive-behavioural stress management training on self-concept personality trait and negative emotions in women with Bulimia nervosa disorder. Methods: The subjects consisted of 50 patients with Bulimia nervosa disorder that were randomly assigned to experimental (25 and control (25 groups. The experimental group received group cognitive behavioural therapy. The BSCT and DASS tests were performed on both groups before and after treatment. The results were analysed by MANCOVA. Results: In terms of self-concept, the results of pre-test and post-test in experimental group were (M: 53.44 and SD: 12.62 and (M:10.48 and SD:14.21, respectively, but for control group, the results of pre-test and post-test were (M: 50.64 and SD: 13.72 and (M: 49.56 and SD:13.75, respectively. In the case of negative emotions; the findings of pre-test and post-test for experimental group were (M: 12.76 and SD: 4.06 and (M:12.08 and SD: 4.06, respectively. However, the results of pre-test and post-test for control group were (M: 27.24 and SD: 4.17, and (M: 26.36 and SD: 4.09, respectively. Within-group comparisons indicated, the pre-test results of self-concept (M: 53.44 and SD: 12.62 were higher than those of the post-test (M: 10.48 and SD:14.21, and the pre-test results of negative emotions in experimental group (M:12.76 and SD:4.06 indicated a little change in the post-test (M:12.08 and SD: 4.06. Conclusion: This study showed that cognitive-behavioural therapy is effective for increasing the self-concept and decreasing negative emotions in patients with Bulimia nervosa disorder (P<0.000.

Repetitive negative thinking predicts depression and anxiety symptom improvement during brief cognitive behavioral therapy.

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Kertz, Sarah J; Koran, Jennifer; Stevens, Kimberly T; Björgvinsson, Thröstur

2015-05-01

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a common symptom across depression and anxiety disorders and preliminary evidence suggests that decreases in rumination and worry are related to improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms. However, despite its prevalence, relatively little is known about transdiagnostic RNT and its temporal associations with symptom improvement during treatment. The current study was designed to examine the influence of RNT on subsequent depression and anxiety symptoms during treatment. Participants (n = 131; 52% female; 93% White; M = 34.76 years) were patients presenting for treatment in a brief, cognitive behavior therapy based, partial hospitalization program. Participants completed multiple assessments of depression (Center for the Epidemiological Studies of Depression-10 scale), anxiety (the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale), and repetitive negative thinking (Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire) over the course of treatment. Results indicated statistically significant between and within person effects of RNT on depression and anxiety, even after controlling for the effect of time, previous symptom levels, referral source, and treatment length. RNT explained 22% of the unexplained variability in depression scores and 15% of the unexplained variability in anxiety scores beyond that explained by the control variables. RNT may be an important transdiagnostic treatment target for anxiety and depression. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sex enhances adaptation by unlinking beneficial from detrimental mutations in experimental yeast populations

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Gray Jeremy C

2012-03-01

beneficial mutations were apparent, sex provided an advantage. In the stressful environment asexuals were increasingly constrained in their extent of adaptation with increasing mutation rate. Sex appeared to facilitate adaptation not just by more rapidly combining beneficial mutations, but also by unlinking beneficial from detrimental mutations: sex allowed selection to operate on both types of mutations more effectively compared to asexual populations.

Predictors of Change Following Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Children with Anxiety Problems: A Preliminary Investigation on Negative Automatic Thoughts and Anxiety Control

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Muris, Peter; Mayer, Birgit; den Adel, Madelon; Roos, Tamara; van Wamelen, Julie

2009-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate negative automatic thoughts and anxiety control as predictors of change produced by cognitive-behavioral treatment of youths with anxiety disorders. Forty-five high-anxious children aged between 9 and 12 years who were selected from the primary school population, received a standardized CBT…

Cognitive training to improve memory in individuals undergoing electroconvulsive therapy: Negative findings.

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Choi, Jimmy; Wang, Yuanjia; Feng, Tianshu; Prudic, Joan

2017-09-01

Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains the most effective treatment for severe depression, some patients report persistent memory problems following ECT that impact their quality of life and their willingness to consent to further ECT. While cognitive training has been shown to improve memory performance in various conditions, this approach has never been applied to help patients regain their memory after ECT. In a double-blind study, we tested the efficacy of a new cognitive training program called Memory Training for ECT (Mem-ECT), specifically designed to target anterograde and retrograde memory that can be compromised following ECT. Fifty-nine patients with treatment-resistant depression scheduled to undergo ultra-brief right unilateral ECT were randomly assigned to either: (a) Mem-ECT, (b) active control comprised of nonspecific mental stimulation, or (c) treatment as usual. Participants were evaluated within one week prior to the start of ECT and then again within 2 weeks following the last ECT session. All three groups improved in global function, quality of life, depression, and self-reported memory abilities without significant group differences. While there was a decline in verbal delayed recall and mental status, there was no decline in general retrograde memory or autobiographical memory in any of the groups, with no significant memory or clinical benefit for the Mem-ECT or active control conditions compared to treatment as usual. While we report negative findings, these results continue to promote the much needed discussion on developing effective strategies to minimize the adverse memory side effects of ECT, in hopes it will make ECT a better and more easily tolerated treatment for patients with severe depression who need this therapeutic option. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dealing with negative stereotypes in sports: The role of cognitive anxiety when multiple identities are activated in sensorimotor tasks

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Martiny, Sarah E.; Gleibs, Ilka H.; Parks-Stamm, Elizabeth J.; Martiny-Huenger, Torsten; Froehlich, Laura; Harter, Anna-Lena; Roth, Jenny

2015-01-01

Accepted manuscript version. Published version at http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsep.2014-0284. Based on research on stereotype threat and multiple identities, this work explores the beneficial effects of activating a positive social identity when a negative identity is salient on women’s performance in sports. Further, in line with research on the effects of anxiety in sports, we investigate whether the activation of a positive social identity buffers performance from cognitive anxiety associ...

Cognitive predictors and moderators of winter depression treatment outcomes in cognitive-behavioral therapy vs. light therapy.

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Sitnikov, Lilya; Rohan, Kelly J; Evans, Maggie; Mahon, Jennifer N; Nillni, Yael I

2013-12-01

There is no empirical basis for determining which seasonal affective disorder (SAD) patients are best suited for what type of treatment. Using data from a parent clinical trial comparing light therapy (LT), cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and their combination (CBT + LT) for SAD, we constructed hierarchical linear regression models to explore baseline cognitive vulnerability constructs (i.e., dysfunctional attitudes, negative automatic thoughts, response styles) as prognostic and prescriptive factors of acute and next winter depression outcomes. Cognitive constructs did not predict or moderate acute treatment outcomes. Baseline dysfunctional attitudes and negative automatic thoughts were prescriptive of next winter treatment outcomes. Participants with higher baseline levels of dysfunctional attitudes and negative automatic thoughts had less severe depression the next winter if treated with CBT than if treated with LT. In addition, participants randomized to solo LT who scored at or above the sample mean on these cognitive measures at baseline had more severe depressive symptoms the next winter relative to those who scored below the mean. Baseline dysfunctional attitudes and negative automatic thoughts did not predict treatment outcomes in participants assigned to solo CBT or CBT + LT. Therefore, SAD patients with extremely rigid cognitions did not fare as well in the subsequent winter if treated initially with solo LT. Such patients may be better suited for initial treatment with CBT, which directly targets cognitive vulnerability processes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risk Aversion Relates to Cognitive Ability

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Andersson, Ola; Holm, Håkan J.; Tyran, Jean-Robert Karl

2016-01-01

Recent experimental studies suggest that risk aversion is negatively related to cognitive ability. In this paper we report evidence that this relation might be spurious. We recruit a large subject pool drawn from the general Danish population for our experiment. By presenting subjects with choice...... tasks that vary the bias induced by random choices, we are able to generate both negative and positive correlations between risk aversion and cognitive ability. Structural estimation allowing for heterogeneity of noise yields no significant relation between risk aversion and cognitive ability. Our...... results suggest that cognitive ability is related to random decision making, rather than to risk preferences....

Risk aversion relates to cognitive ability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Ola; Holm, Håkan J.; Tyran, Jean-Robert Karl

Recent experimental studies suggest that risk aversion is negatively related to cognitive ability. In this paper we report evidence that this relation might be spurious. We recruit a large subject pool drawn from the general Danish population for our experiment. By presenting subjects with choice...... tasks that vary the bias induced by random choices, we are able to generate both negative and positive correlations between risk aversion and cognitive ability. Structural estimation allowing for heterogeneity of noise yields no significant relation between risk aversion and cognitive ability. Our...... results suggest that cognitive ability is related to random decision making rather than to risk preferences....

Neural correlates of reappraisal considering working memory capacity and cognitive flexibility.

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Zaehringer, Jenny; Falquez, Rosalux; Schubert, Anna-Lena; Nees, Frauke; Barnow, Sven

2018-01-09

Cognitive reappraisal of emotion is strongly related to long-term mental health. Therefore, the exploration of underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms has become an essential focus of research. Considering that reappraisal and executive functions rely on a similar brain network, the question arises whether behavioral differences in executive functions modulate neural activity during reappraisal. Using functional neuroimaging, the present study aimed to analyze the role of working memory capacity (WMC) and cognitive flexibility in brain activity during down-regulation of negative emotions by reappraisal in N = 20 healthy participants. Results suggests that WMC and cognitive flexibility were negatively correlated with prefrontal activity during reappraisal condition. Here, results also revealed a negative correlation between cognitive flexibility and amygdala activation. These findings provide first hints that (1) individuals with lower WMC and lower cognitive flexibility might need more higher-order cognitive neural resources in order to down-regulate negative emotions and (2) cognitive flexibility relates to emotional reactivity during reappraisal.

The relation between mindfulness and fear of negative evaluation over the course of cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder.

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Burton, Mark; Schmertz, Stefan K; Price, Matthew; Masuda, Akihiko; Anderson, Page L

2013-03-01

This study examined the relation between mindfulness and fear of negative evaluation over the course of nonmindfulness based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD). We expected that higher levels of mindfulness would be associated with a more positive response to treatment. This study is a secondary report from a randomized controlled trial in which participants (N = 65) diagnosed with SAD were randomly assigned to receive 8 weeks of 1 of 2 manualized treatments (exposure group therapy, n = 33; or virtual reality exposure therapy, n = 32) either immediately or following an 8 week waiting period. Fear of negative evaluation decreased following treatment and was negatively related to mindfulness throughout treatment and follow-up. Mindfulness did not moderate treatment outcome. These findings indicate that while mindfulness is related to fear, it is not a moderator of symptom reduction in nonmindfulness-based treatment. Implications for treatment and future research are discussed. 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Cognitive indicators of social anxiety in youth: a structural equation analysis.

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Rudy, Brittany M; Davis, Thompson E; Matthews, Russell A

2014-01-01

Previous studies have demonstrated significant relationships among various cognitive variables such as negative cognition, self-efficacy, and social anxiety. Unfortunately, few studies focus on the role of cognition among youth, and researchers often fail to use domain-specific measures when examining cognitive variables. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine domain-specific cognitive variables (i.e., socially oriented negative self-referent cognition and social self-efficacy) and their relationships to social anxiety in children and adolescents using structural equation modeling techniques. A community sample of children and adolescents (n=245; 55.9% female; 83.3% Caucasian, 9.4% African American, 2% Asian, 2% Hispanic, 2% "other," and 1.2% not reported) completed questionnaires assessing social cognition and social anxiety symptomology. Three latent variables were created to examine the constructs of socially oriented negative self-referent cognition (as measured by the SONAS scale), social self-efficacy (as measured by the SEQSS-C), and social anxiety (as measured by the SPAI-C and the Brief SA). The resulting measurement model of latent variables fit the data well. Additionally, consistent with the study hypothesis, results indicated that social self-efficacy likely mediates the relationship between socially oriented negative self-referent cognition and social anxiety, and socially oriented negative self-referent cognition yields significant direct and indirect effects on social anxiety. These findings indicate that socially oriented negative cognitions are associated with youth's beliefs about social abilities and the experience of social anxiety. Future directions for research and study limitations, including use of cross-sectional data, are discussed. © 2013.

Neural activity during emotion recognition after combined cognitive plus social-cognitive training in schizophrenia

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Hooker, Christine I.; Bruce, Lori; Fisher, Melissa; Verosky, Sara C.; Miyakawa, Asako; Vinogradov, Sophia

2012-01-01

Cognitive remediation training has been shown to improve both cognitive and social-cognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia, but the mechanisms that support this behavioral improvement are largely unknown. One hypothesis is that intensive behavioral training in cognition and/or social-cognition restores the underlying neural mechanisms that support targeted skills. However, there is little research on the neural effects of cognitive remediation training. This study investigated whether a 50 hour (10-week) remediation intervention which included both cognitive and social-cognitive training would influence neural function in regions that support social-cognition. Twenty-two stable, outpatient schizophrenia participants were randomized to a treatment condition consisting of auditory-based cognitive training (AT) [Brain Fitness Program/auditory module ~60 minutes/day] plus social-cognition training (SCT) which was focused on emotion recognition [~5–15 minutes per day] or a placebo condition of non-specific computer games (CG) for an equal amount of time. Pre and post intervention assessments included an fMRI task of positive and negative facial emotion recognition, and standard behavioral assessments of cognition, emotion processing, and functional outcome. There were no significant intervention-related improvements in general cognition or functional outcome. FMRI results showed the predicted group-by-time interaction. Specifically, in comparison to CG, AT+SCT participants had a greater pre-to-post intervention increase in postcentral gyrus activity during emotion recognition of both positive and negative emotions. Furthermore, among all participants, the increase in postcentral gyrus activity predicted behavioral improvement on a standardized test of emotion processing (MSCEIT: Perceiving Emotions). Results indicate that combined cognition and social-cognition training impacts neural mechanisms that support social-cognition skills. PMID:22695257

Inhibitory deficits for negative information in persons with major depressive disorder.

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Lau, Mark A; Christensen, Bruce K; Hawley, Lance L; Gemar, Michael S; Segal, Zindel V

2007-09-01

Within Beck's cognitive model of depression, little is known about the mechanism(s) by which activated self-schemas result in the production of negative thoughts. Recent research has demonstrated that inhibitory dysfunction is present in depression, and this deficit is likely valence-specific. However, whether valence-specific inhibitory deficits are associated with increased negative cognition and whether such deficits are specific to depression per se remains unexamined. The authors posit the theory that inhibitory dysfunction may influence the degree to which activated self-schemas result in the production of depressive cognition. Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD, n=43) versus healthy (n=36) and non-depressed anxious (n=32) controls were assessed on the Prose Distraction Task (PDT), a measure of cognitive inhibition, and the Stop-Signal Task (SST), a measure of motor response inhibition. These two tasks were modified in order to present emotionally valenced semantic stimuli (i.e. negative, neutral, positive). Participants with MDD demonstrated performance impairments on the PDT, which were most pronounced for negatively valenced adjectives, relative to both control groups. Moreover, these impairments correlated with self-report measures of negative thinking and rumination. Conversely, the performance of the MDD participants did not differ from either control group on the SST. Implications of these findings for understanding the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of depressive cognition are discussed.

Cognitive "babyness": developmental differences in the power of young children's supernatural thinking to influence positive and negative affect.

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Periss, Virginia; Blasi, Carlos Hernández; Bjorklund, David F

2012-09-01

Perceptions of maturational status may play an important role in facilitating caretaking and resources toward children expressing them. Previous work has revealed evidence that cues of cognitive immaturity foster positive perceptions in adults toward young children at a time during their lives when they are most dependent on adult care. In the current series of studies, the authors investigated when during development these biases emerge. They tested American and Spanish adolescents ranging from 10 to 17 years of age. Each participant rated a series of vignettes presenting different expressions of immature and mature thinking attributed to young children. Results revealed that older adolescents performed similarly to adults tested in previous studies (D. F. Bjorklund, C. Hernández Blasi, & V. A. Periss, 2010), rating positively expressions of supernatural thinking (e.g., animism) compared with other forms of immature cognition labeled as natural (e.g., overestimation). Both male and female participants 14 years and older favored children expressing the immature supernatural cognition on traits reflecting positive affect (e.g., endearing, likeable), while associating greater negative affect (e.g., sneaky, impatient with) with children expressing immature natural cognition. However, younger adolescents consistently rated all forms of immature thinking less positively than mature thinking, suggesting that a positive bias for some forms of immature thinking develops during adolescence. Based on an evolutionary developmental framework, the authors suggest that supernatural thinking may have a unique role in humans, fostering positive perceptions of young children in older adolescents (and adults) as they prepare themselves for the possible role of parenthood. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Body image related negative interpretation bias in anorexia nervosa.

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Brockmeyer, Timo; Anderle, Alisa; Schmidt, Hagen; Febry, Stephanie; Wünsch-Leiteritz, Wally; Leiteritz, Andreas; Friederich, Hans-Christoph

2018-05-01

A distorted body image and pronounced body dissatisfaction are hallmarks of anorexia nervosa (AN) that typically result in dietary restraint and compensatory behaviours. Cognitive biases such as negative interpretation bias are considered key maintaining factors of these maladaptive cognitions and behaviours. However, little attention has been paid to empirical tests whether negative interpretation bias exists in AN and to what degree it is associated with symptom severity. Participants in the present study were 40 women with AN and 40 healthy women with no history of an eating disorder. Body-related negative interpretation bias (i.e., a tendency to interpret ambiguous information about the own body in a negative way) was measured by a Scrambled Sentences Task. Patients with AN showed a stronger body-related negative interpretation bias than healthy controls. Within both groups, negative interpretation bias correlated strongly and positively with AN symptom severity and these effects were not moderated by levels of depressive symptoms. The findings support the idea that biased interpretation of body-related information is associated with the specific psychopathology of AN. Targeted, computerised interventions (e.g. interpretation bias modification) may help to alter these dysfunctional cognitive schemas that lie at the heart of AN. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural activity during emotion recognition after combined cognitive plus social cognitive training in schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Hooker, Christine I; Bruce, Lori; Fisher, Melissa; Verosky, Sara C; Miyakawa, Asako; Vinogradov, Sophia

2012-08-01

Cognitive remediation training has been shown to improve both cognitive and social cognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia, but the mechanisms that support this behavioral improvement are largely unknown. One hypothesis is that intensive behavioral training in cognition and/or social cognition restores the underlying neural mechanisms that support targeted skills. However, there is little research on the neural effects of cognitive remediation training. This study investigated whether a 50 h (10-week) remediation intervention which included both cognitive and social cognitive training would influence neural function in regions that support social cognition. Twenty-two stable, outpatient schizophrenia participants were randomized to a treatment condition consisting of auditory-based cognitive training (AT) [Brain Fitness Program/auditory module ~60 min/day] plus social cognition training (SCT) which was focused on emotion recognition [~5-15 min per day] or a placebo condition of non-specific computer games (CG) for an equal amount of time. Pre and post intervention assessments included an fMRI task of positive and negative facial emotion recognition, and standard behavioral assessments of cognition, emotion processing, and functional outcome. There were no significant intervention-related improvements in general cognition or functional outcome. fMRI results showed the predicted group-by-time interaction. Specifically, in comparison to CG, AT+SCT participants had a greater pre-to-post intervention increase in postcentral gyrus activity during emotion recognition of both positive and negative emotions. Furthermore, among all participants, the increase in postcentral gyrus activity predicted behavioral improvement on a standardized test of emotion processing (MSCEIT: Perceiving Emotions). Results indicate that combined cognition and social cognition training impacts neural mechanisms that support social cognition skills. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All

The predictive value of childhood recurrent abdominal pain for adult emotional disorders, and the influence of negative cognitive style. Findings from a cohort study.

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Kate Stein

Full Text Available Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP in childhood is common, with no explanatory pathology identified in the majority of cases. Previous studies have consistently demonstrated an association between childhood RAP and later emotional distress disorders. The aim of this study was to replicate this finding through the analysis of a large dataset, and explore how a negative style of thinking could potentially influence this relationship.The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC is a population cohort of children born in the Avon area of the UK, between 1991-1992. Data on childhood RAP was collected via maternal reports at 3, 4, 7 and 9 years. Mood, anxiety and cognitive style were measured at age 18. We controlled for various confounding factors, including maternal anxiety and the child's pre-existing psychopathology. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations, and moderation effects of cognitive style were analysed using likelihood ratios.Experiencing RAP at any one time-point is associated with an increased odds of depression and/or anxiety disorder at 18 (OR = 1.41, 95% CI 1.09-1.83. We found a dose-response relationship and each additional marker of RAP was associated with a 26% (CI: 7% to 47% increase in risk of having a mood and/or anxiety disorder. Individuals who attribute adversity to global, stable or personal factors were at amplified risk.Childhood RAP predicts depression and anxiety disorders at 18 and should be targeted for early intervention. Individuals with a negative cognitive style may be particularly vulnerable, suggesting that cognitive interpretations of physical symptoms could play an important role in long-term health outcomes.

How does "not left" become "right"? Electrophysiological evidence for a dynamic conflict-bound negation processing account.

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Dudschig, Carolin; Kaup, Barbara

2018-05-01

Human thought and language is traditionally considered as abstract, amodal, and symbolic. However, recent theories propose that high-level human cognition is directly linked to basic, modal biological systems such as sensorimotor areas. Despite this influential representational debate very little is known regarding whether the mechanisms involved in sensorimotor control are also shared with higher-level cognitive processes, such as language comprehension. We investigated negation as a universal of human language, addressing two key questions: (a) Does negation result in a conflict-like representation? (b) Does negation trigger executive control adjustments in a similar manner as standard information processing conflicts do (e.g., Simon, Flanker)? Electrophysiological data indicated that phrases such as "not left/not right" result in initial activation of the to-be-negated information and subsequently the outcome of the negation process. More importantly, our findings also suggest that negation triggers conflict-related adjustments in information processing in line with traditional conflict tasks. Trial-by-trial conflict adaptation patterns in both behavioral and electrophysiological data indicated that negation processing dynamically changes depending on the current cognitive state. In summary, negation processing results in cognitive conflict, and dynamic influences of the cognitive state determine conflict resolution, that is, negation implementation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

A randomized trial of a cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis intervention on positive and negative affect during breast cancer radiotherapy.

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Schnur, Julie B; David, Daniel; Kangas, Maria; Green, Sheryl; Bovbjerg, Dana H; Montgomery, Guy H

2009-04-01

Breast cancer radiotherapy can be an emotionally difficult experience. Despite this, few studies have examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions to reduce negative affect, and none to date have explicitly examined interventions to improve positive affect among breast cancer radiotherapy patients. The present study examined the effectiveness of a multimodal psychotherapeutic approach, combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis (CBTH), to reduce negative affect and increase positive affect in 40 women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either CBTH or standard care. Participants completed weekly self-report measures of positive and negative affect. Repeated and univariate analyses of variance revealed that the CBTH approach reduced levels of negative affect [F(1, 38)=13.49; p=.0007, omega(2)=.56], and increased levels of positive affect [F(1, 38)=9.67; p=.0035, omega(2)=.48], during the course of radiotherapy. Additionally, relative to the control group, the CBTH group demonstrated significantly more intense positive affect [F(1, 38)=7.09; p=.0113, d=.71] and significantly less intense negative affect [F(1, 38)=10.30; p=.0027, d=.90] during radiotherapy. The CBTH group also had a significantly higher frequency of days where positive affect was greater than negative affect (85% of days assessed for the CBTH group versus 43% of the Control group) [F(1, 38)=18.16; p=.0001, d=1.16]. Therefore, the CBTH intervention has the potential to improve the affective experience of women undergoing breast cancer radiotherapy.

The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Group Therapy in Reducing Negative Automatic Thoughts and Dysfunctional Attitudes in Cancer Patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatemeh Mehdipour

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Background This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive group therapy (MBCT in reducing negative automatic thoughts and dysfunctional attitudes in cancer patients. Methods The study was an applied and quasi-experimental research conducted by pre- and post-testing. The sample consisted of 30 cancer patients selected by purposive sampling and randomly placed in the control and the experimental group (15 individuals per group. The members of both groups filled out the automatic thoughts questionnaire (ATQ and the dysfunctional attitudes scale (DAS-26 at the pre- and the post-test stage. The collected data were analyzed by the SPSS software and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA tests. Results The results indicated that MBCT significantly reduced negative automatic thoughts (F = 126.15, P < 0.01 and dysfunctional attitudes (F = 179.53, P < 0.01 in the experimental group at the post-test stage in comparison to the control group. Conclusions Based on the results of this study, it is essential that therapeutic centers and support forums related to patients with refractory disorders use MBCT in their programs for reducing negative automatic thoughts and dysfunctional attitudes.

The Relationship Between Psychological Distress, Negative Cognitions, and Expectancies on Problem Drinking: Exploring a Growing Problem Among University Students.

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Obasi, Ezemenari M; Brooks, Jessica J; Cavanagh, Lucia

2016-01-01

Few studies have sought to understand the concurrent relationship between cognitive and affective processes on alcohol use and negative alcohol-related consequences, despite both being identified as predictive risk factors in the college population. More research is needed to understand the relationships between identified factors of problem drinking among this at-risk population. The purpose of this study was to test if the relationship between psychological distress and problem drinking among university students (N = 284; M-age = 19.77) was mediated by negative affect regulation strategies and positive alcohol-related expectancies. Two latent mediation models of problem drinking were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The parsimonious three-path mediated latent model was supported by the data, as evidenced by several model fit indices. Furthermore, the alternate saturated model provided similar fit to the data, but contained several direct relationships that were not statistically significant. The relationship between psychological distress and problem drinking was mediated by an extended contributory chain, including negative affect regulation and positive alcohol-related expectancies. Implications for prevention and treatment, as well as future directions, are discussed. © The Author(s) 2015.

Negative attention bias and processing deficits during the cognitive reappraisal of unpleasant emotions in HIV+ women.

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McIntosh, Roger C; Tartar, Jaime L; Widmayer, Susan; Rosselli, Monica

2015-01-01

Deficits in emotional processing may be attributed to HIV disease or comorbid psychiatric disorders. Electrocortical markers of emotional attention, i.e., amplitude of the P2 and late positive potential (LPP), were compared between 26 HIV+ women and 25 healthy controls during an emotional regulation paradigm. HIV+ women showed early attention bias to negative stimuli indexed by greater P2 amplitude. In contrast, compared with the passive viewing of unpleasant images, HIV+ women demonstrated attenuation of the early and late LPP during positive reappraisal. This interaction remained significant after adjusting for individual differences in apathy, anxiety, and depression. Post hoc analyses implicated time since HIV diagnosis with LPP attenuation during positive reappraisal. Advancing HIV disease may disrupt neural generators associated with the cognitive reappraisal of emotions independent of psychiatric function.

Subthreshold Depressive Symptoms have a Negative Impact on Cognitive Functioning in Middle-Aged and Older Males.

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Brevik, Erlend J; Eikeland, Rune A; Lundervold, Astri J

2013-01-01

Cognitive aging is associated with a decline on measures of fluid intelligence (gF), whereas crystallized intelligence (gC) tends to remain stable. In the present study we asked if depressive symptoms might contribute to explain the decline on gF in a sample of healthy middle-aged and older adults. The Norwegian sample included 83 females and 42 males (M = 60, SD = 7.9 years). gF was calculated from factor-analysis, including tests of matrix reasoning (WASI), memory function (CVLT-II), processing speed and executive function (CDT; CWIT). gC was derived from a Vocabulary subtest (WASI). Depressive symptoms were assessed by self-reports on Beck's Depression Index (BDI) and ranged from 0 to 21 (M = 6, SD = 4.5). Increased age was correlated with a decline on gF (r = -0.436, p  age and sex in the first step, showed that symptoms of depression significantly contributed to explain decline on gF, F(3, 124) = 16.653, p < 0.001, R? = 0.292, ΔR? = 0.054. The results showed that symptoms of depression were negatively correlated with cognitive functioning in males even when the symptom-level was below clinical threshold. This indicates that minimal symptoms of depression in older men are clinically relevant to address.

[Epilepsy, cognition and ketogenic diet].

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Garcia-Penas, J J

2018-03-01

Most individuals with epilepsy will respond to pharmacologic treatment; however, approximately 20-30% will develop medically refractory epilepsy. Cognitive side effects of antiepileptic drugs are common and can negatively affect tolerability, compliance, and long-term retention of the treatment. Ketogenic diet is an effective and well-tolerated treatment for these children with refractory epilepsy without any negative effect on cognition or behavior. To review the current state of experimental and clinical data concerning the neuroprotective and cognitive effects of the ketogenic diet in both humans and animals. In different animal models, with or without epilepsy, the ketogenic diet seems to have neuroprotective and mood-stabilizing effects. In the observational studies in pediatric epilepsy, improvements during treatment with the ketogenic diet are reported in behavior and cognitive function, particularly with respect to attention, alertness, activity level, socialization, and sleep quality. One randomized controlled trial in patients with pediatric refractory epilepsy showed a mood and cognitive activation during ketogenic diet treatment. Ketogenic diet shows a positive impact on behavioral and cognitive functioning in children and adolescents with refractory epilepsy. More specifically, an improvement is observed in mood, sustained attention, and social interaction.

Cognition about Cognition: Metacognitive Therapy and Change in Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Social Phobia

Science.gov (United States)

Wells, Adrian

2007-01-01

Metacognitive theory and therapy views the persistence of negative beliefs and thoughts as a result of metacognitions controlling cognition. This paper describes, with reference to the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and social phobia, how metacognition contributes to cognitive stability and to change. Metacognitive therapy offers…

The impact of motivation on cognitive performance in an animal model of the negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, Ryan D; Winiger, Vanessa; Higa, Kerin K; Kahn, Julia B; Kandel, Eric R; Balsam, Peter D; Simpson, Eleanor H

2015-06-01

Interactions between motivation and cognition are implicated in producing functional impairments and poor quality of life in psychiatric patients. This interaction, however, is not well understood at either the behavioral or neural level. We developed a procedure for mice in which a cognitive measure, sustained attention, is modulated by a motivationally relevant signal that predicts reward probability on a trial-by-trial basis. Using this paradigm, we tested the interaction between motivation and cognition in mice that model the increased striatal D2 receptor activity observed in schizophrenia patients (D2R-OE mice). In control mice, attention was modulated by signaled-reward probability. In D2R-OE mice, however, attention was not modulated by reward-related cues. This impairment was not due to any global deficits in attention or maintenance of the trial-specific information in working memory. Turning off the transgene in D2R-OE mice rescued the motivational modulation of attention. These results indicate that deficits in motivation impair the ability to use reward-related cues to recruit attention and that improving motivation improves functional cognitive performance. These results further suggest that addressing motivational impairments in patients is critical to achieving substantive cognitive and functional gains. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive Dissonance Among Chinese Gamblers: Cultural Beliefs Versus Gambling Behavior

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Robert J. Taormina

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study examined the extent to which cognitive dissonance exists among Chinese gamblers as a consequence of gambling while holding negative attitudes toward gambling, which are inherent in China’s traditional cultural values. Using the behavioral variable of actual gambling and an attitudinal variable of negative beliefs about gambling, a third, practical measure of cognitive dissonance was developed. By using questionnaires completed by 200 adult Chinese respondents, these measures were examined in relation to a set of relevant independent variables frequently tested in the gambling literature. Cognitive dissonance was expected to have significant negative correlations with traditional Chinese values and family support, and a significant positive correlation with neuroticism. Cognitive dissonance was also expected to be negatively correlated with two personal outcomes, i.e. self-actualization and life satisfaction. The results supported these hypotheses, which confirmed the validity of the new measures, and that cognitive dissonance does indeed exist among Chinese gamblers. The results also found that Chinese gamblers, even though they do gamble, also hold negative attitudes toward gambling, with more cognitive dissonance strongly associated with higher levels of gambling. This provides a new perspective on studying Chinese gambling, and offers a possible strategy to help pathological gamblers, for example, by advising them that their negative beliefs about gambling reflect the positive moral values of their society’s traditional culture, an approach that may be effective in reducing excessive gambling.

Cognitive vulnerability to depression : genetic and environmental influences

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Antypa, Niki

2011-01-01

This thesis explores cognitive vulnerability to depression and the interplay between genetic and environmental influences. Cognitive vulnerability to depression is characterized by negative patterns of information processing. One aspect is cognitive reactivity - the tendency to respond with

Psychosocial working conditions and cognitive complaints among Swedish employees.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecilia U D Stenfors

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Cognitive complaints involving problems with concentration, memory, decision-making and thinking are relatively common in the work force. The sensitivity of both subjective and objective cognitive functioning to common psychiatric conditions, stress levels and to cognitive load makes it plausible that psychosocial working conditions play a role in cognitive complaints. Thus, this study aimed to test the associations between psychosocial work factors and cognitive complaints in nationally representative samples of the Swedish work force. Cross-sectional (n = 9751 and prospective (n = 3644; two time points two years apart sequential multiple regression analyses were run, adjusting for general confounders, depressive- and sleeping problems. Additional prospective analyses were run adjusting for baseline cognitive complaints. CROSS/SECTIONAL RESULTS: High quantitative demands, information and communication technology (ICT demands, under qualification and conflicts were positively associated with cognitive complaints, while social support, good resources at work and over qualification were negatively associated with cognitive complaints in all models. Skill discretion and decision authority were weakly associated with cognitive complaints. Conflicts were more strongly associated with cognitive complaints in women than in men, after adjustment for general confounders. PROSPECTIVE RESULTS: Quantitative job demands, ICT demands and under qualification were positively associated with future cognitive complaints in all models, including when adjusted for baseline cognitive complaints. Decision authority was weakly positively associated with future cognitive complaints, only after adjustment for depressive- and sleeping problems respectively. Social support was negatively associated with future cognitive complaints after adjustment for general confounders and baseline cognitive complaints. Skill discretion and resources were negatively

A Critical Review of Negative Affect and the Application of CBT for PTSD.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Wilson J; Dewey, Daniel; Bunnell, Brian E; Boyd, Stephen J; Wilkerson, Allison K; Mitchell, Melissa A; Bruce, Steven E

2018-04-01

Forms of cognitive and behavioral therapies (CBTs), including prolonged exposure and cognitive processing therapy, have been empirically validated as efficacious treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the assumption that PTSD develops from dysregulated fear circuitry possesses limitations that detract from the potential efficacy of CBT approaches. An analysis of these limitations may provide insight into improvements to the CBT approach to PTSD, beginning with an examination of negative affect as an essential component to the conceptualization of PTSD and a barrier to the implementation of CBT for PTSD. As such, the literature regarding the impact of negative affect on aspects of cognition (i.e., attention, processing, memory, and emotion regulation) necessary for the successful application of CBT was systematically reviewed. Several literature databases were explored (e.g., PsychINFO and PubMed), resulting in 25 articles that met criteria for inclusion. Results of the review indicated that high negative affect generally disrupts cognitive processes, resulting in a narrowed focus on stimuli of a negative valence, increased rumination of negative autobiographical memories, inflexible preservation of initial information, difficulty considering counterfactuals, reliance on emotional reasoning, and misinterpretation of neutral or ambiguous events as negative, among others. With the aim to improve treatment efficacy of CBT for PTSD, suggestions to incorporate negative affect into research and clinical contexts are discussed.

Conservatism and Cognitive Ability

Science.gov (United States)

Stankov, Lazar

2009-01-01

Conservatism and cognitive ability are negatively correlated. The evidence is based on 1254 community college students and 1600 foreign students seeking entry to United States' universities. At the individual level of analysis, conservatism scores correlate negatively with SAT, Vocabulary, and Analogy test scores. At the national level of…

The role of cognitive flexibility in cognitive restructuring skill acquisition among older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnco, C; Wuthrich, V M; Rapee, R M

2013-08-01

Cognitive flexibility is one aspect of executive functioning that encompasses the ability to produce diverse ideas, consider response alternatives, and modify behaviors to manage changing circumstances. These processes are likely to be important for implementing cognitive restructuring. The present study investigated the impact of cognitive flexibility on older adults' ability to learn cognitive restructuring. Neuropsychological measures of cognitive flexibility were administered to 40 normal community-dwelling older adult volunteers and their ability to implement cognitive restructuring was coded and analyzed. Results indicated that the majority of participants showed good cognitive restructuring skill acquisition with brief training. The multiple regression analysis suggested that those with poorer cognitive flexibility on neuropsychological testing demonstrated poorer quality cognitive restructuring. In particular, perseverative thinking styles appear to negatively impact the ability to learn cognitive restructuring. Further research is needed to clarify whether older adults with poor cognitive flexibility can improve their cognitive restructuring skills with repetition over treatment or whether alternative skills should be considered. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risk of long-lasting negative cognitive consequences after electroconvulsive therapy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svendsen, Anne Marie; Miskowiak, Kamilla; Vinberg, Maj

2013-01-01

This case study describes a patient who had a unipolar depression and experienced long-lasting cognitive problems after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Neuropsychological testing revealed lower scores on measures of learning, memory and sustained attention. These results stress the importance...

Negative probabilities and counter-factual reasoning in quantum cognition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

J Acacio de Barros; G Oas

2014-01-01

In this paper we discuss quantum-like decision-making experiments using negative probabilities. We do so by showing how the two-slit experiment, in the simplified version of the Mach–Zehnder interferometer, can be described by this formalism. We show that negative probabilities impose constraints to what types of counter-factual reasoning we can make with respect to (quantum) internal representations of the decision maker. (paper)

Cognitive Change across Cognitive-Behavioral and Light Therapy Treatments for Seasonal Affective Disorder: What Accounts for Clinical Status the Next Winter?

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Maggie; Rohan, Kelly J; Sitnikov, Lilya; Mahon, Jennifer N; Nillni, Yael I; Lindsey, Kathryn Tierney; Vacek, Pamela M

2013-12-01

Efficacious treatments for seasonal affective disorder include light therapy and a seasonal affective disorder-tailored form of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Using data from a parent clinical trial, these secondary analyses examined the relationship between cognitive change over treatment with cognitive-behavioral therapy, light therapy, or combination treatment and mood outcomes the next winter. Sixty-nine participants were randomly assigned to 6-weeks of cognitive-behavioral therapy, light therapy, or combination treatment. Cognitive constructs (i.e., dysfunctional attitudes, negative automatic thoughts, and rumination) were assessed at pre- and post-treatment. Dysfunctional attitudes, negative automatic thoughts, and rumination improved over acute treatment, regardless of modality; however, in participants randomized to solo cognitive-behavioral therapy, a greater degree of improvement in dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts was uniquely associated with less severe depressive symptoms the next winter. Change in maladaptive thoughts during acute treatment appears mechanistic of solo cognitive-behavioral therapy's enduring effects the next winter, but is simply a consequence of diminished depression in light therapy and combination treatment.

Potential factors that may promote successful cognitive aging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vance DE

2012-06-01

Full Text Available David E VanceCenter for Nursing Research, School of Nursing, Edward R Roybal Center for Translational Research in Aging and Mobility, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB, Birmingham, AL, USAAbstract: With the unprecedented number of older adults worldwide, it is important to consider ways of facilitating successful cognitive aging. One way to think of this is by augmenting or bolstering cognitive reserve. Loosely defined, cognitive reserve is considered a neurological reservoir that can be depleted by physiological insults (eg, white matter hyperintensities, oxidative stress to the brain but yet maintain optimal cognitive functioning. Cognitive reserve is built up or depleted by processes of positive and negative neuroplasticity, respectively. Lifestyle factors such as physical exercise (+, mental stimulation (+, good sleep hygiene (+, substance abuse (-, sedentary lifestyle (-, chronic stress and depression (-, social isolation (-, and poor health (- can either promote or discourage positive and negative neuroplasticity, which in turn impacts cognitive reserve. Nurses are encouraged to understand these processes so they can help facilitate successful cognitive aging in their patients.Keywords: cognitive reserve, Alzheimer's disease, neuroplasticity

Cognitive Distortions, Humor Styles, and Depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Rnic, Katerina; Dozois, David J A; Martin, Rod A

2016-08-01

Cognitive distortions are negative biases in thinking that are theorized to represent vulnerability factors for depression and dysphoria. Despite the emphasis placed on cognitive distortions in the context of cognitive behavioural theory and practice, a paucity of research has examined the mechanisms through which they impact depressive symptomatology. Both adaptive and maladaptive styles of humor represent coping strategies that may mediate the relation between cognitive distortions and depressive symptoms. The current study examined the correlations between the frequency and impact of cognitive distortions across both social and achievement-related contexts and types of humor. Cognitive distortions were associated with reduced use of adaptive Affiliative and Self-Enhancing humor styles and increased use of maladaptive Aggressive and Self-Defeating humor. Reduced use of Self-Enhancing humor mediated the relationship between most types of cognitive distortions and depressed mood, indicating that distorted negative thinking may interfere with an individual's ability to adopt a humorous and cheerful outlook on life (i.e., use Self-Enhancing humor) as a way of regulating emotions and coping with stress, thereby resulting in elevated depressive symptoms. Similarly, Self-Defeating humor mediated the association of the social impact of cognitive distortions with depression, such that this humor style may be used as a coping strategy for dealing with distorted thinking that ultimately backfires and results in increased dysphoria.

Cognitive Blackouts in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Dementia

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Georg Adler

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Background: Cognitive blackouts, e.g. moments of amnesia, disorientation, or perplexity may be an early sign of incipient Alzheimer’s dementia (AD. A short questionnaire, the checklist for cognitive blackouts (CCB, was evaluated cross-sectionally in users of a memory clinic. Methods: The CCB was performed in 130 subjects, who further underwent a neuropsychological and clinical examination. Subjective memory impairment and depressive symptoms were assessed. Differences in the CCB score between diagnostic groups and relationships with cognitive performance, depression, and subjective memory impairment were analyzed. Results: The CCB score was increased in mild cognitive impairment of the amnestic type or mild AD and correctly predicted 69.2% of the respective subjects. It was negatively correlated with cognitive performance, positively correlated with depressive symptoms, and substantially increased in subjects who estimated their memory poorer than that of other persons of their age. Discussion: The CCB may be a helpful screening tool for the early recognition of AD.

Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Dissonance (Revised): An EEG Study.

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Colosio, Marco; Shestakova, Anna; Nikulin, Vadim V; Blagovechtchenski, Evgeny; Klucharev, Vasily

2017-05-17

Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that our preferences are modulated by the mere act of choosing. A choice between two similarly valued alternatives creates psychological tension (cognitive dissonance) that is reduced by a postdecisional reevaluation of the alternatives. We measured EEG of human subjects during rest and free-choice paradigm. Our study demonstrates that choices associated with stronger cognitive dissonance trigger a larger negative frontocentral evoked response similar to error-related negativity, which has in turn been implicated in general performance monitoring. Furthermore, the amplitude of the evoked response is correlated with the reevaluation of the alternatives. We also found a link between individual neural dynamics (long-range temporal correlations) of the frontocentral cortices during rest and follow-up neural and behavioral effects of cognitive dissonance. Individuals with stronger resting-state long-range temporal correlations demonstrated a greater postdecisional reevaluation of the alternatives and larger evoked brain responses associated with stronger cognitive dissonance. Thus, our results suggest that cognitive dissonance is reflected in both resting-state and choice-related activity of the prefrontal cortex as part of the general performance-monitoring circuitry. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Contrary to traditional decision theory, behavioral studies repeatedly demonstrate that our preferences are modulated by the mere act of choosing. Difficult choices generate psychological (cognitive) dissonance, which is reduced by the postdecisional devaluation of unchosen options. We found that decisions associated with a higher level of cognitive dissonance elicited a stronger negative frontocentral deflection that peaked ∼60 ms after the response. This activity shares similar spatial and temporal features as error-related negativity, the electrophysiological correlate of performance monitoring. Furthermore, the frontocentral resting

Effects of Cognitive Bias Modification Training via Smartphones

OpenAIRE

Ranming Yang; Ranming Yang; Lixia Cui; Feng Li; Jing Xiao; Qin Zhang; Tian P. S. Oei; Tian P. S. Oei

2017-01-01

Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive biases have been linked to anxiety and mood problems. Accumulated data from laboratory studies show that positive and negative interpretation styles with accompanying changes in mood can be induced through cognitive bias modification (CBM) paradigms. Despite the therapeutic potential of positive training effects, few studies have explored training paradigms administered via smartphones. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three...

Social jetlag, academic achievement and cognitive performance: Understanding gender/sex differences.

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Díaz-Morales, Juan F; Escribano, Cristina

2015-01-01

Adolescents in high school suffer from circadian misalignment, undersleeping on weekdays and oversleeping on weekends. Since high schools usually impose early schedules, adolescents suffer from permanent social jetlag (SJL) and thus are a suitable population to study the effects of SJL on both academic and cognitive performance. In this study, 796 adolescents aged 12-16 years reported information about their sleep habits, morningness-eveningness (M-E), cognitive abilities and grade point average (GPA). Time in bed on both weekdays and weekends was not related to cognitive abilities, and only time in bed on weekdays was related to academic achievement. SJL was negatively related to academic achievement, cognitive abilities (except for vocabulary and verbal fluency abilities) and general cognitive ability (g), whereas M-E was slightly positively related to academic achievement and marginally negatively related to inductive reasoning. Results separated by sex/gender indicated that SJL may be more detrimental to girls' performance, as it was negatively related to a greater number of cognitive abilities and GPA.

Cortical thickness changes correlate with cognition changes after cognitive training: Evidence from a Chinese community study

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Lijuan eJiang

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes in cortical thickness correlated with cognitive function changes in healthy older adults after receiving cognitive training interventions. Moreover, it also aimed to examine the differential impacts of a multi-domain and a single-domain cognitive training interventions. Longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scanning was performed on participants 65 to 75 years of age using the Siemens 3.0 T Trio Tim with the MPRAGE sequence. The cortical thickness was determined using FreeSurfer software. Cognitive functioning was evaluated using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS. There were significant group × time interaction effects on the left supramarginal, the left frontal pole cortical regions; and a marginal significant group × time interaction effects on visuospatial/constructional and delayed memory scores. In a multi-domain cognitive training group, a number of cortical region changes were significantly positively correlated with changes in attention, delayed memory, and the total score, but significantly negatively correlated with changes in immediate memory and language scores. In the single-domain cognitive training group, some cortical region changes were significantly positively associated with changes in immediate memory, delayed memory, and the total score, while they were significantly negatively associated with changes in visuospatial/constructional, language, and attention scores. Overall, multi-domain cognitive training offered more advantages in visuospatial/constructional, attention, and delayed memory abilities, while single-domain cognitive training benefited immediate memory ability more effectively. These findings suggest that healthy older adults benefit more from the multi-domain cognitive training than single-domain cognitive training. Cognitive training has impacted on cortical thickness changes in healthy elderly

Motivation enhances control of positive and negative emotional distractions.

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Walsh, Amy T; Carmel, David; Harper, David; Grimshaw, Gina M

2018-01-03

Using cognitive control to ignore distractions is essential for successfully achieving our goals. In emotionally-neutral contexts, motivation can reduce interference from irrelevant stimuli by enhancing cognitive control. However, attention is commonly biased towards emotional stimuli, making them potent distractors. Can motivation aid control of emotional distractions, and does it do so similarly for positive and negative stimuli? Here, we examined how task motivation influences control of distraction from positive, negative, and neutral scenes. Participants completed a simple perceptual task while attempting to ignore task-irrelevant images. One group received monetary reward for fast and accurate task performance; another (control) group did not. Overall, both negative (mutilation) and positive (erotic) images caused greater slowing of responses than neutral images of people, but emotional distraction was reduced with reward. Crucially, despite the different motivational directions associated with negative and positive stimuli, reward reduced negative and positive distraction equally. Our findings suggest that motivation may encourage the use of a sustained proactive control strategy that can effectively reduce the impact of emotional distraction.

Early intervention for relapse in schizophrenia: impact of cognitive behavioural therapy on negative beliefs about psychosis and self-esteem.

Science.gov (United States)

Gumley, Andrew; Karatzias, Athanasios; Power, Kevin; Reilly, James; McNay, Lisa; O'Grady, Margaret

2006-06-01

The study aimed to test two hypotheses. Firstly, that participants who relapsed during the 12-month follow-up period of our randomized controlled trial, would show increased negative beliefs about their illness and reduced self-esteem, in comparison to the non-relapsed participants. Secondly, that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for early signs of relapse would result in a reduction in negative beliefs about psychosis and an improvement in self-esteem at 12 months. A total of 144 participants with schizophrenia or a related disorder were randomized to receive either treatment as usual (TAU; N=72) or CBT (N=72). Participants completed the Personal Beliefs about Illness Questionnaire (PBIQ; Birchwood, Mason, MacMillan, & Healy, 1993) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) at entry, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. At 12 months, relapsers showed greater increase in scores for PBIQ entrapment compared with non-relapsers. In addition, after controlling for baseline covariates (treatment group and PBIQ self versus illness), relapsers also showed greater increase in scores for PBIQ self versus illness at 12 months. Furthermore, in comparison to treatment as usual, participants who received CBT showed greater improvement in PBIQ loss and in Rosenberg self-esteem. The study provides evidence that relapse is associated with the development of negative appraisals of entrapment and self-blame (self vs. illness). In addition, this is the first study to show that CBT reduces negative appraisals of loss arising from psychosis and improvements in self-esteem. Implications for future research and treatment are discussed.

Negative mental imagery in public speaking anxiety: Forming cognitive resistance by taxing visuospatial working memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Homer, Sophie R; Deeprose, Catherine; Andrade, Jackie

2016-03-01

This study sought to reconcile two lines of research. Previous studies have identified a prevalent and causal role of negative imagery in social phobia and public speaking anxiety; others have demonstrated that lateral eye movements during visualisation of imagery reduce its vividness, most likely by loading the visuospatial sketchpad of working memory. It was hypothesised that using eye movements to reduce the intensity of negative imagery associated with public speaking may reduce anxiety resulting from imagining a public speaking scenario compared to an auditory control task. Forty undergraduate students scoring high in anxiety on the Personal Report of Confidence as a Speaker scale took part. A semi-structured interview established an image that represented the participant's public speaking anxiety, which was then visualised during an eye movement task or a matched auditory task. Reactions to imagining a hypothetical but realistic public speaking scenario were measured. As hypothesised, representative imagery was established and reduced in vividness more effectively by the eye movement task than the auditory task. The public speaking scenario was then visualised less vividly and generated less anxiety when imagined after performing the eye movement task than after the auditory task. Self-report measures and a hypothetical scenario rather than actual public speaking were used. Replication is required in larger as well as clinical samples. Visuospatial working memory tasks may preferentially reduce anxiety associated with personal images of feared events, and thus provide cognitive resistance which reduces emotional reactions to imagined, and potentially real-life future stressful experiences. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring the Psychological Influence of Perceived Negative ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nneka Umera-Okeke

2017-10-14

Oct 14, 2017 ... This paper critically examined the psychological influence of ... development, there are some perceived negative foreign factors that have constituted ..... essence, it is the sum total of the individual's cognitive, intellectual and ...

Biological simplexity and cognitive heteronomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus

2018-01-01

Heteronomy informs parts of human sense-making including perceptual and linguistic activities. This article explores Berthoz's (2012) notion of simplexity in relation to heteronomous aspects of human cognition while it criticises proponents of Active Externalism for presuming that cognitive...... activity is based in strong autonomy. Specifically, its negative target is the problematic aspects of Varelian Enactivism and Extended Cognitive Functionalism which are linked to the assumption that cognition is conditioned by the cogniser's strong autonomy. Since active externalists presume that cognition...... has a clear agent-to-world directionality, they prove unable to account for cases where cognition is informed by novel sensuous inputs. The article presents a positive argument that acknowledges the embodied basis of human sense-making as well as the weak autonomy of the cogniser. It argues...

Processing negative valence of word pairs that include a positive word.

Science.gov (United States)

Itkes, Oksana; Mashal, Nira

2016-09-01

Previous research has suggested that cognitive performance is interrupted by negative relative to neutral or positive stimuli. We examined whether negative valence affects performance at the word or phrase level. Participants performed a semantic decision task on word pairs that included either a negative or a positive target word. In Experiment 1, the valence of the target word was congruent with the overall valence conveyed by the word pair (e.g., fat kid). As expected, response times were slower in the negative condition relative to the positive condition. Experiment 2 included target words that were incongruent with the overall valence of the word pair (e.g., fat salary). Response times were longer for word pairs whose overall valence was negative relative to positive, even though these word pairs included a positive word. Our findings support the Cognitive Primacy Hypothesis, according to which emotional valence is extracted after conceptual processing is complete.

Peer Victimization and Harsh Parenting Predict Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children and Adolescents

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, David A.; Sinclair-McBride, Keneisha R.; Zelkowitz, Rachel; Bilsky, Sarah A.; Roeder, Kathryn; Spinelli, Tawny

2015-01-01

Objective The current study examined peer victimization and harsh parenting as longitudinal predictors of broadband and narrowband cognitions associated with the etiology of depression in children and adolescents. Method The sample consisted of 214 elementary and middle school students. At the start of the study, their average age was 12.2 years (SD = 1.0). The sex ratio was 112 girls to 102 boys. The sample was ethnically diverse (58.9% Caucasian, 34.1% African American, 10.7% Hispanic, 3.3% Asian, and 5.2% other). Children and their parents completed measures of peer victimization and harsh parenting. At two waves one year apart, children also completed questionnaire measures of negative and positive broadband cognitive style (e.g., personal failure, global self-worth) and narrowband self-perceptions (e.g., perceived social threat, social acceptance). Results Every wave 2 cognitive variable was predicted by peer victimization or harsh parenting or both, even after controlling for a wave 1 measure of the same cognitive variable. Peer victimization more consistently predicted narrowband social/interpersonal cognitions, whereas harsh parenting more consistently predicted broadband positive and negative cognitions. Furthermore, controlling for positive and negative self-cognitions eliminated a statistically significant effect of harsh parenting and peer victimization on depressive symptoms. Conclusions Support emerged for the social learning of negative self-cognitions. Support also emerged for negative self-cognitions as a mediator of depressive symptoms. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. PMID:25751612

Peer Victimization and Harsh Parenting Predict Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children and Adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, David A; Sinclair-McBride, Keneisha R; Zelkowitz, Rachel; Bilsk, Sarah A; Roeder, Kathryn; Spinelli, Tawny

2016-01-01

The current study examined peer victimization and harsh parenting as longitudinal predictors of broadband and narrowband cognitions associated with the etiology of depression in children and adolescents. The sample consisted of 214 elementary and middle school students. At the start of the study, their average age was 12.2 years (SD = 1.0). The sex ratio was 112 girls to 102 boys. The sample was ethnically diverse (58.9% Caucasian, 34.1% African American, 10.7% Hispanic, 3.3% Asian, and 5.2% other). Children and their parents completed measures of peer victimization and harsh parenting. At two waves 1 year apart, children also completed questionnaire measures of negative and positive broadband cognitive style (e.g., personal failure, global self-worth) and narrowband self-perceptions (e.g., perceived social threat, social acceptance). Every Wave 2 cognitive variable was predicted by peer victimization or harsh parenting or both, even after controlling for a Wave 1 measure of the same cognitive variable. Peer victimization more consistently predicted narrowband social/interpersonal cognitions, whereas harsh parenting more consistently predicted broadband positive and negative cognitions. Furthermore, controlling for positive and negative self-cognitions eliminated a statistically significant effect of harsh parenting and peer victimization on depressive symptoms. Support emerged for the social learning of negative self-cognitions. Support also emerged for negative self-cognitions as a mediator of depressive symptoms. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Neuropsychologists as primary care providers of cognitive health: A novel comprehensive cognitive wellness service delivery model.

Science.gov (United States)

Pimental, Patricia A; O'Hara, John B; Jandak, Jessica L

2018-01-01

By virtue of their extensive knowledge base and specialized training in brain-behavior relationships, neuropsychologists are especially poised to execute a unique broad-based approach to overall cognitive wellness and should be viewed as primary care providers of cognitive health. This article will describe a novel comprehensive cognitive wellness service delivery model including cognitive health, anti-aging, lifelong wellness, and longevity-oriented practices. These practice areas include brain-based cognitive wellness, emotional and spiritually centric exploration, and related multimodality health interventions. As experts in mind-body connections, neuropsychologists can provide a variety of evidence-based treatment options, empowering patients with a sense of value and purpose. Multiple areas of clinical therapy skill-based learning, tailor-made to fit individual needs, will be discussed including: brain stimulating activities, restorative techniques, automatic negative thoughts and maladaptive thinking reduction, inflammation and pain management techniques, nutrition and culinary focused cognitive wellness, spirituality based practices and mindfulness, movement and exercise, alternative/complimentary therapies, relationship restoration/social engagement, and trauma healing/meaning. Cognitive health rests upon the foundation of counteracting mind-body connection disruptions from multiple etiologies including inflammation, chronic stress, metabolic issues, cardiac conditions, autoimmune disease, neurological disorders, infectious diseases, and allergy spectrum disorders. Superimposed on these issues are lifestyle patterns and negative health behaviors that develop as ill-fated compensatory mechanisms used to cope with life stressors and aging. The brain and body are electrical systems that can "short circuit." The therapy practices inherent in the proposed cognitive wellness service delivery model can provide preventative insulation and circuit breaking against

Trajectories of social withdrawal and cognitive decline in the schizophrenia prodrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Cullen, Kathryn; Guimaraes, Angela; Wozniak, Jeffrey; Anjum, Afshan; Schulz, S Charles; White, Tonya

2011-01-01

Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder. Patients with high levels of negative symptoms have been identified as a specific subtype, but little is known about how the neurodevelopmental course may differ in this group. This study aimed to characterize developmental trajectories of premorbid social withdrawal and cognitive decline between patients with high versus low levels of negative symptoms in youth with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. A standardized timeline was used to delineate the emergence of psychosis, social withdrawal, and cognitive decline in 52 subjects aged 8 to 19 with schizophrenia (n=36), schizophreniform (n=6), or schizoaffective disorder (n=10). The sample was divided into subgroups of high- (n=26) versus low- (n=26) negative symptoms, and developmental trajectories of premorbid symptoms were compared between groups. Mean ages for emergence of social withdrawal, cognitive decline, and psychosis were 11.1 years (SD=2.5), 11.9 (SD=4.4) and 13.2 years (SD=1.2), respectively. In the high-negative symptom group, the premorbid developmental trajectory for social withdrawal was more protracted. This group also had more severe cognitive decline at the onset of psychosis, but the premorbid trajectories for cognitive decline did not differ significantly between groups. This work documents a more severe and protracted trajectory of premorbid social withdrawal in patients with high levels of negative symptoms in comparison to those with low-negative symptoms. The findings reported here are supportive of the hypothesis that patients with illness characterized by high levels of negative symptoms may represent a subgroup with distinct neurodevelopmental abnormalities.

Cognitive impairment in anxiety disorders

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. A. Volel

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Anxiety disorders are an important biomedical problem due to the high prevalence and significant negative impact on the quality of life and the course of concomitant somatic and neurological diseases. Cognitive impairment (CI is one of the most intensively studied aspects of pathological anxiety. Impairments in attention, executive functions, memory, cognitive deficit, as well as abnormal cognitions and metacognitions are identified in anxiety disorders. Moreover, the treatment of the latter with the most frequently used drugs (antidepressants, atypical antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, tranquilizers does not lead to a significant improvement in cognitive functions, and often contributes to their worsening. In this connection, in addition to psychotherapy, cognitive function-improving agents play a large role in treating anxiety diseases associated with cognitive dysfunction. Ginkgo Biloba extract (EGb 761, Tanakan® that positively affects cognitive functions, especially in the domains of memory, concentration and attention deserves special attention.

Identification of concomitant infection with Chlamydia trachomatis IncA-negative mutant and wild-type strains by genomic, transcriptional, and biological characterizations.

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Suchland, Robert J; Jeffrey, Brendan M; Xia, Minsheng; Bhatia, Ajay; Chu, Hencelyn G; Rockey, Daniel D; Stamm, Walter E

2008-12-01

Clinical isolates of Chlamydia trachomatis that lack IncA on their inclusion membrane form nonfusogenic inclusions and have been associated with milder, subclinical infections in patients. The molecular events associated with the generation of IncA-negative strains and their roles in chlamydial sexually transmitted infections are not clear. We explored the biology of the IncA-negative strains by analyzing their genomic structure, transcription, and growth characteristics in vitro and in vivo in comparison with IncA-positive C. trachomatis strains. Three clinical samples were identified that contained a mixture of IncA-positive and -negative same-serovar C. trachomatis populations, and two more such pairs were found in serial isolates from persistently infected individuals. Genomic sequence analysis of individual strains from each of two serovar-matched pairs showed that these pairs were very similar genetically. In contrast, the genome sequence of an unmatched IncA-negative strain contained over 5,000 nucleotide polymorphisms relative to the genome sequence of a serovar-matched but otherwise unlinked strain. Transcriptional analysis, in vitro culture kinetics, and animal modeling demonstrated that IncA-negative strains isolated in the presence of a serovar-matched wild-type strain are phenotypically more similar to the wild-type strain than are IncA-negative strains isolated in the absence of a serovar-matched wild-type strain. These studies support a model suggesting that a change from an IncA-positive strain to the previously described IncA-negative phenotype may involve multiple steps, the first of which involves a translational inactivation of incA, associated with subsequent unidentified steps that lead to the observed decrease in transcript level, differences in growth rate, and differences in mouse infectivity.

Treatment of negative symptoms: Where do we stand, and where do we go?

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Aleman, André; Lincoln, Tania M; Bruggeman, Richard; Melle, Ingrid; Arends, Johan; Arango, Celso; Knegtering, Henderikus

2017-08-01

Negative symptoms, e.g. social withdrawal, reduced initiative, anhedonia and affective flattening, are notoriously difficult to treat. In this review, we take stock of recent research into treatment of negative symptoms by summarizing psychosocial as well as pharmacological and other biological treatment strategies. Major psychosocial approaches concern social skills training, cognitive behavior therapy for psychosis, cognitive remediation and family intervention. Some positive findings have been reported, with the most robust improvements observed for social skills training. Although cognitive behavior therapy shows significant effects for negative symptoms as a secondary outcome measure, there is a lack of data to allow for definite conclusions of its effectiveness for patients with predominant negative symptoms. With regard to pharmacological interventions, antipsychotics have been shown to improve negative symptoms, but this seems to be limited to secondary negative symptoms in acute patients. It has also been suggested that antipsychotics may aggravate negative symptoms. Recent studies have investigated glutamatergic compounds, e.g. glycine receptor inhibitors and drugs that target the NMDA receptor or metabotropic glutamate 2/3 (mGlu2/3) receptor, but no consistent evidence of improvement of negative symptoms was found. Finally, some small studies have suggested improvement of negative symptoms after non-invasive electromagnetic neurostimulation, but this has only been partly replicated and it is still unclear whether these are robust improvements. We address methodological issues, in particular the heterogeneity of negative symptoms and treatment response, and suggest avenues for future research. There is a need for more detailed studies that focus on different dimensions of negative symptoms. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Examining the stress-burnout relationship: the mediating role of negative thoughts.

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Chang, Ko-Hsin; Lu, Frank J H; Chyi, Theresa; Hsu, Ya-Wen; Chan, Shi-Wei; Wang, Erica T W

2017-01-01

Using Smith's (1986) cognitive-affective model of athletic burnout as a guiding framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among athletes' stress in life, negative thoughts, and the mediating role of negative thoughts on the stress-burnout relationship. A total of 300 college student-athletes (males = 174; females = 126, M age  = 20.43 y, SD = 1.68) completed the College Student Athlete's Life Stress Scale (CSALSS; Lu et al., 2012), the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ; Hollon & Kendall, 1980), and the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ; Raedeke & Smith, 2001). Correlational analyses found that two types of life stress and four types of negative thoughts correlated with burnout. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses found that four types of negative thoughts partially mediated the stress-burnout relationship. We concluded that an athlete's negative thoughts play a pivotal role in predicting athletes' stress-burnout relationship. Future study may examine how irrational cognition influences athletes' motivation and psychological well-being.

Examining the stress-burnout relationship: the mediating role of negative thoughts

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Chyi, Theresa; Hsu, Ya-Wen; Chan, Shi-Wei; Wang, Erica T.W.

2017-01-01

Background Using Smith’s (1986) cognitive-affective model of athletic burnout as a guiding framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among athletes’ stress in life, negative thoughts, and the mediating role of negative thoughts on the stress-burnout relationship. Methods A total of 300 college student-athletes (males = 174; females = 126, Mage = 20.43 y, SD = 1.68) completed the College Student Athlete’s Life Stress Scale (CSALSS; Lu et al., 2012), the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ; Hollon & Kendall, 1980), and the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ; Raedeke & Smith, 2001). Results Correlational analyses found that two types of life stress and four types of negative thoughts correlated with burnout. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses found that four types of negative thoughts partially mediated the stress-burnout relationship. Discussion We concluded that an athlete’s negative thoughts play a pivotal role in predicting athletes’ stress-burnout relationship. Future study may examine how irrational cognition influences athletes’ motivation and psychological well-being. PMID:29302397

Neuro-cognition and social cognition elements of social functioning and social quality of life.

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Hasson-Ohayon, Ilanit; Mashiach-Eizenberg, Michal; Arnon-Ribenfeld, Nitzan; Kravetz, Shlomo; Roe, David

2017-12-01

Previous studies have shown that deficits in social cognition mediate the association between neuro-cognition and functional outcome. Based on these findings, the current study presents an examination of the mediating role of social cognition and includes two different outcomes: social functioning assessed by objective observer and social quality of life assessed by subjective self-report. Instruments measuring different aspects of social cognition, cognitive ability, social functioning and social quality of life were administered to 131 participants who had a diagnosis of a serious mental illness. Results showed that emotion recognition and attributional bias were significant mediators such that cognitive assessment was positively related to both, which in turn, were negatively related to SQoL. While one interpretation of the data suggests that deficits in emotion recognition may serve as a possible defense mechanism, future studies should re-assess this idea. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Older Adult Positivity Effect in Evaluations of Trustworthiness: Emotion Regulation or Cognitive Capacity?

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Zebrowitz, Leslie A; Boshyan, Jasmine; Ward, Noreen; Gutchess, Angela; Hadjikhani, Nouchine

2017-01-01

An older adult positivity effect, i.e., the tendency for older adults to favor positive over negative stimulus information more than do younger adults, has been previously shown in attention, memory, and evaluations. This effect has been attributed to greater emotion regulation in older adults. In the case of attention and memory, this explanation has been supported by some evidence that the older adult positivity effect is most pronounced for negative stimuli, which would motivate emotion regulation, and that it is reduced by cognitive load, which would impede emotion regulation. We investigated whether greater older adult positivity in the case of evaluative responses to faces is also enhanced for negative stimuli and attenuated by cognitive load, as an emotion regulation explanation would predict. In two studies, younger and older adults rated trustworthiness of faces that varied in valence both under low and high cognitive load, with the latter manipulated by a distracting backwards counting task. In Study 1, face valence was manipulated by attractiveness (low /disfigured faces, medium, high/fashion models' faces). In Study 2, face valence was manipulated by trustworthiness (low, medium, high). Both studies revealed a significant older adult positivity effect. However, contrary to an emotion regulation account, this effect was not stronger for more negative faces, and cognitive load increased rather than decreased the rated trustworthiness of negatively valenced faces. Although inconsistent with emotion regulation, the latter effect is consistent with theory and research arguing that more cognitive resources are required to process negative stimuli, because they are more cognitively elaborated than positive ones. The finding that increased age and increased cognitive load both enhanced the positivity of trustworthy ratings suggests that the older adult positivity effect in evaluative ratings of faces may reflect age-related declines in cognitive capacity rather

Mismatch Negativity in Patients with Schizophrenia

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Aleš Urban

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Cognitive deficit is considered to be a part of core dysfuncions in schizophrenia. It is associated with social impairment and influences the long-term course of the disorder. In addition to neuropsychological methods, event-related potentials can be used to study cognitive functions. In patients with schizophrenia an association was found between amplitude changes in slow negative component of evoked responses and infrequent deviations in a series of uniform stimuli. This amplitude change is known as „mismatch negativity“ (MMN. It is supposed to be independent of the focused attention and effort that otherwise interfere with neuropsychological testing. Recently accumulated knowledge on MMN as a possible preattentive measure of cognition supports its potential significance for neuropsychological assessment. It may be helpful in more precise diagnosis and functional evaluation of schizophrenia.

Psychiatric comorbidity and aspects of cognitive coping negatively predict outcome in cognitive behavioral treatment of psychophysiological insomnia

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Laar, M. van de; Pevernagie, D.; Mierlo, P. van; Overeem, S.

2015-01-01

Cognitive behavioral treatment is the gold standard treatment for insomnia, although a substantial group does not respond. We examined possible predictors for treatment outcome in psychophysiological insomniacs, with a focus on the presence of clearly defined psychiatric comorbidity. This was a

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures

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Sieun An

2017-04-01

Full Text Available We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992 contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion.

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures

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An, Sieun; Ji, Li-Jun; Marks, Michael; Zhang, Zhiyong

2017-01-01

We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992) contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion. PMID:28473791

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

An, Sieun; Ji, Li-Jun; Marks, Michael; Zhang, Zhiyong

2017-01-01

We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992) contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion.

[Relationship between subclinical psychotic symptoms and cognitive performance in the general population].

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Martín-Santiago, Oscar; Suazo, Vanessa; Rodríguez-Lorenzana, Alberto; Ruiz de Azúa, Sonia; Valcárcel, César; Díez, Álvaro; Grau, Adriana; Domínguez, Cristina; Gallardo, Ricardo; Molina, Vicente

2016-01-01

Subclinical psychotic symptoms are associated to negative life outcomes in the general population, but their relationship with cognitive performance is still not well understood. Assessing the relationship between performance in cognitive domains and subclinical psychotic symptoms in the general population may also help understand the handicap attributed to clinical psychosis, in which these alterations are present. Subclinical and cognitive assessments were obtained in 203 participants from the general population by means of the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences, the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, the Wechsler Adults Intelligence Scale and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. The positive and negative subclinical symptoms and their relationship with age and cognition were examined, followed by assessing the influence of subclinical depression scores on the possible relationships between those subclinical psychotic symptoms and cognitive deficits. Inverse relationships were found between frequency in the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences positive dimension and motor speed, and frequency and distress in the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences negative dimension and motor speed. A direct relationship was also found between distress scores of the positive dimension and executive functions. Both positive and negative subclinical symptoms were related to depression scores. Psychotic symptoms, similar to those in the clinical population, may be associated with cognitive deficits in the general population. Copyright © 2015 SEP y SEPB. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Clinical and Cognitive Insight in a Compensatory Cognitive Training Intervention

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Burton, Cynthia Z.; Vella, Lea; Twamley, Elizabeth W.

2013-01-01

The impact of limited insight is a crucial consideration in the treatment of individuals with psychiatric illness. In the context of psychosis, both clinical and cognitive insight have been described. This study aimed to evaluate the relationships between clinical and cognitive insight and neuropsychological functioning, psychiatric symptom severity, and everyday functioning in patients with a primary psychotic disorder participating in a compensatory cognitive training (CT) intervention. Sixty-nine individuals diagnosed with a primary psychotic disorder were randomized to a 3-month CT intervention or to standard pharmacotherapy, and they completed a comprehensive neuropsychological, clinical, and functional battery at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. The CT intervention focused on habit formation and compensatory strategy learning in four domains: prospective memory, attention and vigilance, learning and memory, and problem-solving/cognitive flexibility. At baseline, better clinical insight was significantly related to better executive functioning and less severe negative symptoms. There was no significant association between cognitive insight and cognitive functioning, symptom severity, or everyday functioning ability. The CT intervention did not have an effect on clinical or cognitive insight, but better cognitive insight prior to participation in CT significantly predicted decreased positive and depressive symptom severity posttreatment, and better clinical insight predicted improved self-reported quality of life. Although clinical insight is related to executive functioning, the correlates of cognitive insight remain elusive. Intact insight appears to be beneficial in ameliorating clinical symptomatology like positive symptoms and depression, rather than augmenting cognition. It may be valuable to develop brief interventions aimed at improving clinical and cognitive insight prior to other psychosocial rehabilitation in order to maximize the benefit of

The Roles of Negative Career Thinking and Career Problem-Solving Self-Efficacy in Career Exploratory Behavior

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Bullock-Yowell, Emily; Katz, Sheba P.; Reardon, Robert C.; Peterson, Gary W.

2012-01-01

The respective roles of social cognitive career theory and cognitive information processing in career exploratory behavior were analyzed. A verified path model shows cognitive information processing theory's negative career thoughts inversely predict social cognitive career theory's career problem-solving self-efficacy, which predicts career…

Evaluation of Physicians' Cognitive Styles.

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Djulbegovic, Benjamin; Beckstead, Jason W; Elqayam, Shira; Reljic, Tea; Hozo, Iztok; Kumar, Ambuj; Cannon-Bowers, Janis; Taylor, Stephanie; Tsalatsanis, Athanasios; Turner, Brandon; Paidas, Charles

2014-07-01

Patient outcomes critically depend on accuracy of physicians' judgment, yet little is known about individual differences in cognitive styles that underlie physicians' judgments. The objective of this study was to assess physicians' individual differences in cognitive styles relative to age, experience, and degree and type of training. Physicians at different levels of training and career completed a web-based survey of 6 scales measuring individual differences in cognitive styles (maximizing v. satisficing, analytical v. intuitive reasoning, need for cognition, intolerance toward ambiguity, objectivism, and cognitive reflection). We measured psychometric properties (Cronbach's α) of scales; relationship of age, experience, degree, and type of training; responses to scales; and accuracy on conditional inference task. The study included 165 trainees and 56 attending physicians (median age 31 years; range 25-69 years). All 6 constructs showed acceptable psychometric properties. Surprisingly, we found significant negative correlation between age and satisficing (r = -0.239; P = 0.017). Maximizing (willingness to engage in alternative search strategy) also decreased with age (r = -0.220; P = 0.047). Number of incorrect inferences negatively correlated with satisficing (r = -0.246; P = 0.014). Disposition to suppress intuitive responses was associated with correct responses on 3 of 4 inferential tasks. Trainees showed a tendency to engage in analytical thinking (r = 0.265; P = 0.025), while attendings displayed inclination toward intuitive-experiential thinking (r = 0.427; P = 0.046). However, trainees performed worse on conditional inference task. Physicians capable of suppressing an immediate intuitive response to questions and those scoring higher on rational thinking made fewer inferential mistakes. We found a negative correlation between age and maximizing: Physicians who were more advanced in their careers were less willing to spend time and effort in an

Negative Trauma Appraisals and PTSD Symptoms in Sri Lankan Adolescents.

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Ponnamperuma, Thyagi; Nicolson, Nancy A

2016-02-01

The cognitive model posits that negative appraisals play an important role in posttraumatic stress disorder, in children as well as in adults. This study examined correlates of negative appraisals in relation to trauma exposure and their relationship to posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in 414 Sri Lankan adolescents, aged 12 to 16, living in areas impacted in varying degrees by the 2004 tsunami. In 2008, participants completed measures of negative appraisals, lifetime traumatic events, posttraumatic stress symptoms, internalizing symptoms, ongoing adversity, and social support. The majority (70 %) of the participants reported multiple traumatic events; 25 % met DSM-IV criteria for full or partial PTSD. Adolescents who had experienced more severe events, abusive events, greater cumulative trauma, or greater current adversity reported more negative appraisals. In regression analyses controlling for known risk factors such as female gender, cumulative trauma, ongoing adversity, and low social support, negative appraisals were the best predictor of PTSS, explaining 22 % of the variance. This relationship appeared specific to PTSS, as negative appraisals did not predict internalizing symptoms. Findings confirm the link between negative cognitions concerning traumatic events and persistent PTSS in adolescents, but longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether appraisals contribute to symptom maintenance over time.

Cognitive biases can affect moral intuitions about cognitive enhancement

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Lucius eCaviola

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Research into cognitive biases that impair human judgment has mostly been applied to the area of economic decision-making. Ethical decision-making has been comparatively neglected. Since ethical decisions often involve very high individual as well as collective stakes, analyzing how cognitive biases affect them can be expected to yield important results. In this theoretical article, we consider the ethical debate about cognitive enhancement (CE and suggest a number of cognitive biases that are likely to affect moral intuitions and judgments about CE: status quo bias, loss aversion, risk aversion, omission bias, scope insensitivity, nature bias, and optimistic bias. We find that there are more well-documented biases that are likely to cause irrational aversion to CE than biases in the opposite direction. This suggests that common attitudes about CE are predominantly negatively biased. Within this new perspective, we hope that subsequent research will be able to elaborate this hypothesis and develop effective de-biasing techniques that can help increase the rationality of the public CE debate and thus improve our ethical decision-making.

Cognitive deficits in marijuana users: effects on motivational enhancement therapy plus cognitive behavioral therapy treatment outcome

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Aharonovich, Efrat; Brooks, Adam C; Nunes, Edward V; Hasin, Deborah S

2008-01-01

Clinical variables that affect treatment outcome for marijuana dependent individuals are not yet well understood, including the effects of cognitive functioning. To address this, level of cognitive functioning and treatment outcome were investigated. Twenty marijuana-dependent outpatients were administered a neuropsychological battery at treatment entry. All patients received 12 weekly individual sessions of combined motivational enhancement therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. The Wilcoxon Exact Test was used to compare cognitive functioning test scores between completers and dropouts, and the Fisher Exact Test was used to compare proportion of negative urines between those with higher and lower scores on the cognitive tests. Marijuana abstinence was unrelated to cognitive functioning. However, dropouts scored significantly lower than completers on measures of abstract reasoning and processing accuracy, providing initial evidence that cognitive functioning plays a role in treatment retention of adult marijuana dependent patients. If supported by further studies, the findings may help inform the development of interventions tailored for cognitively impaired marijuana dependent patients. PMID:18329188

Suicidal Fantasies and Positive/Negative Effects.

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Fouts, Gregory; Norrie, Janice

This study attempted to provide some initial normative data to help professionals and researchers to distinguish between playful and stimulating suicidal fantasies as opposed to serious and compulsive thoughts and behaviours characterized by negative affects. It is argued that the former is a natural consequence of cognitive development, the entry…

Cognitive therapy for punishment paranoia: a single case experiment.

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Chadwick, P; Trower, P

1996-04-01

There is growing agreement that at least certain kinds of delusions defend against negative self-evaluation, and in consequence that cognitive therapy for delusions needs to address issues of self-evaluation more explicitly. However, in practice it can be difficult to enable clients to see the connection between delusions and self-esteem. The present single-case study exemplifies the conceptual and practical application of cognitive therapy for individuals who are both paranoid and have strong negative self-evaluative beliefs. A multiple-baseline approach is used, whereby one man's negative self-evaluative belief and two paranoid delusions are challenged sequentially. Conviction in two of the three beliefs changes at the point of intervention; conviction in the third changes prior to intervention. We discuss the details of the case, as well as the wider implications for cognitive approaches to delusions.

The impact of affective and cognitive focus on attitude formation

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Berg, H. van den; Manstead, A.S.R.; Pligt, J. van der; Wigboldus, D.H.J.

2006-01-01

We examined the effects of unobtrusive affective and cognitive focus on attitude formation. To induce focus, participants worked on a word-search puzzle consisting of either affective (e.g., emotion) or cognitive (e.g., reasoning) words. They then read positive and negative affective and cognitive

Digital Screen Media and Cognitive Development.

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Anderson, Daniel R; Subrahmanyam, Kaveri

2017-11-01

In this article, we examine the impact of digital screen devices, including television, on cognitive development. Although we know that young infants and toddlers are using touch screen devices, we know little about their comprehension of the content that they encounter on them. In contrast, research suggests that children begin to comprehend child-directed television starting at ∼2 years of age. The cognitive impact of these media depends on the age of the child, the kind of programming (educational programming versus programming produced for adults), the social context of viewing, as well the particular kind of interactive media (eg, computer games). For children negative associations, especially for language and executive function. For preschool-aged children, television viewing has been found to have both positive and negative outcomes, and a large body of research suggests that educational television has a positive impact on cognitive development. Beyond the preschool years, children mostly consume entertainment programming, and cognitive outcomes are not well explored in research. The use of computer games as well as educational computer programs can lead to gains in academically relevant content and other cognitive skills. This article concludes by identifying topics and goals for future research and provides recommendations based on current research-based knowledge. Copyright © 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Incorporating spiritual beliefs into a cognitive model of worry.

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Rosmarin, David H; Pirutinsky, Steven; Auerbach, Randy P; Björgvinsson, Thröstur; Bigda-Peyton, Joseph; Andersson, Gerhard; Pargament, Kenneth I; Krumrei, Elizabeth J

2011-07-01

Cognitive theory and research have traditionally highlighted the relevance of the core beliefs about oneself, the world, and the future to human emotions. For some individuals, however, core beliefs may also explicitly involve spiritual themes. In this article, we propose a cognitive model of worry, in which positive/negative beliefs about the Divine affect symptoms through the mechanism of intolerance of uncertainty. Using mediation analyses, we found support for our model across two studies, in particular, with regards to negative spiritual beliefs. These findings highlight the importance of assessing for spiritual alongside secular convictions when creating cognitive-behavioral case formulations in the treatment of religious individuals. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Cognitive and neural consequences of memory suppression in major depressive disorder.

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Sacchet, Matthew D; Levy, Benjamin J; Hamilton, J Paul; Maksimovskiy, Arkadiy; Hertel, Paula T; Joormann, Jutta; Anderson, Michael C; Wagner, Anthony D; Gotlib, Ian H

2017-02-01

Negative biases in cognition have been documented consistently in major depressive disorder (MDD), including difficulties in the ability to control the processing of negative material. Although negative information-processing biases have been studied using both behavioral and neuroimaging paradigms, relatively little research has been conducted examining the difficulties of depressed persons with inhibiting the retrieval of negative information from long-term memory. In this study, we used the think/no-think paradigm and functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the cognitive and neural consequences of memory suppression in individuals diagnosed with depression and in healthy controls. The participants showed typical behavioral forgetting effects, but contrary to our hypotheses, there were no differences between the depressed and nondepressed participants or between neutral and negative memories. Relative to controls, depressed individuals exhibited greater activity in right middle frontal gyrus during memory suppression, regardless of the valence of the suppressed stimuli, and differential activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during memory suppression involving negatively valenced stimuli. These findings indicate that depressed individuals are characterized by neural anomalies during the suppression of long-term memories, increasing our understanding of the brain bases of negative cognitive biases in MDD.

The impact of subjective cognitive fatigue and depression on cognitive function in patients with multiple sclerosis.

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Golan, Daniel; Doniger, Glen M; Wissemann, Karl; Zarif, Myassar; Bumstead, Barbara; Buhse, Marijean; Fafard, Lori; Lavi, Idit; Wilken, Jeffrey; Gudesblatt, Mark

2018-02-01

The association between subjective cognitive fatigue and objective cognitive dysfunction in patients with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) has been studied, with conflicting results. To explore the impact of fatigue on cognitive function, while controlling for the influence of depression, disability, comorbidities, and psychotropic medications. PwMS completed a computerized cognitive testing battery with age- and education-adjusted cognitive domain scores. Disability (Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS)), cognitive fatigue, and depression were concurrently evaluated. In all, 699 PwMS were included. Both cognitive fatigue and depression were significantly and negatively correlated with the same cognitive domains: information processing speed, executive function, attention, motor function, and memory (-0.15 ⩽ r ⩽ -0.14 for cognitive fatigue; -0.24 ⩽ r ⩽ -0.19 for depression). Multivariate analysis revealed significant but small independent correlations only between depression and neuropsychological test results, while cognitive fatigue had no independent correlation with objective cognitive function except for a trend toward impaired motor function in highly fatigued PwMS. Depression and cognitive fatigue accounted for no more than 6% of the variance in objective cognitive domain scores. Cognitive fatigue is not independently related to objective cognitive impairment. Depression may influence cognitive function of PwMS primarily when it is severe. Cognitive impairment in PwMS should not be ascribed to fatigue or mild depression.

Age-Dependent Pleiotropy Between General Cognitive Function and Major Psychiatric Disorders.

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Hill, W David; Davies, Gail; Liewald, David C; McIntosh, Andrew M; Deary, Ian J

2016-08-15

General cognitive function predicts psychiatric illness across the life course. This study examines the role of pleiotropy in explaining the link between cognitive function and psychiatric disorder. We used two large genome-wide association study data sets on cognitive function-one from older age, n = 53,949, and one from childhood, n = 12,441. We also used genome-wide association study data on educational attainment, n = 95,427, to examine the validity of its use as a proxy phenotype for cognitive function. Using a new method, linkage disequilibrium regression, we derived genetic correlations, free from the confounding of clinical state between psychiatric illness and cognitive function. We found a genetic correlation of .711 (p = 2.26e-12) across the life course for general cognitive function. We also showed a positive genetic correlation between autism spectrum disorder and cognitive function in childhood (rg = .360, p = .0009) and for educational attainment (rg = .322, p = 1.37e-5) but not in older age. In schizophrenia, we found a negative genetic correlation between older age cognitive function (rg = -.231, p = 3.81e-12) but not in childhood or for educational attainment. For Alzheimer's disease, we found negative genetic correlations with childhood cognitive function (rg = -.341, p = .001), educational attainment (rg = -.324, p = 1.15e-5), and with older age cognitive function (rg = -.324, p = 1.78e-5). The pleiotropy exhibited between cognitive function and psychiatric disorders changed across the life course. These age-dependent associations might explain why negative selection has not removed variants causally associated with autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Subthreshold depressive symptoms have a negative impact on cognitive functioning in middle-aged and older males.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erlend Joramo Brevik

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Cognitive aging is associated with a decline on measures of fluid intelligence (gF, whereas crystallized intelligence (gC tends to remain stable. In the present study we asked if depressive symptoms might contribute to explain the decline on gF in a sample of healthy, middle-aged and older adults. Method. The Norwegian sample included 83 females and 42 males (M = 60, SD = 7.9 yrs. gF was calculated from factor-analysis, including tests of matrix reasoning (WASI, memory function (California Verbal Learning Test, processing speed and executive function (Cued Discrimination Task; Color-Word Interference Test. gC was derived from a Vocabulary subtest (WASI. Depressive symptoms were assessed by self-reports on Beck’s Depression Index (BDI and ranged from 0 to 21 (M = 6, SD = 4.5. Results. Increased age was correlated with a decline on gF (r=-.436, p<.001, but not gC (r=-.103, p=ns.. The BDI score in the whole sample was correlated with gF (r=-.313, p<.001. A more detailed analysis showed that the BDI score correlated with measures of both gF and gC in males. The correlations were non-significant for females on all measures, with the exception of a measure of processing speed/executive function. A regression analysis including age and sex in the first step, showed that symptoms of depression significantly contributed to explain decline on gF, F(3,124=16.653, p < .001, R² = .292, ∆R² = .054. Discussion. The results showed that symptoms of depression have a negative impact on cognitive functioning in males even when the symptom-level was below clinical threshold. This indicates that minimal symptoms of depression in older men are clinically relevant to address.

The sequential pathway between trauma-related symptom severity and cognitive-based smoking processes through perceived stress and negative affect reduction expectancies among trauma exposed smokers.

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Garey, Lorra; Cheema, Mina K; Otal, Tanveer K; Schmidt, Norman B; Neighbors, Clayton; Zvolensky, Michael J

2016-10-01

Smoking rates are markedly higher among trauma-exposed individuals relative to non-trauma-exposed individuals. Extant work suggests that both perceived stress and negative affect reduction smoking expectancies are independent mechanisms that link trauma-related symptoms and smoking. Yet, no work has examined perceived stress and negative affect reduction smoking expectancies as potential explanatory variables for the relation between trauma-related symptom severity and smoking in a sequential pathway model. Methods The present study utilized a sample of treatment-seeking, trauma-exposed smokers (n = 363; 49.0% female) to examine perceived stress and negative affect reduction expectancies for smoking as potential sequential explanatory variables linking trauma-related symptom severity and nicotine dependence, perceived barriers to smoking cessation, and severity of withdrawal-related problems and symptoms during past quit attempts. As hypothesized, perceived stress and negative affect reduction expectancies had a significant sequential indirect effect on trauma-related symptom severity and criterion variables. Findings further elucidate the complex pathways through which trauma-related symptoms contribute to smoking behavior and cognitions, and highlight the importance of addressing perceived stress and negative affect reduction expectancies in smoking cessation programs among trauma-exposed individuals. (Am J Addict 2016;25:565-572). © 2016 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.

Examining the stress-burnout relationship: the mediating role of negative thoughts

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Ko-Hsin Chang

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Background Using Smith’s (1986 cognitive-affective model of athletic burnout as a guiding framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among athletes’ stress in life, negative thoughts, and the mediating role of negative thoughts on the stress-burnout relationship. Methods A total of 300 college student-athletes (males = 174; females = 126, Mage = 20.43 y, SD = 1.68 completed the College Student Athlete’s Life Stress Scale (CSALSS; Lu et al., 2012, the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ; Hollon & Kendall, 1980, and the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ; Raedeke & Smith, 2001. Results Correlational analyses found that two types of life stress and four types of negative thoughts correlated with burnout. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses found that four types of negative thoughts partially mediated the stress-burnout relationship. Discussion We concluded that an athlete’s negative thoughts play a pivotal role in predicting athletes’ stress-burnout relationship. Future study may examine how irrational cognition influences athletes’ motivation and psychological well-being.

Cognitive, emotive, and cognitive-behavioral correlates of suicidal ideation among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong.

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Kwok, Sylvia Lai Yuk Ching; Shek, Daniel Tan Lei

2010-03-05

Utilizing Daniel Goleman's theory of emotional competence, Beck's cognitive theory, and Rudd's cognitive-behavioral theory of suicidality, the relationships between hopelessness (cognitive component), social problem solving (cognitive-behavioral component), emotional competence (emotive component), and adolescent suicidal ideation were examined. Based on the responses of 5,557 Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 students from 42 secondary schools in Hong Kong, results showed that suicidal ideation was positively related to adolescent hopelessness, but negatively related to emotional competence and social problem solving. While standard regression analyses showed that all the above variables were significant predictors of suicidal ideation, hierarchical regression analyses showed that hopelessness was the most important predictor of suicidal ideation, followed by social problem solving and emotional competence. Further regression analyses found that all four subscales of emotional competence, i.e., empathy, social skills, self-management of emotions, and utilization of emotions, were important predictors of male adolescent suicidal ideation. However, the subscale of social skills was not a significant predictor of female adolescent suicidal ideation. Standard regression analysis also revealed that all three subscales of social problem solving, i.e., negative problem orientation, rational problem solving, and impulsiveness/carelessness style, were important predictors of suicidal ideation. Theoretical and practice implications of the findings are discussed.

Cognitive, Emotive, and Cognitive-Behavioral Correlates of Suicidal Ideation among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

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Sylvia Y.C.L. Kwok

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Utilizing Daniel Goleman's theory of emotional competence, Beck's cognitive theory, and Rudd's cognitive-behavioral theory of suicidality, the relationships between hopelessness (cognitive component, social problem solving (cognitive-behavioral component, emotional competence (emotive component, and adolescent suicidal ideation were examined. Based on the responses of 5,557 Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 students from 42 secondary schools in Hong Kong, results showed that suicidal ideation was positively related to adolescent hopelessness, but negatively related to emotional competence and social problem solving. While standard regression analyses showed that all the above variables were significant predictors of suicidal ideation, hierarchical regression analyses showed that hopelessness was the most important predictor of suicidal ideation, followed by social problem solving and emotional competence. Further regression analyses found that all four subscales of emotional competence, i.e., empathy, social skills, self-management of emotions, and utilization of emotions, were important predictors of male adolescent suicidal ideation. However, the subscale of social skills was not a significant predictor of female adolescent suicidal ideation. Standard regression analysis also revealed that all three subscales of social problem solving, i.e., negative problem orientation, rational problem solving, and impulsiveness/carelessness style, were important predictors of suicidal ideation. Theoretical and practice implications of the findings are discussed.

Cognitive Dissonance Among Chinese Gamblers: Cultural Beliefs Versus Gambling Behavior

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Robert J. Taormina; Blair K. H. Chong

2015-01-01

This study examined the extent to which cognitive dissonance exists among Chinese gamblers as a consequence of gambling while holding negative attitudes toward gambling, which are inherent in China’s traditional cultural values. Using the behavioral variable of actual gambling and an attitudinal variable of negative beliefs about gambling, a third, practical measure of cognitive dissonance was developed. By using questionnaires completed by 200 adult Chinese respondents, these measures were e...

The negative priming paradigm: An update and implications for selective attention.

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Frings, Christian; Schneider, Katja Kerstin; Fox, Elaine

2015-12-01

Negative Priming (NP) is an influential paradigm in cognitive psychology that was originally developed to measure attentional selection. Yet, up to the mid-1990s, a large number of experimental reports questioned whether the NP effect is based on attentional inhibition and/or episodic retrieval processes. In this review, we summarize findings since the mid-1990s and discuss new and old theoretical approaches to Negative Priming. We conclude that more than one process contributes to NP and that future research should analyze the conditions under which a particular process contributes to NP. Moreover, we argue that the paradigm--although it does not measure a single cognitive process alone--is still a useful tool for understanding selection in cognition. In fact, it might be a virtue of the paradigm that several cognitive processes work here together as selection in nonexperimental contexts is surely a multidimensional process. From this perspective, research on NP is relevant for all research fields analyzing selection. We therefore close our review by discussing the implications of the new evidence on NP for theories of selective attention.

Analytic cognitive style predicts religious and paranormal belief.

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Pennycook, Gordon; Cheyne, James Allan; Seli, Paul; Koehler, Derek J; Fugelsang, Jonathan A

2012-06-01

An analytic cognitive style denotes a propensity to set aside highly salient intuitions when engaging in problem solving. We assess the hypothesis that an analytic cognitive style is associated with a history of questioning, altering, and rejecting (i.e., unbelieving) supernatural claims, both religious and paranormal. In two studies, we examined associations of God beliefs, religious engagement (attendance at religious services, praying, etc.), conventional religious beliefs (heaven, miracles, etc.) and paranormal beliefs (extrasensory perception, levitation, etc.) with performance measures of cognitive ability and analytic cognitive style. An analytic cognitive style negatively predicted both religious and paranormal beliefs when controlling for cognitive ability as well as religious engagement, sex, age, political ideology, and education. Participants more willing to engage in analytic reasoning were less likely to endorse supernatural beliefs. Further, an association between analytic cognitive style and religious engagement was mediated by religious beliefs, suggesting that an analytic cognitive style negatively affects religious engagement via lower acceptance of conventional religious beliefs. Results for types of God belief indicate that the association between an analytic cognitive style and God beliefs is more nuanced than mere acceptance and rejection, but also includes adopting less conventional God beliefs, such as Pantheism or Deism. Our data are consistent with the idea that two people who share the same cognitive ability, education, political ideology, sex, age and level of religious engagement can acquire very different sets of beliefs about the world if they differ in their propensity to think analytically. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of positive vs. negative affect on multitasking.

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Morgan, Brent; D'Mello, Sidney K

2016-10-01

Considerable research has investigated how affect influences performance on a single task; however, little is known about the role of affect in complex multitasking environments. In this paper, 178 participants multitasked in a synthetic work environment (SYNWORK) consisting of memory, visual monitoring, auditory monitoring, and math tasks. Participants multitasked for a 3-min baseline phase (MT1), following which they were randomly assigned to watch one of three affect-induction videos: positive, neutral, or negative. Participants then resumed multitasking for two additional critical phases (MT2, MT3; 3min each). In MT2, performance of the positive and neutral conditions was statistically equivalent and higher than the negative condition. In MT3, the positive condition performed better than the negative condition, with the neutral condition not significantly different from the other two. The differences in overall multitasking scores were largely driven by errors in the Math task (the most cognitively demanding task) in MT2 and the Memory task in MT3. These findings have implications for how positive and negative affective states influence processing in a cognitively demanding multitasking environment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cognitive performance after ischaemic stroke

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Maria Gabriela R. Ferreira

Full Text Available Cognitive impairment after stroke affects the patient recovery process. Therefore, the identification of factors associated with cognitive outcomes is important since it allows risk profiles of stroke survivors to be determined. OBJECTIVE: To assess cognitive outcome of stroke outpatients and investigate associations among clinical and demographic variables, vascular risk factors, depression symptoms and functional ability; and to describe the neuropsychological profile of these patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional design study was conducted. Subjects who suffered a first-ever ischaemic stroke 6 to 10 months prior to data collection underwent neuropsychological assessment and screening for depressive symptoms and functional ability. The outcome "cognitive performance" was analyzed considering two groups: "cognitive impairment" and "no cognitive impairment". RESULTS: There was a statistically significant association between cognitive impairment and female gender, age, stroke severity and functional ability. Regarding neuropsychological profile, the cognitive impairment group exhibited more generalized deficits in attention, visuospatial organization, verbal functions and verbal memory domains compared to the community control group. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of cognitive impairment among patients was high, especially in women, older participants, individuals with more severe stroke, and greater impairment in functional ability. Multiple cognitive domains are affected and this may hamper recovery and negatively impact independence and quality of life after stroke.

Effects of valence and divided attention on cognitive reappraisal processes

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Morris, John A.; Leclerc, Christina M.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2014-01-01

Numerous studies have investigated the neural substrates supporting cognitive reappraisal, identifying the importance of cognitive control processes implemented by prefrontal cortex (PFC). This study examined how valence and attention affect the processes used for cognitive reappraisal by asking participants to passively view or to cognitively reappraise positive and negative images with full or divided attention. When participants simply viewed these images, results revealed few effects of v...

Mindfulness Training in Primary Schools Decreases Negative Affect and Increases Meta-Cognition in Children

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Vickery, Charlotte E.; Dorjee, Dusana

2016-01-01

Studies investigating the feasibility and impact of mindfulness programs on emotional well-being when delivered by school teachers in pre-adolescence are scarce. This study reports the findings of a controlled feasibility pilot which assessed acceptability and emotional well-being outcomes of an 8-week mindfulness program (Paws b) for children aged 7–9 years. The program was delivered by school teachers within a regular school curriculum. Emotional well-being was measured using self-report questionnaires at baseline, post-training and 3 months follow-up, and informant reports were collected at baseline and follow-up. Seventy one participants aged 7–9 years were recruited from three primary schools in the UK (training group n = 33; control group n = 38). Acceptability of the program was high with 76% of children in the training group reporting ‘liking’ practicing mindfulness at school, with a strong link to wanting to continue practicing mindfulness at school (p mindfulness and emotion regulation scores from baseline to post-training (p = 0.038) and baseline to follow-up (p = 0.033). Findings from this study provide initial evidence that the Paws b program in children aged 7–9 years (a) can be feasibly delivered by primary school teachers as part of the regular curriculum, (b) is acceptable to the majority of children, and (c) may significantly decrease negative affect and improve meta-cognition. PMID:26793145

Investigating the Neural Correlates of Emotion–Cognition Interaction Using an Affective Stroop Task

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Nora M. Raschle

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The human brain has the capacity to integrate various sources of information and continuously adapts our behavior according to situational needs in order to allow a healthy functioning. Emotion–cognition interactions are a key example for such integrative processing. However, the neuronal correlates investigating the effects of emotion on cognition remain to be explored and replication studies are needed. Previous neuroimaging studies have indicated an involvement of emotion and cognition related brain structures including parietal and prefrontal cortices and limbic brain regions. Here, we employed whole brain event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI during an affective number Stroop task and aimed at replicating previous findings using an adaptation of an existing task design in 30 healthy young adults. The Stroop task is an indicator of cognitive control and enables the quantification of interference in relation to variations in cognitive load. By the use of emotional primes (negative/neutral prior to Stroop task performance, an emotional variation is added as well. Behavioral in-scanner data showed that negative primes delayed and disrupted cognitive processing. Trials with high cognitive demand furthermore negatively influenced cognitive control mechanisms. Neuronally, the emotional primes consistently activated emotion-related brain regions (e.g., amygdala, insula, and prefrontal brain regions while Stroop task performance lead to activations in cognition networks of the brain (prefrontal cortices, superior temporal lobe, and insula. When assessing the effect of emotion on cognition, increased cognitive demand led to decreases in neural activation in response to emotional stimuli (negative > neutral within prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and insular cortex. Overall, these results suggest that emotional primes significantly impact cognitive performance and increasing cognitive demand leads to reduced neuronal activation in

Inhibited expression of negative emotions and interpersonal orientation in anorexia nervosa.

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Geller, J; Cockell, S J; Hewitt, P L; Goldner, E M; Flett, G L

2000-07-01

This study examined inhibited expression of negative feelings and interpersonal orientation in women with anorexia nervosa. Twenty-one women meeting DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa were compared with 21 psychiatric and 21 normal control women matched on education. Two measures were used to assess inhibited expression of negative feelings and interpersonal orientation: the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory assesses the suppression and expression of anger and the Silencing the Self Scale assesses four cognitive schemas involving the repression of needs and feelings to protect interpersonal relationships. Women with anorexia nervosa reported significantly higher scores on the four Silencing the Self schemas and on suppressed anger after controlling for age. These group differences were maintained for two of the cognitive schemas (Care and Silence) after controlling for depression, self-esteem, and global assessment of functioning. Inhibited expression of negative emotion and interpersonal orientation scores were also significantly related to cognitive and affective components of body image dissatisfaction and to trait and self-presentational dimensions of perfectionism. These findings are reviewed in the context of health psychology, as well as feminist and temperament theories. Implications for treatment are addressed. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An Interpersonal Approach to Writing Negative Messages.

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Salerno, Douglas

1988-01-01

Asserts that textbook advice regarding buffers and negative messages is simplistic and frequently wrong, and analyses 22 job-refusal letters and their effectiveness. Claims that recent research on cognitive complexity and social perspective-taking suggests the need for more sophisticated audience analysis protocols for dealing with the negative…

Cognitive function is associated with risk aversion in community-based older persons.

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Boyle, Patricia A; Yu, Lei; Buchman, Aron S; Laibson, David I; Bennett, David A

2011-09-11

Emerging data from younger and middle-aged persons suggest that cognitive ability is negatively associated with risk aversion, but this association has not been studied among older persons who are at high risk of experiencing loss of cognitive function. Using data from 369 community-dwelling older persons without dementia from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing longitudinal epidemiologic study of aging, we examined the correlates of risk aversion and tested the hypothesis that cognition is negatively associated with risk aversion. Global cognition and five specific cognitive abilities were measured via detailed cognitive testing, and risk aversion was measured using standard behavioral economics questions in which participants were asked to choose between a certain monetary payment ($15) versus a gamble in which they could gain more than $15 or gain nothing; potential gamble gains ranged from $21.79 to $151.19 with the gain amounts varied randomly over questions. We first examined the bivariate associations of age, education, sex, income and cognition with risk aversion. Next, we examined the associations between cognition and risk aversion via mixed models adjusted for age, sex, education, and income. Finally, we conducted sensitivity analyses to ensure that our results were not driven by persons with preclinical cognitive impairment. In bivariate analyses, sex, education, income and global cognition were associated with risk aversion. However, in a mixed effect model, only sex (estimate = -1.49, standard error (SE) = 0.39, p risk aversion. Thus, a lower level of global cognitive function and female sex were associated with greater risk aversion. Moreover, performance on four out of the five cognitive domains was negatively related to risk aversion (i.e., semantic memory, episodic memory, working memory, and perceptual speed); performance on visuospatial abilities was not. A lower level of cognitive ability and female sex are associated with greater

Gender differences in the cognitive control of emotion: An fMRI study.

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Koch, Kathrin; Pauly, Katharina; Kellermann, Thilo; Seiferth, Nina Y; Reske, Martina; Backes, Volker; Stöcker, Tony; Shah, N Jon; Amunts, Katrin; Kircher, Tilo; Schneider, Frank; Habel, Ute

2007-09-20

The interaction of emotion and cognition has become a topic of major interest. However, the influence of gender on the interplay between the two processes, along with its neural correlates have not been fully analysed so far. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study we induced negative emotion using negative olfactory stimulation while male (n=21) and female (n=19) participants performed an n-back verbal working memory task. Based on findings indicating increased emotional reactivity in women, we expected the female participants to exhibit stronger activation in characteristically emotion-associated areas during the interaction of emotional and cognitive processing in comparison to the male participants. Both groups were found to be significantly impaired in their working memory performance by negative emotion induction. However, fMRI analysis revealed distinct differences in neuronal activation between groups. In men, cognitive performance under negative emotion induction was associated with extended activation patterns in mainly prefrontal and superior parietal regions. In women, the interaction between emotion and working memory yielded a significantly stronger response in the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) compared to their male counterparts. Our data suggest that in women the interaction of verbal working memory and negative emotion is associated with relative hyperactivation in more emotion-associated areas whereas in men regions commonly regarded as important for cognition and cognitive control are activated. These results provide new insights in gender-specific cerebral mechanisms.

The impact of negative emotions on self-concept abstraction depends on accessible information processing styles.

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Isbell, Linda M; Rovenpor, Daniel R; Lair, Elicia C

2016-10-01

Research suggests that anger promotes global, abstract processing whereas sadness and fear promote local, concrete processing (see Schwarz & Clore, 2007 for a review). Contrary to a large and influential body of work suggesting that specific affective experiences are tethered to specific cognitive outcomes, the affect-as-cognitive-feedback account maintains that affective experiences confer positive or negative value on currently dominant processing styles, and thus can lead to either global or local processing (Huntsinger, Isbell, & Clore, 2014). The current work extends this theoretical perspective by investigating the impact of discrete negative emotions on the self-concept. By experimentally manipulating information processing styles and discrete negative emotions that vary in appraisals of certainty, we demonstrate that the impact of discrete negative emotions on the spontaneous self-concept depends on accessible processing styles. When global processing was accessible, individuals in angry (negative, high certainty) states generated more abstract statements about themselves than individuals in either sad (Experiment 1) or fearful (Experiment 2; negative, low certainty) states. When local processing was made accessible, however, the opposite pattern emerged, whereby individuals in angry states generated fewer abstract statements than individuals in sad or fearful states. Together these studies provide new insights into the mechanisms through which discrete emotions influence cognition. In contrast to theories assuming a dedicated link between emotions and processing styles, these results suggest that discrete emotions provide feedback about accessible ways of thinking, and are consistent with recent evidence suggesting that the impact of affect on cognition is highly context-dependent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of valence and divided attention on cognitive reappraisal processes.

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Morris, John A; Leclerc, Christina M; Kensinger, Elizabeth A

2014-12-01

Numerous studies have investigated the neural substrates supporting cognitive reappraisal, identifying the importance of cognitive control processes implemented by prefrontal cortex (PFC). This study examined how valence and attention affect the processes used for cognitive reappraisal by asking participants to passively view or to cognitively reappraise positive and negative images with full or divided attention. When participants simply viewed these images, results revealed few effects of valence or attention. However, when participants engaged in reappraisal, there was a robust effect of valence, with the reappraisal of negative relative to positive images associated with more widespread activation, including within regions of medial and lateral PFC. There also was an effect of attention, with more lateral PFC recruitment when regulating with full attention and more medial PFC recruitment when regulating with divided attention. Within two regions of medial PFC and one region of ventrolateral PFC, there was an interaction between valence and attention: in these regions, divided attention reduced activity during reappraisal of positive but not negative images. Critically, participants continued to report reappraisal success even during the Divided Attention condition. These results suggest multiple routes to successful cognitive reappraisal, depending upon image valence and the availability of attentional resources. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Effects of valence and divided attention on cognitive reappraisal processes

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Leclerc, Christina M.; Kensinger, Elizabeth A.

2014-01-01

Numerous studies have investigated the neural substrates supporting cognitive reappraisal, identifying the importance of cognitive control processes implemented by prefrontal cortex (PFC). This study examined how valence and attention affect the processes used for cognitive reappraisal by asking participants to passively view or to cognitively reappraise positive and negative images with full or divided attention. When participants simply viewed these images, results revealed few effects of valence or attention. However, when participants engaged in reappraisal, there was a robust effect of valence, with the reappraisal of negative relative to positive images associated with more widespread activation, including within regions of medial and lateral PFC. There also was an effect of attention, with more lateral PFC recruitment when regulating with full attention and more medial PFC recruitment when regulating with divided attention. Within two regions of medial PFC and one region of ventrolateral PFC, there was an interaction between valence and attention: in these regions, divided attention reduced activity during reappraisal of positive but not negative images. Critically, participants continued to report reappraisal success even during the Divided Attention condition. These results suggest multiple routes to successful cognitive reappraisal, depending upon image valence and the availability of attentional resources. PMID:24493837

[Negative Symptoms Revisited--Toward the Recovery of Persons with Schizophrenia].

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Ikebuchi, Emi

2015-01-01

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia are usually treatment-refractory, and considered to be a major cause of a poor outcome. Recently, it has become an important issue to elucidate the etiology of and develop treatment for negative symptoms in order to improve the outcome of schizophrenia patients. Firstly, the history of negative symptoms was reviewed. Several lines of factor-analysis studies have suggested that negative symptoms are independent from other symptoms of schizophrenia, and consist of two factors, the poverty of expression and avolition, while the results depend upon the assessment scale employed in each analysis. Anhedonia, a part of avolition, may be considered as the impairment of pleasure-seeking behavior, the impairment of remembering non-current feelings, and a person's belief that he/she cannot experience pleasure, rather than the loss of pleasure itself. As neurological bases for avolition, decreases in reward expectancy, value representation, and the behavior to seek uncertain reward were observed, which resulted in poor social functioning due to the difficulties of initiating adaptive behaviors for the future. These impairments are the bases of decreased intrinsic motivation. The negative symptoms were considered to result in poor social functioning mediated by neuro-and social cognitive dysfunction and dysfunctional cognition, such as low self-efficacy and self-stigma. Pharmacotherapy for negative symptoms remains to be established due to a lack of evidence. Several psycho-social interventions in self-efficacy, self-stigma, intrinsic motivation, and environmental contexts are now being developed, while their effects are rather limited. The principles of psychiatric rehabilitation, i.e., respecting one's own value system and preference, self-determination, and motivation, are worth revisiting from the viewpoint of neuro-cognitive science. Furthermore, a hope-oriented approach, the presence of peers, and reconstructing social values as

Comparison of Maladaptive Meta Cognition Beliefs among Substance Dependents and Non-Dependents

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Omid Saed

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The aim of present research was the comparison of maladaptive meta cognition beliefs among substance abusers and non abusers. Methods: For this purpose 70 substance abusers and 70 individuals from the general population by purposive sampling participated in this research and responded to meta cognition questionnaire. For analysis data multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA and discriminant analysis were run. Results: MANOVA revealed that there was significant difference in linier combination of dependent variables (meta cognitive beliefs among two groups also, analysis of dependent variables lonely showed that two groups were significantly different in Positive meta cognitive beliefs, "Negative meta cognitive beliefs", "lack of cognitive confidence", "need to control of thoughts", and "cognitive self-consciousness". Also, the discriminant analysis indicated that three meta-cognitive factors included “negative meta cognitive beliefs", "need to control of thoughts" and "cognitive self-consciousness" were significant predictors to discriminate substance abusers. Conclusion: With consideration of the results it can be concluded that substance abusers have more maladaptive beliefs and these maladaptive beliefs can lead to susceptibility toward substance abuse and staying in this disorder. It is hoped that psychotherapists can be more useful in treating and staying in this research.

Facial affect processing and depression susceptibility: cognitive biases and cognitive neuroscience.

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Bistricky, Steven L; Ingram, Rick E; Atchley, Ruth Ann

2011-11-01

Facial affect processing is essential to social development and functioning and is particularly relevant to models of depression. Although cognitive and interpersonal theories have long described different pathways to depression, cognitive-interpersonal and evolutionary social risk models of depression focus on the interrelation of interpersonal experience, cognition, and social behavior. We therefore review the burgeoning depressive facial affect processing literature and examine its potential for integrating disciplines, theories, and research. In particular, we evaluate studies in which information processing or cognitive neuroscience paradigms were used to assess facial affect processing in depressed and depression-susceptible populations. Most studies have assessed and supported cognitive models. This research suggests that depressed and depression-vulnerable groups show abnormal facial affect interpretation, attention, and memory, although findings vary based on depression severity, comorbid anxiety, or length of time faces are viewed. Facial affect processing biases appear to correspond with distinct neural activity patterns and increased depressive emotion and thought. Biases typically emerge in depressed moods but are occasionally found in the absence of such moods. Indirect evidence suggests that childhood neglect might cultivate abnormal facial affect processing, which can impede social functioning in ways consistent with cognitive-interpersonal and interpersonal models. However, reviewed studies provide mixed support for the social risk model prediction that depressive states prompt cognitive hypervigilance to social threat information. We recommend prospective interdisciplinary research examining whether facial affect processing abnormalities promote-or are promoted by-depressogenic attachment experiences, negative thinking, and social dysfunction.

Negative self-schemas and the onset of depression in women: longitudinal study.

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Evans, Jonathan; Heron, Jon; Lewis, Glyn; Araya, Ricardo; Wolke, Dieter

2005-04-01

Beck's cognitive theory of depression has received little empirical support. To test whether those with negative self-schemas were at risk of onset of depression. Data were collected by postal questionnaire from 12,003 women recruited during early pregnancy; questionnaires included measures of depressive symptoms and negative self-schemas. Regular questionnaires were sent during pregnancy and following childbirth. Of 8540 women not depressed when recruited, 8.6% (95% CI 8.0-9.2) became depressed 14 weeks later. Those in the highest tertile for negative self-schema score were more likely to become depressed than those in the lowest tertile (odds ratio 3.04, 95% CI 2.48-3.73). The association remained after adjustment for baseline depressive symptoms and previous depression (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.27-2.02) and was of similar magnitude for onset 3 years later. Holding a negative self-schema is an independent risk factor for the onset of depression in women. This finding supports a key element of Beck's cognitive theory. Understanding more about how negative self-schemas arise should help inform preventive policies.

Testing the Validity of a Cognitive Behavioral Model for Gambling Behavior.

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Raylu, Namrata; Oei, Tian Po S; Loo, Jasmine M Y; Tsai, Jung-Shun

2016-06-01

Currently, cognitive behavioral therapies appear to be one of the most studied treatments for gambling problems and studies show it is effective in treating gambling problems. However, cognitive behavior models have not been widely tested using statistical means. Thus, the aim of this study was to test the validity of the pathways postulated in the cognitive behavioral theory of gambling behavior using structural equation modeling (AMOS 20). Several questionnaires assessing a range of gambling specific variables (e.g., gambling urges, cognitions and behaviors) and gambling correlates (e.g., psychological states, and coping styles) were distributed to 969 participants from the community. Results showed that negative psychological states (i.e., depression, anxiety and stress) only directly predicted gambling behavior, whereas gambling urges predicted gambling behavior directly as well as indirectly via gambling cognitions. Avoidance coping predicted gambling behavior only indirectly via gambling cognitions. Negative psychological states were significantly related to gambling cognitions as well as avoidance coping. In addition, significant gender differences were also found. The results provided confirmation for the validity of the pathways postulated in the cognitive behavioral theory of gambling behavior. It also highlighted the importance of gender differences in conceptualizing gambling behavior.

Measurement of Negativity Bias in Personal Narratives Using Corpus-Based Emotion Dictionaries

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Cohen, Shuki J.

2011-01-01

This study presents a novel methodology for the measurement of negativity bias using positive and negative dictionaries of emotion words applied to autobiographical narratives. At odds with the cognitive theory of mood dysregulation, previous text-analytical studies have failed to find significant correlation between emotion dictionaries and…

Subjective memory complaints are associated with poorer cognitive performance in adults with HIV.

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Kamkwalala, Asante; Hulgan, Todd; Newhouse, Paul

2017-05-01

With successful antiretroviral therapy in the US, HIV-positive adults now routinely survive into old age. However, increased life expectancy with HIV introduces the added complication of age-related cognitive decline. Aging with HIV has been associated with poorer cognitive outcomes compared to HIV-negative adults. While up to 50% of older HIV-positive adults will develop some degree of cognitive impairment over their lifetime, cognitive symptoms are often not consistently monitored, until those symptoms are significant enough to impair daily life. In this study we found that subjective memory complaint (SMC) ratings correlated with measurable memory performance impairments in HIV-positive adults, but not HIV-negative adults. As the HIV-positive population ages, structured subjective cognitive assessment may be beneficial to identify the early signs of cognitive impairment, and subsequently allow for earlier interventions to maintain cognitive performance as these adults continue to survive into old age.

Relationship between cognitive emotion regulation, social support, resilience and acute stress responses in Chinese soldiers: Exploring multiple mediation model.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Wen-Peng; Pan, Yu; Zhang, Shui-Miao; Wei, Cun; Dong, Wei; Deng, Guang-Hui

2017-10-01

The current study aimed to explore the association of cognitive emotion regulation, social support, resilience and acute stress responses in Chinese soldiers and to understand the multiple mediation effects of social support and resilience on the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and acute stress responses. A total of 1477 male soldiers completed mental scales, including the cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire-Chinese version, the perceived social support scale, the Chinese version of the Connor-Davidson resilience scale, and the military acute stress scale. As hypothesized, physiological responses, psychological responses, and acute stress were associated with negative-focused cognitive emotion regulation, and negatively associated with positive-focused cognitive emotion regulation, social supports and resilience. Besides, positive-focused cognitive emotion regulation, social support, and resilience were significantly associated with one another, and negative-focused cognitive emotion regulation was negatively associated with social support. Regression analysis and bootstrap analysis showed that social support and resilience had partly mediating effects on negative strategies and acute stress, and fully mediating effects on positive strategies and acute stress. These results thus indicate that military acute stress is significantly associated with cognitive emotion regulation, social support, and resilience, and that social support and resilience have multiple mediation effects on the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation and acute stress responses. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Subjective cognitive decline and fall risk in community-dwelling older adults with or without objective cognitive decline.

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Shirooka, Hidehiko; Nishiguchi, Shu; Fukutani, Naoto; Tashiro, Yuto; Nozaki, Yuma; Aoyama, Tomoki

2018-05-01

The association between subjective cognitive decline and falls has not been clearly determined. Our aim was to explore the effect of subjective cognitive decline on falls in community-dwelling older adults with or without objective cognitive decline. We included 470 older adults (mean age 73.6 ± 5.2; 329 women) living in the community and obtained data on fall history directly from the participants. Subjective cognitive decline was assessed using a self-administered question. Objective cognitive function was measured using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Statistical analyses were carried out separately for participants with objective cognitive decline and those without. A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that, among participants without objective cognitive decline, subjective cognitive decline was positively associated with falls [OR 1.91; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.17-3.12; p = 0.01). Conversely, among participants with objective cognitive decline, subjective cognitive decline was negatively associated with falls (OR 0.07; 95% CI 0.01-0.85, p = 0.04). The result suggests that the objective-subjective disparity may affect falls in community-dwelling older adults. The presence of subjective cognitive decline was significantly positively associated with falls among cognitively intact older adults. However, among their cognitively impaired peers, the absence of subjective cognitive decline was positively associated with falls.

A longitudinal mediation analysis of the effect of negative-self-schemas on positive symptoms via negative affect.

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Jaya, E S; Ascone, L; Lincoln, T M

2018-06-01

Cognitive models postulate that negative-self-schemas (NSS) cause and maintain positive symptoms and that negative affect mediates this link. However, only few studies have tested the temporal mediation claim systematically using an appropriate design. A longitudinal cohort design in an online community sample (N = 962) from Germany, Indonesia, and the USA was used. NSS, negative affect and positive symptoms were measured at four time-points (T0-T3) over a 1-year period. Cross-lagged panel and longitudinal mediation analyses with structural equation modeling were used to test the temporal mediation. Independent cross-lagged panel models showed a significant unidirectional longitudinal path from NSS to positive symptoms (T2-T3, β = 0.18, p negative affect (T0-T1, γ = 0.14, p negative affect at T1 and T2 to positive symptoms at T3 (unstandardized indirect effect coefficient = 0.020, p affective pathway from NSS to positive symptoms via negative affect. Specifically, our data indicate that NSS and negative affect influence each other and build up over the course of several months before leading on to positive symptoms. We conclude that interrupting this process by targeting NSS and negative affect early in the process could be a promising strategy to prevent the exacerbation of positive symptoms.

Positive versus negative priming of older adults' generative value: do negative messages impair memory?

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Hagood, Elizabeth W; Gruenewald, Tara L

2018-02-01

A considerable volume of experimental evidence demonstrates that exposure to aging stereotypes can strongly influence cognitive performance among older individuals. However, whether such effects extend to stereotypes regarding older adults' generative (i.e. contributory) worth is not yet known. The present investigation sought to evaluate the effect of exposure to positive versus negative generative value primes on an important aspect of later life functioning, memory. Participants of age 55 and older (n = 51) were randomly assigned to read a mock news article portraying older individuals as either an asset (positive prime) or a burden (negative prime) to society. Upon reading their assigned article, participants completed a post-priming memory assessment in which they were asked to recall a list of 30 words. Those exposed to the negative prime showed significantly poorer memory performance relative to those exposed to the positive prime (d = 0.75), even when controlling for baseline memory performance and sociodemographic covariates. These findings suggest that negative messages regarding older adults' generative social value impair memory relative to positive ones. Though demonstrated in the short term, these results also point to the potential consequences of long-term exposure to such negative ideologies and may indicate a need to promote more positive societal conceptualizations of older adults' generative worth.

Positive schizotypy and negative schizotypy are associated with differential patterns of episodic memory impairment

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Lili Sahakyan

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Cognitive impairment is a hallmark of schizophrenia; however, studies have not comprehensively examined such impairments in non-clinically ascertained schizotypic young adults. The present study employed a series of measures to assess episodic memory in high positive schizotypy, high negative schizotypy, and comparison groups (each group n = 25. Consistent with diminished cognitive functioning seen in negative symptom schizophrenia, the negative schizotypy group exhibited deficits on free recall, recognition, and source memory tasks. The positive schizotypy group did not demonstrate deficits on the above mentioned tasks. However, in contrast to the other groups, the positive schizotypy group showed an unexpected set-size effect on the cued-recall task. Set-size effect, which refers to the finding that words that have smaller networks of associates tend to have a memory advantage, is usually found in associative-cuing, but not cued-recall, tasks. The finding for the positive schizotypy group is consistent with heightened spreading activation and reduced executive control suggested to underlie psychotic symptoms. The findings support a multidimensional model of schizotypy and schizophrenia, and suggest that positive and negative schizotypy involve differential patterns of cognitive impairment.

Visual-spatial processing and working-memory load as a function of negative and positive psychotic-like experiences.

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Abu-Akel, A; Reniers, R L E P; Wood, S J

2016-09-01

Patients with schizophrenia show impairments in working-memory and visual-spatial processing, but little is known about the dynamic interplay between the two. To provide insight into this important question, we examined the effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults on perceptual processing while concurrently performing a working-memory task that requires the allocations of various degrees of cognitive resources. The effect of positive and negative symptom expressions in healthy adults (N = 91) on perceptual processing was examined in a dual-task paradigm of visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) under three conditions of cognitive load: a baseline condition (with no concurrent working-memory demand), a low VSWM load condition, and a high VSWM load condition. Participants overall performed more efficiently (i.e., faster) with increasing cognitive load. This facilitation in performance was unrelated to symptom expressions. However, participants with high-negative, low-positive symptom expressions were less accurate in the low VSWM condition compared to the baseline and the high VSWM load conditions. Attenuated, subclinical expressions of psychosis affect cognitive performance that is impaired in schizophrenia. The "resource limitations hypothesis" may explain the performance of the participants with high-negative symptom expressions. The dual-task of visual-spatial processing and working memory may be beneficial to assessing the cognitive phenotype of individuals with high risk for schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

tDCS over the left prefrontal cortex enhances cognitive control for positive affective stimuli.

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Vanderhasselt, Marie-Anne; De Raedt, Rudi; Brunoni, Andre R; Campanhã, Camila; Baeken, Chris; Remue, Jonathan; Boggio, Paulo S

2013-01-01

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique with promising results for enhancing cognitive information processes. So far, however, research has mainly focused on the effects of tDCS on cognitive control operations for non-emotional material. Therefore, our aim was to investigate the effects on cognitive control considering negative versus positive material. For this sham-controlled, within-subjects study, we selected a homogeneous sample of twenty-five healthy participants. By using behavioral measures and event related potentials (ERP) as indexes, we aimed to investigate whether a single session of anodal tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) would have specific effects in enhancing cognitive control for positive and negative valenced stimuli. After tDCS over the left DLPFC (and not sham control stimulation), we observed more negative N450 amplitudes along with faster reaction times when inhibiting a habitual response to happy compared to sad facial expressions. Gender did not influence the effects of tDCS on cognitive control for emotional information. In line with the Valence Theory of side-lateralized activity, this stimulation protocol might have led to a left dominant (relative to right) prefrontal cortical activity, resulting in augmented cognitive control specifically for positive relative to negative stimuli. To verify that tDCS induces effects that are in line with all aspects of the well known Valence Theory, future research should investigate the effects of tDCS over the left vs. right DLPFC on cognitive control for emotional information.

Performance Costs when Emotion Tunes Inappropriate Cognitive Abilities: Implications for Mental Resources and Behavior

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Storbeck, Justin

2012-01-01

Emotion tunes cognition, such that approach-motivated positive states promote verbal cognition, whereas withdrawal-motivated negative states promote spatial cognition (Gray, 2001). The current research examined whether self-control resources become depleted and influence subsequent behavior when emotion tunes an inappropriate cognitive tendency.…

Plasma bile acids show a positive correlation with body mass index and are negatively associated with cognitive restraint of eating in obese patients

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Philip ePrinz

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Bile acids may be involved in the regulation of food intake and energy metabolism. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of plasma bile acids with body mass index (BMI and the possible involvement of circulating bile acids in the modulation of physical activity and eating behavior. Blood was obtained in a group of hospitalized patients with normal weight (BMI 18.5-25 kg/m2, underweight (anorexia nervosa, BMI 50 kg/m2, n=14-15/group and plasma bile acid concentrations assessed. Physical activity and plasma bile acids were measured in a group of patients with anorexia nervosa (BMI 14.6±0.3 kg/m2, n=43. Lastly, in a population of obese patients (BMI 48.5±0.9 kg/m2, n=85, psychometric parameters related to disordered eating and plasma bile acids were assessed. Plasma bile acids showed a positive correlation with BMI (r=0.26, p=0.03 in the population of patients with broad range of BMI (9-85 kg/m2, n=74. No associations were observed between plasma bile acids and different parameters of physical activity in anorexic patients (p>0.05. Plasma bile acids were negatively correlated with cognitive restraint of eating (r=-0.30, p=0.008, while no associations were observed with other psychometric eating behavior-related parameters (p>0.05 in obese patients. In conclusion, these data may point towards a role of bile acids in the regulation of body weight. Since plasma bile acids are negatively correlated with the cognitive restraint of eating in obese patients, this may represent a compensatory adaptation to prevent further overeating.

The effect of antiepileptic drugs on cognitive functions

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A. S. Kotov

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Impaired cognitive function is a common problem in epileptic patients. The exact cause of cognitive impairment in case of epilepsy has not been explored fully, but there is no doubt that a role in this is played by three factors: the disease underlying epilepsy; epileptic seizures proper; and negative side effects of antiepileptic drugs. Their cognitive effects are one of the major problems affecting the tolerance of therapy. The review considers the effects of phenobarbital, phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproates, oxcarbazepine, topiramate, lamotrigine, and levetiracetam in terms of their action on the cognitive function of healthy volunteers and epileptic patients.

The effect of early childhood stunting on children's cognitive ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

EPHA USER33

The balance of the propensity score matching techniques was checked and found to be satisfied (P<0.01). Results: Early childhood stunting is significantly negatively associated with cognitive performance of .... linked to poorer cognitive attainment later in life (22). .... to the questionnaires and organization of the field work.

Hypnotic suggestibility, cognitive inhibition, and dissociation.

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Dienes, Zoltán; Brown, Elizabeth; Hutton, Sam; Kirsch, Irving; Mazzoni, Giuliana; Wright, Daniel B

2009-12-01

We examined two potential correlates of hypnotic suggestibility: dissociation and cognitive inhibition. Dissociation is the foundation of two of the major theories of hypnosis and other theories commonly postulate that hypnotic responding is a result of attentional abilities (including inhibition). Participants were administered the Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form C. Under the guise of an unrelated study, 180 of these participants also completed: a version of the Dissociative Experiences Scale that is normally distributed in non-clinical populations; a latent inhibition task, a spatial negative priming task, and a memory task designed to measure negative priming. The data ruled out even moderate correlations between hypnotic suggestibility and all the measures of dissociation and cognitive inhibition overall, though they also indicated gender differences. The results are a challenge for existing theories of hypnosis.

Rumination-focused cognitive behaviour therapy vs. cognitive behaviour therapy for depression: study protocol for a randomised controlled superiority trial.

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Hvenegaard, Morten; Watkins, Ed R; Poulsen, Stig; Rosenberg, Nicole K; Gondan, Matthias; Grafton, Ben; Austin, Stephen F; Howard, Henriette; Moeller, Stine B

2015-08-11

Cognitive behavioural therapy is an effective treatment for depression. However, one third of the patients do not respond satisfactorily, and relapse rates of around 30 % within the first post-treatment year were reported in a recent meta-analysis. In total, 30-50 % of remitted patients present with residual symptoms by the end of treatment. A common residual symptom is rumination, a process of recurrent negative thinking and dwelling on negative affect. Rumination has been demonstrated as a major factor in vulnerability to depression, predicting the onset, severity, and duration of future depression. Rumination-focused cognitive behavioural therapy is a psychotherapeutic treatment targeting rumination. Because rumination plays a major role in the initiation and maintenance of depression, targeting rumination with rumination-focused cognitive behavioural therapy may be more effective in treating depression and reducing relapse than standard cognitive behavioural therapy. This study is a two-arm pragmatic randomised controlled superiority trial comparing the effectiveness of group-based rumination-focused cognitive behaviour therapy with the effectiveness of group-based cognitive behavioural therapy for treatment of depression. One hundred twenty-eight patients with depression will be recruited from and given treatment in an outpatient service at a psychiatric hospital in Denmark. Our primary outcome will be severity of depressive symptoms (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression) at completion of treatment. Secondary outcomes will be level of rumination, worry, anxiety, quality of life, behavioural activation, experimental measures of cognitive flexibility, and emotional attentional bias. A 6-month follow-up is planned and will include the primary outcome measure and assessment of relapse. The clinical outcome of this trial may guide clinicians to decide on the merits of including rumination-focused cognitive behavioural therapy in the treatment of depression in

Gender differences in the content of cognitive distraction during sex.

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Meana, Marta; Nunnink, Sarah E

2006-02-01

This study compared 220 college men and 237 college women on two types of self-reported cognitive distraction during sex, performance- and appearance-based. Affect, psychological distress, sexual knowledge, attitudes, fantasies, experiences, body image, satisfaction, and sexual function were assessed with the Derogatis Sexual Functioning Inventory and the Sexual History Form to determine associations with distraction. Between-gender analyses revealed that women reported higher levels of overall and appearance-based distraction than did men, but similar levels of performance-based distraction. Within-gender analyses revealed that women reported as much of one type of distraction as the other, while men reported more performance- than appearance-based distraction. In women, appearance-based distraction was predicted by negative body image, psychological distress, and not being in a relationship, while performance-based distraction was predicted by negative body image, psychological distress, and sexual dissatisfaction. In men, appearance-based distraction was predicted by negative body image, sexual dissatisfaction and not being in a relationship, while performance-based distraction was predicted by negative body image and sexual dissatisfaction. Investigating the content of cognitive distraction may be useful in understanding gender differences in sexual experience and in refining cognitive components of sex therapy.

Acute tension type headache, cognitive function and mood

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Andrew Paul Smith

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Background/Aims: Research has shown that migraine is often associated with memory problems. There have, however, been few studies of tension type headache (TTH and cognition. People who report frequent headaches often report high levels of negative affect. However, less is known about the acute effects of tension type headache on mood. To address these gaps in our knowledge, two studies examined the effects of acute TTH on cognitive performance and mood. Methods: Both studies involved one group of participants completing a battery of tasks when they had a TTH and when they had no headache. Another group (the control was headache free on both occasions. Duration of the headache was greater than 30 minutes and less than 4 hours. In the no headache condition the participants were headache free for at least 24 hours. In the first study 12 participants (6 with TTH, 6 controls completed a computerised battery measuring mood and aspects of cognition. In the second study 22 participants (7 TTH, 5 after TTH and10 controls completed paper and pencil mood and cognitive tasks.Results: In the first study having a headache was associated with an increase in negative affect both before and after the tasks. Three performance tasks showed impairments when the participants had headaches: logical reasoning was slower and less accurate; retrieval from semantic memory was slower; and reaction times in the categoric search task were slower. Results from the second study confirmed the global increase in negative affect when the person has a TTH. The results confirmed the impairments in the logical reasoning and semantic processing tasks and also showed that those with a TTH had greater psychomotor slowing and were more easily distracted. Effects did not continue after the headache had gone.Conclusions: Two small-scale studies have shown that TTH is associated with negative affect and impaired cognitive function. It is now of interest to determine whether OTC treatment

Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Treatment of Depression in Alzheimer's Patients.

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Teri, Linda; Gallagher-Thompson, Dolores

1991-01-01

Presents two strategies for treating depression in Alzheimer's patients: cognitive therapy for mildly demented adults which challenges patient's negative cognitions to reduce distortions and enable patient to generate more adaptive ways of viewing specific events; and behavioral intervention for moderately or severely demented adults which…

tDCS over the left prefrontal cortex enhances cognitive control for positive affective stimuli.

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Marie-Anne Vanderhasselt

Full Text Available Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS is a neuromodulation technique with promising results for enhancing cognitive information processes. So far, however, research has mainly focused on the effects of tDCS on cognitive control operations for non-emotional material. Therefore, our aim was to investigate the effects on cognitive control considering negative versus positive material. For this sham-controlled, within-subjects study, we selected a homogeneous sample of twenty-five healthy participants. By using behavioral measures and event related potentials (ERP as indexes, we aimed to investigate whether a single session of anodal tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC would have specific effects in enhancing cognitive control for positive and negative valenced stimuli. After tDCS over the left DLPFC (and not sham control stimulation, we observed more negative N450 amplitudes along with faster reaction times when inhibiting a habitual response to happy compared to sad facial expressions. Gender did not influence the effects of tDCS on cognitive control for emotional information. In line with the Valence Theory of side-lateralized activity, this stimulation protocol might have led to a left dominant (relative to right prefrontal cortical activity, resulting in augmented cognitive control specifically for positive relative to negative stimuli. To verify that tDCS induces effects that are in line with all aspects of the well known Valence Theory, future research should investigate the effects of tDCS over the left vs. right DLPFC on cognitive control for emotional information.

Impulsivity and negative priming: evidence for diminished cognitive inhibition in impulsive children

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Visser, M. R. M.; Das-Smaal, E.; Kwakman, H.

1996-01-01

This study addresses the relationship between impulsivity and lack of inhibition. Inhibition was measured both by the interference score and by the negative priming effect in a Stroop colour-word paradigm. The negative priming effect in this paradigm is defined by slower naming of a target colour if

Empathy for positive and negative emotions in social anxiety disorder.

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Morrison, Amanda S; Mateen, Maria A; Brozovich, Faith A; Zaki, Jamil; Goldin, Philippe R; Heimberg, Richard G; Gross, James J

2016-12-01

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with elevated negative and diminished positive affective experience. However, little is known about the way in which individuals with SAD perceive and respond emotionally to the naturally-unfolding negative and positive emotions of others, that is, cognitive empathy and affective empathy, respectively. In the present study, participants with generalized SAD (n = 32) and demographically-matched healthy controls (HCs; n = 32) completed a behavioral empathy task. Cognitive empathy was indexed by the correlation between targets' and participants' continuous ratings of targets' emotions, whereas affective empathy was indexed by the correlation between targets' and participants' continuous self-ratings of emotion. Individuals with SAD differed from HCs only in positive affective empathy: they were less able to vicariously share others' positive emotions. Mediation analyses revealed that poor emotional clarity and negative interpersonal perceptions among those with SAD might account for this finding. Future research using experimental methodology is needed to examine whether this finding represents an inability or unwillingness to share positive affect. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reward-dependent modulation of working memory is associated with negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

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Hager, Oliver M; Kirschner, Matthias; Bischof, Martin; Hartmann-Riemer, Matthias N; Kluge, Agne; Seifritz, Erich; Tobler, Philippe N; Kaiser, Stefan

2015-10-01

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia have been associated with altered neural activity during both reward processing and cognitive processing. Even though increasing evidence suggests a strong interaction between these two domains, it has not been studied in relation to negative symptoms. To elucidate neural mechanisms of the reward-cognition interaction, we applied a letter variant of the n-back working memory task and varied the financial incentives for performance. In the interaction contrast, we found a significantly activated cluster in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the middle frontal gyrus, and the bilateral superior frontal gyrus. The interaction did not differ significantly between the patient group and a healthy control group, suggesting that patients with schizophrenia are on average able to integrate reward information and utilize this information to maximize cognitive performance. However within the patient group, we found a significant inverse correlation of ACC activity with the factor diminished expression. This finding is consistent with the model that a lack of available cognitive resources leads to diminished expression. We therefore argue that patients with diminished expression have difficulties in recruiting additional cognitive resources (as implemented in the ACC) in response to an anticipated reward. Due to this lack of cognitive resources, less processing capacity is available for effective expression, resulting in diminished expressive behavior. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mismatch negativity (MMN amplitude as a biomarker of sensory memory deficit in amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

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Mónica eLindín

2013-11-01

Full Text Available It has been suggested that changes in some event-related potential (ERP parameters associated with controlled processing of stimuli could be used as biomarkers of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI. However, data regarding the suitability of ERP components associated with automatic and involuntary processing of stimuli for this purpose are not conclusive. In the present study, we studied the Mismatch Negativity (MMN component, a correlate of the automatic detection of changes in the acoustic environment, in healthy adults and adults with aMCI (age range: 50-87 years. An auditory-visual attention-distraction task, in two evaluations separated by an interval of between 18 and 24 months, was used. In both evaluations, the MMN amplitude was significantly smaller in the aMCI adults than in the control adults. In the first evaluation, such differences were observed for the subgroup of adults between 50 and 64 years of age, but not for the subgroup of 65 years and over. In the aMCI adults, the MMN amplitude was significantly smaller in the second evaluation than in the first evaluation, but no significant changes were observed in the control adult group. The MMN amplitude was found to be a sensitive and specific biomarker of aMCI, in both the first and second evaluation.

Yes: The Symptoms of OCD and Depression Are Discrete and Not Exclusively Negative Affectivity

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Kathleen A. Moore

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Although Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD and Depression are classified as separate disorders, the high incidence of co-morbidity and the strong correlations between measures of each has led to debate about the nature of their relationship. Some authors have proposed that OCD is in fact a mood disorder while others have suggested that the two disorders are grounded in negative affectivity. A third proposition is that depression is an essential part of OCD but that OCD is a separate disorder from depression. The aim in this study was to investigate these diverse propositions in a non-clinical sample and also to determine whether factors implicated in each, that is anxious and depressive cognitions, hopelessness, and self-criticism, would demonstrate commonality as predictors of the symptoms of OCD and of depression. Two hundred participants (59% female (M age = 34 years, SD = 16 completed the Padua Inventory, Carroll Rating Scale, Cognitions Checklist, Self-Criticism Scale, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory-Revised and a Negative Affectivity Schedule. Results indicated a strong correlation between OCD and depression, depression, and negative affectivity but a weaker relationship between OCD and negative affectivity. Path analyses revealed that both anxious and depressive cognitions, as well as hostility predicted both disorders but the Beta-weights were stronger on OCD. Self-criticism predicted only depression while hopelessness failed to predict either disorder but was itself predicted by depressive cognitions. Depression was a stronger indicator of negative affect than OCD and while OCD positively predicted depression, depression was a negative indicator of OCD. These results support the hypothesis that OCD and depression are discrete disorders and indicate that while depression is implicated in OCD, the reverse does not hold. While both disorders are related to negative affectivity, this relationship is much stronger

Yes: The Symptoms of OCD and Depression Are Discrete and Not Exclusively Negative Affectivity.

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Moore, Kathleen A; Howell, Jacqui

2017-01-01

Although Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Depression are classified as separate disorders, the high incidence of co-morbidity and the strong correlations between measures of each has led to debate about the nature of their relationship. Some authors have proposed that OCD is in fact a mood disorder while others have suggested that the two disorders are grounded in negative affectivity. A third proposition is that depression is an essential part of OCD but that OCD is a separate disorder from depression. The aim in this study was to investigate these diverse propositions in a non-clinical sample and also to determine whether factors implicated in each, that is anxious and depressive cognitions, hopelessness, and self-criticism, would demonstrate commonality as predictors of the symptoms of OCD and of depression. Two hundred participants (59% female) ( M age = 34 years, SD = 16) completed the Padua Inventory, Carroll Rating Scale, Cognitions Checklist, Self-Criticism Scale, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory-Revised and a Negative Affectivity Schedule. Results indicated a strong correlation between OCD and depression, depression, and negative affectivity but a weaker relationship between OCD and negative affectivity. Path analyses revealed that both anxious and depressive cognitions, as well as hostility predicted both disorders but the Beta-weights were stronger on OCD. Self-criticism predicted only depression while hopelessness failed to predict either disorder but was itself predicted by depressive cognitions. Depression was a stronger indicator of negative affect than OCD and while OCD positively predicted depression, depression was a negative indicator of OCD. These results support the hypothesis that OCD and depression are discrete disorders and indicate that while depression is implicated in OCD, the reverse does not hold. While both disorders are related to negative affectivity, this relationship is much stronger for depression

A shortened protocol for assessing cognitive bias in rats.

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Brydges, Nichola M; Hall, Lynsey

2017-07-15

Reliable measurement of affective state in animals is a significant goal of animal welfare. Such measurements would also improve the validity of pre-clinical mental health research which relies on animal models. However, at present, affective states in animals are inaccessible to direct measurement. In humans, changes in cognitive processing can give reliable indications of emotional state. Therefore, similar techniques are increasingly being used to gain proxy measures of affective states in animals. In particular, the 'cognitive bias' assay has gained popularity in recent years. Major disadvantages of this technique include length of time taken for animals to acquire the task (typically several weeks), negative experiences associated with task training, and issues of motivation. Here we present a shortened cognitive bias protocol using only positive reinforcers which must actively be responded to. The protocol took an average of 4days to complete, and produced similar results to previous, longer methods (minimum 30days). Specifically, rats housed in standard laboratory conditions demonstrated negative cognitive biases when presented with ambiguous stimuli, and took longer to make a decision when faced with an ambiguous stimulus. Compared to previous methods, this protocol is significantly shorter (average 4days vs. minimum 30days), utilises only positive reinforcers to avoid inducing negative affective states, and requires active responses to all cues, avoiding potential confounds of motivational state. We have successfully developed a shortened cognitive bias protocol, suitable for use with laboratory rats. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mediators of cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety-disordered children and adolescents : cognition, perceived control, and coping

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hogendoorn, Sanne M; Prins, Pier J M; Boer, Frits; Vervoort, Leentje; Wolters, Lidewij H; Moorlag, Harma; Nauta, Maaike H; Garst, Harry; Hartman, Catharina A; de Haan, Else

2014-01-01

The purpose is to investigate whether a change in putative mediators (negative and positive thoughts, coping strategies, and perceived control over anxious situations) precedes a change in anxiety symptoms in anxiety-disordered children and adolescents receiving cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Bipolar Disorder: What Can Psychotherapists Learn From the Cognitive Research?

OpenAIRE

Johnson, Sheri; Tran, Tanya

2007-01-01

Randomized controlled trials of psychological treatment, principally cognitive therapy, for bipolar disorder have yielded inconsistent results. Given the status of this evidentiary base, we provide a more fine-grained analysis of the cognitive profiles associated with bipolar disorder to inform clinical practice. In this practice-friendly review, we consider evidence that both negative and positive cognitive styles are related to bipolar disorder. Cross-sectional and prospective evidence sugg...

Role of Creativity in the Effectiveness of Cognitive Reappraisal

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Xiaofei Wu

2017-09-01

Full Text Available As a well-recognized and widely adopted emotional regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal has generally been proven to be efficient. However, the cognitive mechanism underlying regulatory efficiency, particularly the role of creativity, in cognitive reappraisal is unclear. Although previous studies have evaluated the relationship between creativity and reappraisal from the perspectives of generation (i.e., generating cognitive reappraisals and generating creative ideas involve similar cognitive neural networks and individual differences (i.e., the ability to generate different cognitive reappraisals can be predicted by scores on creativity-related tests, how cognitive reappraisal’s efficiency can be related to creativity is still unknown. In this research, we assessed the relationship between cognitive reappraisal’s creativity and its effectiveness in regulating negative emotion. In Study 1, participants were asked to generate reappraisals of negative stimuli and then evaluate the creativity and regulatory effectiveness of these reappraisals. The results indicated positive correlation between creativity rating and regulatory effectiveness, but we found that it was difficult for the participants to generate highly creative reappraisals on their own. Therefore, in Study 2, we showed participants well-prepared reappraisal materials that varied in their creativity and asked them to evaluate their regulatory effectiveness and creativity. The results suggested that creativity and appropriateness were significant predictors of the regulating effects of the reappraisal and that creativity was the most dominant predictor. In summary, both experiments found a positive correlation between reappraisal’s creativity and effectiveness, thus implying that creativity plays an important role in reappraisal.

Negative Social Relationships Predict Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among War-Affected Children Via Posttraumatic Cognitions.

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Palosaari, Esa; Punamäki, Raija-Leena; Peltonen, Kirsi; Diab, Marwan; Qouta, Samir R

2016-07-01

Post traumatic cognitions (PTCs) are important determinants of post traumatic stress symptoms (PTS symptoms). We tested whether risk factors of PTS symptoms (trauma, demographics, social and family-related factors) predict PTCs and whether PTCs mediate the association between risk factors and PTS symptoms among war-affected children. The participants were 240 Palestinian children 10-12 years old, half boys and half girls, and their parents. Children reported about psychological maltreatment, sibling and peer relations, war trauma, PTCs, PTS symptoms, and depression. Parents reported about their socioeconomic status and their own PTS symptoms. The associations between the variables were estimated in structural equation models. In models which included all the variables, PTCs were predicted by and mediated the effects of psychological maltreatment, war trauma, sibling conflict, and peer unpopularity on PTS symptoms. Other predictors had statistically non-significant effects. Psychological maltreatment had the largest indirect effect (b* = 0.29, p = 0.002) and the indirect effects of war trauma (b* = 0.10, p = 0.045), sibling conflict (b* = 0.10, p = 0.045), and peer unpopularity (b* = 0.10, p = 0.094) were lower and about the same size. Age-salient social relationships are potentially important in the development of both PTCs and PTS symptoms among preadolescents. Furthermore, PTCs mediate the effects of the risk factors of PTS symptoms. The causality of the associations among the variables is not established but it could be studied in the future with interventions which improve the negative aspects of traumatized children's important social relationships.

Are Improvements in Cognitive Content and Depressive Symptoms Correlates or Mediators during Acute-Phase Cognitive Therapy for Recurrent Major Depressive Disorder?

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Vittengl, Jeffrey R; Clark, Lee Anna; Thase, Michael E; Jarrett, Robin B

2014-01-09

The cognitive model of depression posits that cognitive therapy's (CT) effect on depressive symptoms is mediated by changes in cognitive content (e.g., automatic negative thoughts dysfunctional attitudes, failure attributions). We tested improvement and normalization of cognitive content among outpatients ( N = 523) with recurrent major depressive disorder treated with acute-phase CT (Jarrett & Thase, 2010; Jarrett et al., 2013). We also tested whether improvement in cognitive content accounted for subsequent changes in depressive symptoms and vice versa. Five measures of content improved substantively from pre- to post-CT (median d = 0.96), and the proportions of patients scoring in "healthy" ranges increased (median 45% to 82%). Evidence for cognitive mediation of symptom reduction was limited (median r = .06), as was evidence for symptom mediation of cognitive content improvement (median r = .07). We discuss measurement and design issues relevant to detection of mediators and consider alternative theories of change.

COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING: ALTERNATIVE COUNSELING TECHNIQUES TO REDUCTION ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION

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Annisa Sofiana

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Procrastination is often experienced by almost everyone, including students who often delay to resolve any responsibility in the academic process that would decrease the individual academic achievement. cognitive restructuring is one of the cognitive techniques used in counseling in addition to cognitive behavioral techniques (behavioral and didaktif techniques. This technique has several procedures by focusing on identifying an effort and changing dysfunctional thoughts or negative self-statements into a new belief that is more rational and adaptive, which will affect more rational behavior anyway. Cognitive restructuring techniques assessed to be an alternative counseling techniques in reducing academic procrastination.

The Management of Social Phobia Ýn Residual-Type Schizophrenia with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

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Elif Þimþek Kaygusuz

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Having negative symptoms is the basic feature of residual-type schizophrenia and there is a direct proportion between the neurocognitive impairments associated with negative symptoms. Among the approaches used for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia, cognitive behaviour therapy is the one with the most evidence of efficacy. Cognitive behaviour therapy is considered to be beneficial for the residual symptoms after drug treatment. The social phobia leads among the anxiety disorders accompanying schizophrenia. According to the cognitive model, the impairment of social performance increases the severity of social phobia. The leading factor of this vicious circle is that the patients pay attention selectively to such cases in order to find evidence for their thoughts and beliefs that they are going to be evaluated negatively. In this paper, the cognitive behavioural therapy and formulation carried out with a patient, who has been followed for a long time with the diagnosis of residual-type schizophrenia and social phobia is reported. The purpose of the treatment is to interfere with the impaired functionality of the patient through cognitive and behavioural techniques by dealing with the medical treatment-resistant symptoms. To this end, firstly coping mechanisms are examined through the identification of avoidance and security providers, and then, the patient’s automatic thoughts and false beliefs are discussed depending on the cognitive perspective. The main part of the treatment has been completed by carrying out various investigations in order to increase the patients’ social performance via applying behavioural techniques. As a result, false beliefs are the indicators of the relationship between cognitive inability and negative symptoms and related to social functioning. By addressing these beliefs through cognitive behavioural therapy, the necessity of increasing the patient’s social activities and the relationship between social

The Role of Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Intelligence in Cognitive Control Processes

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Checa, Purificación; Fernández-Berrocal, Pablo

2015-01-01

The relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and cognitive control processes has been extensively established. Several studies have shown that IQ correlates with cognitive control abilities, such as interference suppression, as measured with experimental tasks like the Stroop and Flanker tasks. By contrast, there is a debate about the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI) in individuals' cognitive control abilities. The aim of this study is to examine the relation between IQ and EI, and cognitive control abilities evaluated by a typical laboratory control cognitive task, the Stroop task. Results show a negative correlation between IQ and the interference suppression index, the ability to inhibit processing of irrelevant information. However, the Managing Emotions dimension of EI measured by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), but not self-reported of EI, negatively correlates with the impulsivity index, the premature execution of the response. These results suggest that not only is IQ crucial, but also competences related to EI are essential to human cognitive control processes. Limitations and implications of these results are also discussed. PMID:26648901

The role of Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Intelligence in cognitive control processes

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Purificación eCheca

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ and cognitive control processes has been extensively established. Several studies have shown that IQ correlates with cognitive control abilities, such as interference suppression, as measured with experimental tasks like the Stroop and Flanker tasks. By contrast, there is a debate about the role of Emotional Intelligence (EI in individuals’ cognitive control abilities. The aim of this study is to examine the relation between IQ and EI, and cognitive control abilities evaluated by a typical laboratory control cognitive task, the Stroop task. Results show a negative correlation between IQ and the interference suppression index, the ability to inhibit processing of irrelevant information. However, the Managing Emotions dimension of EI measured by the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, but not self-reported of EI, negatively correlates with the impulsivity index, the premature execution of the response. These results suggest that not only is IQ crucial, but also competences related to EI are essential to human cognitive control processes. Limitations and implications of these results are also discussed

Brain Signal Variability Differentially Affects Cognitive Flexibility and Cognitive Stability.

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Armbruster-Genç, Diana J N; Ueltzhöffer, Kai; Fiebach, Christian J

2016-04-06

Recent research yielded the intriguing conclusion that, in healthy adults, higher levels of variability in neuronal processes are beneficial for cognitive functioning. Beneficial effects of variability in neuronal processing can also be inferred from neurocomputational theories of working memory, albeit this holds only for tasks requiring cognitive flexibility. However, cognitive stability, i.e., the ability to maintain a task goal in the face of irrelevant distractors, should suffer under high levels of brain signal variability. To directly test this prediction, we studied both behavioral and brain signal variability during cognitive flexibility (i.e., task switching) and cognitive stability (i.e., distractor inhibition) in a sample of healthy human subjects and developed an efficient and easy-to-implement analysis approach to assess BOLD-signal variability in event-related fMRI task paradigms. Results show a general positive effect of neural variability on task performance as assessed by accuracy measures. However, higher levels of BOLD-signal variability in the left inferior frontal junction area result in reduced error rate costs during task switching and thus facilitate cognitive flexibility. In contrast, variability in the same area has a detrimental effect on cognitive stability, as shown in a negative effect of variability on response time costs during distractor inhibition. This pattern was mirrored at the behavioral level, with higher behavioral variability predicting better task switching but worse distractor inhibition performance. Our data extend previous results on brain signal variability by showing a differential effect of brain signal variability that depends on task context, in line with predictions from computational theories. Recent neuroscientific research showed that the human brain signal is intrinsically variable and suggested that this variability improves performance. Computational models of prefrontal neural networks predict differential

Positive and Negative Affect and Adolescent Adjustment: Moderation Effects of Prefrontal Functioning.

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Brieant, Alexis; Holmes, Christopher J; Maciejewski, Dominique; Lee, Jacob; Deater-Deckard, Kirby; King-Casas, Brooks; Kim-Spoon, Jungmeen

2018-03-01

We examined whether cognitive control moderates the effects of emotion on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptomatology in a longitudinal study of 138 adolescents. Self-reported positive affect (PA) and negative affect and behavioral and neural indicators of cognitive control, indexed by performance and prefrontal hemodynamic response during a cognitive interference task, were collected at Time 1. Self-reported internalizing and externalizing symptomatology were collected at Time 1 and Time 2 (1 year later). Results indicated that higher PA predicted decreases in externalizing symptomatology, but only for adolescents with poor neural cognitive control. No moderation effects were found for behavioral cognitive control. Findings imply the beneficial effects of PA on the development of externalizing problems among adolescents with poor prefrontal functioning. © 2018 Society for Research on Adolescence.

Family Stress and Adolescents’ Cognitive Functioning: Sleep as a Protective Factor

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El-Sheikh, Mona; Tu, Kelly M.; Erath, Stephen A.; Buckhalt, Joseph A.

2014-01-01

We examined two sleep-wake parameters as moderators of the associations between exposure to family stressors and adolescent cognitive functioning. Participants were 252 school-recruited adolescents (M = 15.79 years; 66% European American, 34% African American). Youths reported on three dimensions of family stress: marital conflict, harsh parenting, and parental psychological control. Cognitive functioning was indexed through performance on the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities. Sleep minutes and efficiency were measured objectively using actigraphy. Towards identifying unique effects, path models controlled for two family stress variables while estimating the third. Analyses revealed that sleep efficiency moderated the associations between negative parenting (harsh parenting and parental psychological control) and adolescents’ cognitive functioning. The highest level of cognitive performance was predicted for adolescents with higher levels of sleep efficiency in conjunction with lower levels of either harsh parenting or psychological control. The effects of sleep were more pronounced at lower levels of negative parenting where adolescents with higher sleep efficiency performed better than their counterparts with poorer sleep. At higher levels of either harsh parenting or psychological control, similar levels of cognitive performance were observed regardless of sleep. Results are discussed in comparison to other recent studies on interrelations among family stress, sleep, and cognitive performance in childhood and adolescence. PMID:25329625

Cognitive control components and speech symptoms in people with schizophrenia.

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Becker, Theresa M; Cicero, David C; Cowan, Nelson; Kerns, John G

2012-03-30

Previous schizophrenia research suggests poor cognitive control is associated with schizophrenia speech symptoms. However, cognitive control is a broad construct. Two important cognitive control components are poor goal maintenance and poor verbal working memory storage. In the current research, people with schizophrenia (n=45) performed three cognitive tasks that varied in their goal maintenance and verbal working memory storage demands. Speech symptoms were assessed using clinical rating scales, ratings of disorganized speech from typed transcripts, and self-reported disorganization. Overall, alogia was associated with both goal maintenance and verbal working memory tasks. Objectively rated disorganized speech was associated with poor goal maintenance and with a task that included both goal maintenance and verbal working memory storage demands. In contrast, self-reported disorganization was unrelated to either amount of objectively rated disorganized speech or to cognitive control task performance, instead being associated with negative mood symptoms. Overall, our results suggest that alogia is associated with both poor goal maintenance and poor verbal working memory storage and that disorganized speech is associated with poor goal maintenance. In addition, patients' own assessment of their disorganization is related to negative mood, but perhaps not to objective disorganized speech or to cognitive control task performance. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Predictors of Cognitive Dysfunction among Patients with Moderate to Severe Chronic Kidney Disease

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Uduak Effiong Williams

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Cognitive dysfunction including dementia is a common complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD that has just been recently appreciated. It has negative outcomes in the management of patients with CKD. This study explored the possible biochemical and clinical features of patients with CKD that can predict the occurrence of cognitive impairment in patients with moderate to severe CKD. We evaluate patients with stages 3-5 CKD for the occurrence and predictors of cognitive impairment. Multiple areas of cognitive function were tested in this single-center study using Community Screening Interview for Dementia (CSID and Trial-Making Test A (TMTA/Trial-Making Test B (TMTB. Cognitive impairment was correlated with patients’ routine biochemical, hematological, and selected clinical parameters. We observed a negative correlation between cognitive impairment and patient’s serum calcium (r = 0.240; p = 0.033 and estimated Glomerular filtration rate (eGFR (r = 0.379; p = 0.0006. Therefore, eGFR is an accurate predictor of cognitive dysfunction in patients with moderate to severe CKD. Early evaluation of cognitive function in CKD is indeed advised for optimal outcome in the management of patients with CKD.

Positive Emotion Facilitates Cognitive Flexibility: An fMRI Study

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Yanmei Wang

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Cognitive flexibility is the ability to switch rapidly between multiple goals. By using a task-switching paradigm, the present study investigated how positive emotion affected cognitive flexibility and the underlying neural mechanisms. After viewing pictures of different emotional valence (positive, negative, or neutral, participants discriminated whether a target digit in a specific color was odd or even. After a series of trials, the color of target stimuli was changed, i.e., the switch condition. Switch costs were measured by the increase of reaction times (RTs in the switch trials compared to those in the repeat trials. Behavior results indicated that switch costs significantly decreased in the positive emotional condition, and increased in the negative emotional condition, compared with those in the neutral condition. Imaging data revealed enhanced activation in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC in switch trials than those in repeat trials. Moreover, the interaction between emotion (positive, negative, neutral and trial type (repeat vs. switch was significant. For switch trials, the activation of dACC decreased significantly in the positive condition, while increased significantly in the negative condition compared to neutral condition. By contrast, for repeat trials, no significant difference was observed for the activation of dACC among three emotional conditions. Our results showed that positive emotions could increase the cognitive flexibility and reduce the conflict by decreasing the activation of dACC.

Associations between game use and cognitive empathy: a cross-generational study.

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Shin, Dong-Hee; Ahn, Dohyun

2013-08-01

Adolescence is a sensitive period of time for developing social abilities such as cognitive empathy. Thus, social experiences in this time period are more influential in forming the social abilities than during other periods in life. Video games are agent-based media in which game players carry out their own action in a mediated world whose rules are predefined by algorithms. This means that game players do not have to engage their cognitive empathy when playing games. Thus, prolonged use of video games during adolescence can result in the underdevelopment of cognitive empathy. This survey from three age groups (adolescents aged 16-19, adults aged 37-41, elders aged 58-62) demonstrated that only among adolescents was the amount of time spent in game play negatively associated with cognitive empathy. The findings of this study can contribute to understanding the nature of video game play and its negative effects by focusing on the manner of media use rather than the messages in media, and focusing on cognitive empathy, which has rarely been examined.

Trustworthiness and Negative Affect Predict Economic Decision-Making.

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Nguyen, Christopher M; Koenigs, Michael; Yamada, Torricia H; Teo, Shu Hao; Cavanaugh, Joseph E; Tranel, Daniel; Denburg, Natalie L

2011-09-01

The Ultimatum Game (UG) is a widely used and well-studied laboratory model of economic decision-making. Here, we studied 129 healthy adults and compared demographic (i.e., age, gender, education), cognitive (i.e., intelligence, attention/working memory, speed, language, visuospatial, memory, executive functions), and personality (i.e., "Big Five", positive affect, negative affect) variables between those with a "rational" versus an "irrational" response pattern on the UG. Our data indicated that participants with "rational" UG performance (accepting any offer, no matter the fairness) endorsed higher levels of trust, or the belief in the sincerity and good intentions of others, while participants with "irrational" UG performance (rejecting unfair offers) endorsed higher levels of negative affect, such as anger and contempt. These personality variables were the only ones that differentiated the two response patterns-demographic and cognitive factors did not differ between rational and irrational players. The results indicate that the examination of personality and affect is crucial to our understanding of the individual differences that underlie decision-making.

The Arabidopsis KH-Domain RNA-Binding Protein ESR1 Functions in Components of Jasmonate Signalling, Unlinking Growth Restraint and Resistance to Stress.

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Louise F Thatcher

Full Text Available Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs play important roles in the protection of cells against toxins and oxidative damage where one Arabidopsis member, GSTF8, has become a commonly used marker gene for early stress and defense responses. A GSTF8 promoter fragment fused to the luciferase reporter gene was used in a forward genetic screen for Arabidopsis mutants with up-regulated GSTF8 promoter activity. This identified the esr1-1 (enhanced stress response 1 mutant which also conferred increased resistance to the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. Through positional cloning, the ESR1 gene was found to encode a KH-domain containing RNA-binding protein (At5g53060. Whole transcriptome sequencing of esr1-1 identified altered expression of genes involved in responses to biotic and abiotic stimuli, hormone signaling pathways and developmental processes. In particular was an overall significant enrichment for jasmonic acid (JA mediated processes in the esr1-1 down-regulated dataset. A subset of these genes were tested for MeJA inducibility and we found the expression of some but not all were reduced in esr1-1. The esr1-1 mutant was not impaired in other aspects of JA-signalling such as JA- sensitivity or development, suggesting ESR1 functions in specific components of the JA-signaling pathway. Examination of salicylic acid (SA regulated marker genes in esr1-1 showed no increase in basal or SA induced expression suggesting repression of JA-regulated genes is not due to antagonistic SA-JA crosstalk. These results define new roles for KH-domain containing proteins with ESR1 unlinking JA-mediated growth and defense responses.

Social resources and cognitive ageing across 30 years

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Gow, Alan J.; Mortensen, Erik Lykke

2016-01-01

Background: to examine associations between social resources and cognitive ageing over 30 years. Methods: participants in the Glostrup 1914 Cohort, a year of birth sample, completed a standardarised battery of cognitive ability tests every 10 years from age 50 to 80, summarised as general cognitive...... a negative association. Marital status (at ages 50 and 60) and loneliness at age 70 were the only social resources associated with cognitive change; married individuals and those not feeling lonely experienced less cognitive decline. When the social resources showing significant associations were considered...... ability. Participants also provided information concerning a range of social resources, including marital status and living arrangements from age 50, and from age 70, details regarding social support, social contact and loneliness. Results: across the follow-up, participants were less likely to be married...

Negative appraisals and fear extinction are independently related to PTSD symptoms.

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Zuj, Daniel V; Palmer, Matthew A; Gray, Kate E; Hsu, Chia-Ming K; Nicholson, Emma L; Malhi, Gin S; Bryant, Richard A; Felmingham, Kim L

2017-08-01

Considerable research has revealed impaired fear extinction to be a significant predictor of PTSD. Fear extinction is also considered the primary mechanism of exposure therapy, and a critical factor in PTSD recovery. The cognitive theory of PTSD proposes that symptoms persist due to excessive negative appraisals about the trauma and its sequelae. Research has not yet examined the relationship between fear extinction and negative appraisals in PTSD. A cross-sectional sample of participants with PTSD (n =21), and trauma-exposed controls (n =33) underwent a standardized differential fear conditioning and extinction paradigm, with skin conductance response (SCR) amplitude serving as the index of conditioned responses. The Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI) was used to index catastrophic negative appraisals. Participants with PTSD demonstrated a slower decrease in overall SCR responses during extinction and greater negative appraisals compared to the group. A moderation analysis revealed that both negative trauma-relevant appraisals and fear extinction learning were independently associated with PTSD symptoms, but there was no moderation interaction. The current study was limited by a modest sample size, leading to the inclusion of participants with subclinical PTSD symptoms. Further, the current study only assessed fear extinction learning; including a second day extinction recall task may show alternative effects. These findings indicate that negative appraisals and fear extinction did not interact, but had independent relationships with PTSD symptoms. Here we show for the first time in an experimental framework that negative appraisals and fear extinction play separate roles in PTSD symptoms. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

When customers exhibit verbal aggression, employees pay cognitive costs.

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Rafaeli, Anat; Erez, Amir; Ravid, Shy; Derfler-Rozin, Rellie; Treister, Dorit Efrat; Scheyer, Ravit

2012-09-01

In 4 experimental studies, we show that customer verbal aggression impaired the cognitive performance of the targets of this aggression. In Study 1, customers' verbal aggression reduced recall of customers' requests. Study 2 extended these findings by showing that customer verbal aggression impaired recognition memory and working memory among employees of a cellular communication provider. In Study 3, the ability to take another's perspective attenuated the negative effects of customer verbal aggression on participants' cognitive performance. Study 4 linked customer verbal aggression to quality of task performance, showing a particularly negative influence of aggressive requests delivered by high-status customers. Together, these studies suggest that the effects of even minor aggression from customers can strongly affect the immediate cognitive performance of customer service employees and reduce their task performance. The implications for research on aggression and for the practice of customer service are discussed.

Cognitive fatigue in patients with myasthenia gravis.

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Jordan, Berit; Schweden, Tabea L K; Mehl, Theresa; Menge, Uwe; Zierz, Stephan

2017-09-01

Cognitive fatigue has frequently been reported in myasthenia gravis (MG). However, objective assessment of cognitive fatigability has never been evaluated. Thirty-three MG patients with stable generalized disease and 17 healthy controls underwent a test battery including repeated testing of attention and concentration (d2-R) and Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test. Fatigability was based on calculation of linear trend (LT) reflecting dynamic performance within subsequent constant time intervals. Additionally, fatigue questionnaires were used. MG patients showed a negative LT in second d2-R testing, indicating cognitive fatigability. This finding significantly differed from stable cognitive performance in controls (P fatigue was significantly higher in MG patients compared with controls (P fatigue is not correlated with objective findings. Muscle Nerve 56: 449-457, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Relationship Between Endorsement of the Sexual Double Standard and Sexual Cognitions and Emotions.

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Emmerink, Peggy M J; van den Eijnden, Regina J J M; Vanwesenbeeck, Ine; Ter Bogt, Tom F M

Sexual gender norms promoting sexual prowess for men, but sexual modesty for women have been shown to negatively affect sexual and mental health in both men and women. Knowledge about the relationship between gender norms and sexual cognitions and emotions might further the understanding of continued gender-norm conformity. In the present study, we investigated whether and how gendered sexual attitudes are related to (positive and negative) sex-related emotions, via sexual cognitions (autonomy, body esteem, and approach/avoidance motives for sex). A survey was submitted to 293 heterosexually identified, sexually active, Dutch (central and southern regions) 18-25 year-olds. Results from a moderated mediation model (using structural equation modeling) revealed that women, but not men, who more strongly endorsed traditional gender-related sexual attitudes experienced significantly less positive and more negative emotions, as a result of decreased sexual autonomy and sexual body esteem as well as increased avoidance motives for sex. We conclude that, as a result of negative cognitions associated with the endorsement of traditional gender norms, women in particular are at risk of experiencing negative emotional outcomes in the sexual context. We argue that sexual cognitions and emotions deserve explicit attention in sex-positive and gender-transformative sexuality education, which has been proven to be a vital resource for achieving increased gender-equity in sexual and romantic relationships.

Transmission of Cognitive Bias and Fear From Parents to Children: An Experimental Study.

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Remmerswaal, Danielle; Muris, Peter; Huijding, Jorg

2016-01-01

This study explored the role of parents in the development of a cognitive bias and subsequent fear levels in children. In Experiment 1, nonclinical children ages 8-13 (N = 122) underwent a training during which they worked together with their mothers on an information search task. Mothers received instructions to induce either a positive or negative information search bias in their children. Experiment 2 investigated to what extent mothers own cognitive bias predicted children's information search bias. Mothers of 49 nonclinical children ages 9-12 received no explicit training instructions before working together with their child on an information search task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that mothers had a significant impact on children's cognitive bias and fear. More precisely, children who had received a negative parental training displayed an increase in negative information search bias and fear, whereas children who had received a positive parental training showed an increase in positive information search bias and a decrease in fear. In Experiment 2, it was found that children's information search biases after working together with their mothers were predicted by their mothers' initial cognitive bias scores. These findings can be taken as support for the intergenerational transmission of cognitive biases from mothers to children.

Gamification of Cognitive Assessment and Cognitive Training: A Systematic Review of Applications and Efficacy.

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Lumsden, Jim; Edwards, Elizabeth A; Lawrence, Natalia S; Coyle, David; Munafò, Marcus R

2016-07-15

Cognitive tasks are typically viewed as effortful, frustrating, and repetitive, which often leads to participant disengagement. This, in turn, may negatively impact data quality and/or reduce intervention effects. However, gamification may provide a possible solution. If game design features can be incorporated into cognitive tasks without undermining their scientific value, then data quality, intervention effects, and participant engagement may be improved. This systematic review aims to explore and evaluate the ways in which gamification has already been used for cognitive training and assessment purposes. We hope to answer 3 questions: (1) Why have researchers opted to use gamification? (2) What domains has gamification been applied in? (3) How successful has gamification been in cognitive research thus far? We systematically searched several Web-based databases, searching the titles, abstracts, and keywords of database entries using the search strategy (gamif* OR game OR games) AND (cognit* OR engag* OR behavi* OR health* OR attention OR motiv*). Searches included papers published in English between January 2007 and October 2015. Our review identified 33 relevant studies, covering 31 gamified cognitive tasks used across a range of disorders and cognitive domains. We identified 7 reasons for researchers opting to gamify their cognitive training and testing. We found that working memory and general executive functions were common targets for both gamified assessment and training. Gamified tests were typically validated successfully, although mixed-domain measurement was a problem. Gamified training appears to be highly engaging and does boost participant motivation, but mixed effects of gamification on task performance were reported. Heterogeneous study designs and typically small sample sizes highlight the need for further research in both gamified training and testing. Nevertheless, careful application of gamification can provide a way to develop engaging and

Cognitive behavioural interventions in addictive disorders.

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Sudhir, Paulomi M

2018-02-01

Cognitive behaviour therapy is a structured, time limited, psychological intervention that has is empirically supported across a wide variety of psychological disorders. CBT for addictive behaviours can be traced back to the application of learning theories in understanding addiction and subsequently to social cognitive theories. The focus of CBT is manifold and the focus is on targeting maintaining factors of addictive behaviours and preventing relapse. Relapse prevention programmes are based on social cognitive and cognitive behavioural principles. Interventions for preventing relapse include, behavioural strategies to decrease the valence of addictive behaviours, coping skills to deal with craving, arousal, negative mood states, assertiveness skills to manage social pressures, family psychoeducation and environmental manipulation and cognitive strategies to enhance self-efficacy beliefs and modification of outcome expectancies related to addictive behaviours. More recent developments in the area of managing addictions include third wave behaviour therapies. Third wave behaviour therapies are focused on improving building awareness, and distress tolerance skills using mindfulness practices. These approaches have shown promise, and more recently the neurobiological underpinnings of mindfulness strategies have been studied. The article provides an overview of cognitive behavioural approaches to managing addictions.

Attentional deployment is not necessary for successful emotion regulation via cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression.

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Bebko, Genna M; Franconeri, Steven L; Ochsner, Kevin N; Chiao, Joan Y

2014-06-01

According to appraisal theories of emotion, cognitive reappraisal is a successful emotion regulation strategy because it involves cognitively changing our thoughts, which, in turn, change our emotions. However, recent evidence has challenged the importance of cognitive change and, instead, has suggested that attentional deployment may at least partly explain the emotion regulation success of cognitive reappraisal. The purpose of the current study was to examine the causal relationship between attentional deployment and emotion regulation success. We examined 2 commonly used emotion regulation strategies--cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression-because both depend on attention but have divergent behavioral, experiential, and physiological outcomes. Participants were either instructed to regulate emotions during free-viewing (unrestricted image viewing) or gaze-controlled (restricted image viewing) conditions and to self-report negative emotional experience. For both emotion regulation strategies, emotion regulation success was not altered by changes in participant control over the (a) direction of attention (free-viewing vs. gaze-controlled) during image viewing and (b) valence (negative vs. neutral) of visual stimuli viewed when gaze was controlled. Taken together, these findings provide convergent evidence that attentional deployment does not alter subjective negative emotional experience during either cognitive reappraisal or expressive suppression, suggesting that strategy-specific processes, such as cognitive appraisal and response modulation, respectively, may have a greater impact on emotional regulation success than processes common to both strategies, such as attention.

Self stigmatization, cognitive functions and social functioning in mood disorders

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Gulsum Ozge Doganavsargil Baysal

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Internalized stigmatization (IS generally has a negative effect on diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and prognosis of diseases. The purpose of this study is to compare patients with bipolar disorder and unipolar depression both are in remission in terms of IS and social functioning (SF, cognitive function and secondly to consider relationship between IS, cognitive functions and SF. Methods: This cross-sectional study is carried out with bipolar (BD and unipolar depression (UD patients in remission, admitted to the psychiatry outpatient clinics of Akdeniz University Hospital. The sample size is estimated as 35 patients. Basic independent variable is the type of disease and dependent variables are; IS, cognitive functions and SF. Performed scales are: The internalized stigma of mental ilness scale, the social functioning scale and for the assesment of cognitive functions: Wisconsin card sorting, stroop test, test of verbal memory process. Results.Concerning the results there was negative corelation between IS and SF scores in all groups. There was only significant relationship between verbal memory and IS in UD patients. There was not any significant relationship between IS and cognitive function in BD patients. Conclusion: This study indicates that in terms of cognitive functions, patients with unipolar depression are effected as much as the patients with bipolar disorder also manifesting the inverse relation between IS and SF, however cognitive functions were relevant to IS only in UD patients. [Cukurova Med J 2013; 38(3.000: 390-402

Understanding Cognitive Performance During Robot-Assisted Surgery.

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Guru, Khurshid A; Shafiei, Somayeh B; Khan, Atif; Hussein, Ahmed A; Sharif, Mohamed; Esfahani, Ehsan T

2015-10-01

To understand cognitive function of an expert surgeon in various surgical scenarios while performing robot-assisted surgery. In an Internal Review Board approved study, National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire with surgical field notes were simultaneously completed. A wireless electroencephalography (EEG) headset was used to monitor brain activity during all procedures. Three key portions were evaluated: lysis of adhesions, extended lymph node dissection, and urethro-vesical anastomosis (UVA). Cognitive metrics extracted were distraction, mental workload, and mental state. In evaluating lysis of adhesions, mental state (EEG) was associated with better performance (NASA-TLX). Utilizing more mental resources resulted in better performance as self-reported. Outcomes of lysis were highly dependent on cognitive function and decision-making skills. In evaluating extended lymph node dissection, there was a negative correlation between distraction level (EEG) and mental demand, physical demand and effort (NASA-TLX). Similar to lysis of adhesion, utilizing more mental resources resulted in better performance (NASA-TLX). Lastly, with UVA, workload (EEG) negatively correlated with mental and temporal demand and was associated with better performance (NASA-TLX). The EEG recorded workload as seen here was a combination of both cognitive performance (finding solution) and motor workload (execution). Majority of workload was contributed by motor workload of an expert surgeon. During UVA, muscle memory and motor skills of expert are keys to completing the UVA. Cognitive analysis shows that expert surgeons utilized different mental resources based on their need. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neuropsychology of reward learning and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

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Nestor, Paul G; Choate, Victoria; Niznikiewicz, Margaret; Levitt, James J; Shenton, Martha E; McCarley, Robert W

2014-11-01

We used the Iowa Gambling Test (IGT) to examine the relationship of reward learning to both neuropsychological functioning and symptom formation in 65 individuals with schizophrenia. Results indicated that compared to controls, participants with schizophrenia showed significantly reduced reward learning, which in turn correlated with reduced intelligence, memory and executive function, and negative symptoms. The current findings suggested that a disease-related disturbance in reward learning may underlie both cognitive and motivation deficits, as expressed by neuropsychological impairment and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A review of cognitive biases in youth depression: Attention, interpretation and memory

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Platt, B.; Waters, A.M.; Schulte-Korne, G.; Engelmann, L.; Salemink, E.

2017-01-01

Depression is one of the most common mental health problems in childhood and adolescence. Although data consistently show it is associated with self-reported negative cognitive styles, less is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Cognitive biases in attention, interpretation and

The cognitive profile of ALS : A systematic review and meta-analysis update

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beeldman, E.; Raaphorst, J.; Klein Twennaar, M.; de Visser, M.; Schmand, B.A.; de Haan, R.J.

Cognitive impairment is present in approximately 30% of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and, especially when severe, has a negative impact on survival and caregiver burden. Our 2010 meta-analysis of the cognitive profile of ALS showed impairment of fluency, executive function,

The cognitive profile of ALS: a systematic review and meta-analysis update

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beeldman, Emma; Raaphorst, Joost; Klein Twennaar, Michelle; de Visser, Marianne; Schmand, Ben A.; de Haan, Rob J.

2016-01-01

Cognitive impairment is present in approximately 30% of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and, especially when severe, has a negative impact on survival and caregiver burden. Our 2010 meta-analysis of the cognitive profile of ALS showed impairment of fluency, executive function,

You are such a bad child! Appraisals as mechanisms of parental negative and positive affect.

Science.gov (United States)

Gavita, Oana Alexandra; David, Daniel; DiGiuseppe, Raymond

2014-01-01

Although parent cognitions are considered important predictors that determine specific emotional reactions and parental practices, models on the cognitive strategies for regulating parental distress or positive emotions are not well developed. Our aim was to investigate the nature of cognitions involved in parental distress and satisfaction, in terms of their specificity (parental or general) and their processing levels (inferential or evaluative cognitions). We hypothesized that parent's specific evaluative cognitions will mediate the impact of more general and inferential cognitive structures on their affective reactions. We used bootstrapping procedures in order to test the mediation models proposed. Results obtained show indeed that rather specific evaluative parental cognitions are mediating the relationship between general cognitions and parental distress. In terms of the cognitive processing levels, it seems that when parents hold both low self-efficacy and parental negative global evaluations for the self/child, this adds significantly to their distress.

Prevalence of hypotension and its association with cognitive function among older adults.

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Momtaz, Yadollah Abolfathi; Hamid, Tengku Aizan; Haron, Sharifah Azizah; Bagat, Mohamad Fazdillah; Mohammadi, Fatemeh

2018-04-01

The negative effect of hypertension has overshadowed possible health problems associated with hypotension. The purposes of this study were to describe the prevalence of hypotension in older adults and to determine the association between hypotension and cognitive function, after adjusting for possible covariates. The data for the study consisting of 1067 community-dwelling older adults were obtained from a national survey entitled "Identifying Psychosocial and Identifying Economic Risk Factor of Cognitive Impairment among Elderly", conducted in Malaysia. The hypotension was considered as blood pressure age of the respondents was 68.27 (SD = 5.93). Mean score of cognitive function as measured by MMSE was 22.70 (SD = 4.95). The prevalence of hypotension was 29.3%. The prevalence of cognitive impairment for hypotension group was 25.6%. Results of multiple linear regression analysis revealed that hypotension is negatively associated with cognitive function (Beta = -0.11, page, gender, education, marital status, employment status, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and gastritis. The study showing hypotension is significantly associated with decreased cognitive function in later life, implies more attention to low blood pressure in old age.

Interventions to reduce cognitive impairments following critical illness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nedergaard, H K; Jensen, H I; Toft, P

2017-01-01

and sleep quality improvement. Data were synthesized to provide an overview of interventions, quality, follow-up assessments and neuropsychological outcomes. CONCLUSION: None of the interventions had significant positive effects on cognitive impairments following critical illness. Quality was negatively......BACKGROUND: Critical illness is associated with cognitive impairments. Effective treatment or prevention has not been established. The aim of this review was to create a systematic summary of the current evidence concerning clinical interventions during intensive care admission to reduce cognitive...... impairments after discharge. METHODS: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central, PsycInfo and Cinahl were searched. Inclusion criteria were studies assessing the effect of interventions during intensive care admission on cognitive function in adult patients. Studies were excluded if they were reviews or reported...

Relation between coping and posttrauma cognitions on PTSD in a combat-trauma population.

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Sheerin, Christina M; Chowdhury, Nadia; Lind, Mackenzie J; Kurtz, Erin D; Rappaport, Lance M; Berenz, Erin C; Brown, Ruth C; Pickett, Treven; McDonald, Scott D; Danielson, Carla Kmett; Amstadter, Ananda B

2018-01-01

Individual differences in cognitive processes and coping behaviors play a role in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Given the large numbers of combat-exposed service members returning from the Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) conflicts, exploring individual differences in cognitive-affective processes is important for informing our understanding of PTSD etiology and early intervention in military samples. The present study examined the unique main and interactive effects of negative posttrauma cognitions (i.e., negative beliefs about self [NS], the world [NW], and self-blame [SB]) and coping strategies (i.e., positive behavioral, positive cognitive, avoidant coping, and social and emotional coping) on PTSD diagnosis within 155 ( M age = 30.7, SD = 4.48) OEF/OIF/OND combat trauma-exposed veterans recruited from an ongoing study examining the effects of combat trauma and stress reactivity. In the final, stepwise logistic regression analysis, avoidant coping, but no other coping strategy, was significantly positively related to PTSD diagnosis in the initial step. Higher levels of NS, but not NW, were significantly associated with having a PTSD diagnosis, while SB was associated with decreased likelihood of PTSD, above and beyond coping strategies. A significant interaction effect was found between NS and positive cognitive coping, such that greater positive cognitive coping weakened the relationship between NS and PTSD. Examining and addressing coping behaviors and negative thoughts of self jointly may benefit assessment and intervention approaches in a combat-trauma population.

[A study in cognitive complexity of the self: an evaluation of the Linville's index].

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Hayashi, F; Horiuchi, T

1997-02-01

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate H statistic, proposed by Linville (1985, 1987), as an index for cognitive complexity of the self. Linville asserted that high self-complexity would act as a buffer against life stress or depression. One hundred and eighty-seven undergraduates sorted 40 personality-trait adjectives into as many categories as necessary in order to describe themselves. In addition, 126 participants filled out several scales including self-consciousness and esteem. Main findings were as follows: (a) H statistic was not significantly associated with any variable related to the self-ratings, and showed no stress-buffering effect. (b) On the other hand, participants who had high cognitive complexity for the negative aspects of the self, as operationalized by Woolfolk, Novalany, Gara, Allen, and Polino (1995), were low in self-esteem and high in public self-consciousness. The results suggest that cognitive complexity of the negative self may indicate a predisposition for depression or neurosis. (c) Also, women scored significantly higher than men on cognitive complexity of the negative self.

Specificity of Cognitive Vulnerability in Fear and Sad Affect: Anxiety Sensitivity, Looming Cognitive Style and Hopelessness in Emotion Reactivity and Recovery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

del Palacio Gonzalez, Adriana; Clark, David A.

2015-01-01

Cognitive models of the pathogenesis of anxiety and depressive disorders identify looming cognitive style (LCS) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) as vulnerability factors specifically related to anxiety disorders, whereas hopelessness (HS) is considered more applicable to depression. Given...... their dimensional perspective most cognitive models of psychopathology may also be extended to explain normal emotional responses. To investigate the effect of cognitive vulnerability on the reactivity and regulation of negative emotion, 183 undergraduates were assigned to watch a sad or fearful movie clip. Then......, all participants retrieved positive memories in an expressive writing task. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that LCS was uniquely associated with greater fear reactivity. AS and HS were significant predictors of greater fear and sadness after a down-regulation task, respectively...

Feasibility and effectiveness of a cognitive remediation programme with original computerised cognitive training and group intervention for schizophrenia: a multicentre randomised trial.

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Matsuda, Yasuhiro; Morimoto, Tsubasa; Furukawa, Shunichi; Sato, Sayaka; Hatsuse, Norifumi; Iwata, Kazuhiko; Kimura, Mieko; Kishimoto, Toshifumi; Ikebuchi, Emi

2018-04-01

Devising new methods to improve neurocognitive impairment through cognitive remediation is an important research goal. We developed an original computer programme termed the Japanese Cognitive Rehabilitation Programme for Schizophrenia (JCORES) that provides cognitive practice across a broad range of abilities. The current study examined for the first time whether a cognitive remediation programme, including both computerised cognitive training using JCORES and group intervention such as enhancing meta-cognition and teaching strategies, is more effective than treatment as usual for improving neurocognitive and social functioning. Sixty-two outpatients with schizophrenia were randomised to either a cognitive remediation group or a control group. Participants engaged in two computerised cognitive training sessions and one group meeting per week for 12 weeks. The average number of total sessions attended (computerised cognitive practice + group intervention) was 32.3 (89.7%). The cognitive remediation group showed significantly more improvements in verbal memory, composite score of the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia, Japanese version (BACS-J), and general psychopathology on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) than the control group. These findings demonstrate that a cognitive remediation programme is feasible in Japan and is a more effective way to improve neurocognitive functioning and psychiatric symptoms.

Cognitive Change during the Life Course and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Late Middle-Aged Men

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Rask, L.; Bendix, Laila; Harbo, Maria

2016-01-01

style. Design, Setting, and Participants: Two groups of men with negative (n = 97) and positive (n = 93) change in cognitive performance were selected from a birth cohort of 1985 Danish men born in 1953. Cognitive performance of each individual was assessed at age similar to 20 and 56 years. Leukocyte...... telomere length at age similar to 58 was measured using qPCR. Linear regression models were used to investigate the association between cognitive function and leukocyte telomere length. Results: Men with negative change in cognitive performance during adult life had significantly shorter mean leukocyte...... telomere length than men with positive change in cognitive performance (unadjusted difference beta = -0.09, 95% CI -0.16 to -0.02, p = 0.02). This association remained significant after adjusting for smoking, alcohol consumption, leisure time activity, body mass index (BMI) and cholesterol (adjusted...

Negative priming in a numerical Piaget-like task as evidenced by ERP.

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Daurignac, Elsa; Houdé, Olivier; Jouvent, Roland

2006-05-01

Inhibition is a key executive function in adults and children for the acquisition and expression of cognitive abilities. Using event-related potentials in a priming adaptation of a Piaget-like numerical task taken from developmental psychology, we report a negative priming effect in adults measured just after the cognitive inhibition of a misleading strategy, the visuospatial length-equals-number bias. This effect was determined in the N200 information processing stage through increased N200 amplitude. We show here that for accuracy in numerical quantification, the adult brain still had to control the child-like cognition biases that are stored in a kind of "developmental memory."

Cognitive Measures of Adolescent Depression: Unique or Unitary Constructs?

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Ginsburg, Golda S.; Silva, Susan G.; Jacobs, Rachel H.; Tonev, Simon; Hoyle, Rick H.; Kingery, Julie Newman; Reinecke, Mark A.; Curry, John F.; March, John S.

2009-01-01

The factor structure of several self-report questionnaires assessing depression-relevant cognitions frequently employed in clinical research was examined in a sample of 390 adolescents (M age =14.54; 216 girls; 74% Caucasian) with current major depressive disorder enrolled in the Treatment of Adolescents with Depression Study. A four-factor solution resulted, accounting for 65% of the total variance. The factors were labeled (a) Cognitive Distortions and Maladaptive Beliefs, (b) Cognitive Avoidance, (c) Positive Outlook, and (d) Solution-Focused Thinking. Internal consistencies for the factor-based composite scores were .83, .85, .84, and .82, respectively. Girls endorsed more negative cognitions than boys on three of the four factors. Maladaptive cognitions were positively related to severity of depression and predicted treatment response. Taken together, findings indicated that there are four distinct domains of cognitions that are present among adolescents with depression that are tapped by several widely used self-report measures of cognitions. PMID:20183663

Can exercise prevent cognitive decline?

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Behrman, Sophie; Ebmeier, Klaus P

2014-01-01

As the tolerability of pharmacological agents decreases with age, exercise may be particularly helpful as a possible treatment or stabiliser of mood and cognitive function in older age. Exercise has been most commonly evaluated for the treatment of depression. Exercise interventions designed primarily for treatment of physical conditions in the elderly do appear to confer psychological benefits as well, with reduction in depressive symptoms over the course of treatment. The effects of exercise on reducing depressive symptoms are not dissimilar to the effects of antidepressant drugs and cognitive behaviour therapy. Exercise may be a useful low-tech intervention for people with mild to moderate depression. In particular, exercise may be helpful in the elderly and in patients who have had insufficient response to, or are intolerant of, pharmacotherapy. Mastery of a new skill and positive feedback from others may increase feelings of self-esteem and improve mood. Exercise may distract participants from persistent negative thoughts. Exercise has been shown to improve executive function acutely in adults of all ages. It is possible that dance routines or other exercise regimens requiring some cognitive input may confer additional benefit to cognitive function. Exercise has a moderate effect on the ability of people with dementia to perform activities of daily living and may improve cognitive function. Midlife exercise may also have an impact on later cognitive function.

Negative attitude towards medication is associated with working memory impairment in schizophrenia patients.

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Goodman, Craig; Knoll, Gabriella; Isakov, Victoria; Silver, Henry

2005-03-01

A lack of insight into illness and negative attitudes towards medication are common among individuals with schizophrenia and impact clinical outcomes. This study aimed to examine the relationships between attitudes towards medication and cognitive function in schizophrenia patients. Thirty-five male forensic inpatients who were suffering from chronic schizophrenia participated in the study. A drug attitude inventory was used to evaluate the attitudes of the patients towards medication. Neuropsychological function was assessed with a comprehensive battery of tests. Patients with positive attitudes towards medication performed significantly better than those with negative attitudes on tests of verbal working memory (digit span forwards and backwards), inhibition and set shifting (Penn Inhibition test), delayed object memory and overall mental status (Mini Mental State Examination). There were no differences in age, education, hospitalizations or clinical symptoms between the groups. Our findings support an association between negative attitudes towards medication and poor cognitive performance, particularly of working memory.

Gamification of cognitive assessment and cognitive training: A systematic review of applications, approaches and efficacy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jim Lumsden

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Cognitive tasks are typically viewed as effortful, frustrating and repetitive, and these factors may lead participants to disengage with the task at hand. This, in turn, may negatively impact our data quality and reduce any intervention effects. Gamification may provide a solution. If we can successfully import game design elements into cognitive tasks without undermining their scientific value, then we may be able improve the quality of data, increase the effectiveness of our interventions, and maximise participant engagement. We conducted a systematic review of the existing literature of gamified cognitive testing and training tasks to identify where, how and why gamification has been used, and whether it has been successful. We searched several online databases, from January 2007 to January 2015, and screened 33,000 articles that matched our search terms. Our review identified 34 relevant studies, covering 31 gamified cognitive tasks used across a wide range of disorders and cognitive domains. Gamified cognitive training to relieve attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms was particularly prominent. We also found that the majority of gamified cognitive tasks were validated successfully and were rated as enjoyable or engaging by the study participants. Despite this, the heterogeneity of study designs and typically small sample sizes highlights the need for further research. We describe the game mechanics used in gamified cognitive tasks, their effectiveness and how they relate to several models of player engagement. In conclusion the evidence suggests that gamification can provide a way to develop engaging and scientifically valid cognitive tasks, but that no single game can be engaging to every participant and therefore gamification is not a silver-bullet for all motivational problems in psychological research.

Alcohol-related memory associations in positive and negative affect situations: Drinking motives, working memory capacity, and prospective drinking

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Salemink, E.; Wiers, R.W.

2014-01-01

Although studies on explicit alcohol cognitions have identified positive and negative reinforcing drinking motives that are differentially related to drinking indices, such a distinction has received less attention in studies on implicit cognitions. An alcohol-related Word-Sentence Association Task

The effects of low-intensity cycling on cognitive performance following sleep deprivation.

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Slutsky, Alexis B; Diekfuss, Jed A; Janssen, James A; Berry, Nate T; Shih, Chia-Hao; Raisbeck, Louisa D; Wideman, Laurie; Etnier, Jennifer L

2017-10-15

This study examined the effect of 24h of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance and assessed the effect of acute exercise on cognitive performance following sleep deprivation. Young, active, healthy adults (n=24, 14 males) were randomized to control (age=24.7±3.7years, BMI=27.2±7.0) or exercise (age=25.3±3.3years, BMI=25.6±5.1) groups. Cognitive testing included a 5-min psychomotor vigilance task (PVT), three memory tasks with increasing cognitive load, and performance of the PVT a second time. On morning one, cognitive testing followed a typical night's sleep. Following 24-h of sustained wakefulness, cognitive testing was conducted again prior to and after the acute intervention. Participants in the exercise condition performed low-intensity cycling (∼40%HRR) for 15-min and those in the control condition sat quietly on the bike for 15-min. t-Tests revealed sleep deprivation negatively affected performance on the PVT, but did not affect memory performance. Following the acute intervention, there were no cognitive performance differences between the exercise and rested conditions. We provide support for previous literature suggesting that during simple tasks, sleep deprivation has negative effects on cognitive performance. Importantly, in contrast to previous literature which has shown multiple bouts of exercise adding to cognitive detriment when combined with sleep deprivation, our results did not reveal any further detriments to cognitive performance from a single-bout of exercise following sleep deprivation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning from Negative Feedback in Patients with Major Depressive Disorder is Attenuated by SSRI Antidepressants

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Mohammad M. Herzallah

2013-09-01

Full Text Available One barrier to interpreting past studies of cognition and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD has been the failure in many studies to adequately dissociate the effects of MDD from the potential cognitive side effects of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI use. To better understand how remediation of depressive symptoms affects cognitive function in MDD, we evaluated three groups of subjects: medication-naïve patients with MDD, medicated patients with MDD receiving the SSRI paroxetine and healthy control subjects. All were administered a category-learning task that allows for dissociation between learning from positive feedback (reward versus learning from negative feedback (punishment. Healthy subjects learned significantly better from positive feedback than medication-naïve and medicated MDD groups, whose learning accuracy did not differ significantly. In contrast, medicated patients with MDD learned significantly less from negative feedback than medication-naïve patients with MDD and healthy subjects, whose learning accuracy was comparable. A comparison of subject’s relative sensitivity to positive versus negative feedback showed that both the medicated MDD and healthy control groups conform to Kahneman and Tversky’s (1979 Prospect Theory, which expects losses (negative feedback to loom psychologically slightly larger than gains (positive feedback. However, medicated MDD and HC profiles are not similar, which indicates that the state of medicated MDD is not ‘normal’ when compared to HC, but rather balanced with less learning from both positive and negative feedback. On the other hand, medication-naïve patients with MDD violate Prospect Theory by having significantly exaggerated learning from negative feedback. This suggests that SSRI antidepressants impair learning from negative feedback, while having negligible effect on learning from positive feedback. Overall, these findings shed light on the importance of dissociating the

Cognitive vulnerabilities as mediators between emotional abuse and depressive symptoms.

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Padilla Paredes, Patricia; Calvete, Esther

2014-01-01

This study tested whether childhood parental emotional abuse and peer emotional bullying serve as antecedents of depression in adolescence and identified the cognitive mechanisms involved in this process. It was hypothesized that the experience of emotional abuse would predict depressive symptoms via development of rumination and negative inferences. A 3-wave longitudinal study was carried out with 998 adolescents (471 girls and 526 boys) between 13 and 17 years of age. Results showed that emotional abuse by parents and peers at Time 1 predicted a worsening of several cognitive vulnerabilities at Time 2. In addition, brooding mediated between the experiences of abuse and the increase of depressive symptoms at Time 3. Thus, findings suggest that the experiences of childhood emotional abuse by parents and peers serve as antecedents to develop a negative cognitive style, vulnerability that, once developed, is a risk factor for the onset of depressive symptoms in adolescence.

Neurocognitive correlates of the effects of yoga meditation practice on emotion and cognition: A Pilot Study

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Brett eFroeliger

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Mindfulness meditation involves attending to emotions without cognitive fixation of emotional experience. Over time, this practice is held to promote alterations in trait affectivity and attentional control with resultant effects on well-being and cognition. However, relatively little is known regarding the neural substrates of meditation effects on emotion and cognition. The present study investigated the neurocognitive correlates of emotion interference on cognition in Yoga practitioners and a matched control group underwent fMRI while performing an event-related affective Stroop task. The task includes image viewing trials and Stroop trials bracketed by neutral or negative emotional distractors. During image viewing trials, Yoga practitioners exhibited less reactivity in right dlPFC to negative as compared to neutral images; whereas the control group had the opposite pattern. A main effect of valence (negative > neutral was observed in limbic regions (e.g. amygdala, of which the magnitude was inversely related to dlPFC activation. Exploratory analyses revealed that the magnitude of amygdala activation predicted decreased self-reported positive affect in the Control group, but not among Yoga practitioners. During Stroop trials, Yoga practitioners had greater activation in vlPFC during Stroop trials when negative, compared to neutral, emotional distractor were presented; the control group exhibited the opposite pattern. Taken together, these data suggest that though Yoga practitioners exhibit limbic reactivity to negative emotional stimuli, such reactivity does not have downstream effects on later mood state. This uncoupling of viewing negative emotional images and affect among Yoga practitioners may be occasioned by their selective implementation of frontal executive-dependent strategies to reduce emotional interference during competing cognitive demands and not during emotional processing per se.

Triglycerides are negatively correlated with cognitive function in nondemented aging adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Parthasarathy, Vishnu; Frazier, Darvis T; Bettcher, Brianne M; Jastrzab, Laura; Chao, Linda; Reed, Bruce; Mungas, Dan; Weiner, Michael; DeCarli, Charles; Chui, Helena; Kramer, Joel H

2017-09-01

Vascular risk factors like hyperlipidemia may adversely affect brain function. We hypothesized that increased serum triglycerides are associated with decreased executive function and memory in nondemented elderly subjects. We also researched possible vascular mediators and white matter microstructure as assessed with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Participants were 251 nondemented elderly adults (54% male) with a mean age of 78 (SD = 6.4; range: 62-94) years and a mean education of 15.6 (SD = 2.9; range: 8-23) years. Fasting blood samples were used to detect serum triglyceride and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels along with ApoE4 status. DTI was used to determine whole brain fractional anisotropy (FA). Composite executive and memory scores were derived from item response theory. Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scores provided informant-based measures of daily functioning. Triglyceride levels were inversely correlated with executive function, but there was no relationship with memory. Controlling for age, gender, and education did not affect this correlation. This relationship persisted after controlling for vascular risk factors like LDL, total cholesterol, CDR and ApoE4 status. Lastly, adding whole-brain FA to the model did not affect the correlation between triglycerides and executive function. Triglyceride levels are inversely correlated with executive function in nondemented elderly adults after controlling for age, education, gender, total cholesterol, LDL, ApoE4 status, CDR, and white-matter microstructure. The fact that the effect of triglycerides on cognition was not clearly mediated by vascular risks or cerebrovascular injury raises questions about widely held assumptions of how triglycerides might impact cognition function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

A Cognitive-Interpersonal Model of Adolescent Depression: The Impact of Family Conflict and Depressogenic Cognitive Styles

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Auerbach, Randy P.; Ho, Moon-Ho Ringo

2012-01-01

The goal of the study is to examine whether family conflict generates peer-related stress and subsequent depressive symptoms among adolescents. In addition, in the context of the proposed mediation model, we examine whether negative cognitive styles about the self, cause, and consequences moderate the mediational pathway between peer stress and…

Psychometric Properties of the Grief Cognitions Questionnaire for Children (GCQ-C)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Spuij (Mariken); P.J. Prinzie (Peter); P.A. Boelen (Paul A.)

2017-01-01

textabstractNegative thinking is seen as an important mediating factor in the development of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a syndrome encompassing debilitating symptoms of grief. No measure of specific grief related cognitions is available yet. Based on an adult measure of negative thinking in

Psychometric Properties of the Grief Cognitions Questionnaire for Children (GCQ-C)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Spuij, Mariken; Prinzie, Peter; Boelen, Paul A.

2017-01-01

Negative thinking is seen as an important mediating factor in the development of prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a syndrome encompassing debilitating symptoms of grief. No measure of specific grief related cognitions is available yet. Based on an adult measure of negative thinking in adults we

Cognitive-behavioral couple therapy.

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Epstein, Norman B; Zheng, Le

2017-02-01

This article describes how cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) provides a good fit for intervening with a range of stressors that couples experience from within and outside their relationship. It takes an ecological perspective in which a couple is influenced by multiple systemic levels. We provide an overview of assessment and intervention strategies used to modify negative behavioral interaction patterns, inappropriate or distorted cognitions, and problems with the experience and regulation of emotions. Next, we describe how CBCT can assist couples in coping with stressors involving (a) a partner's psychological disorder (e.g. depression), (b) physical health problems (e.g. cancer), (c) external stressors (e.g. financial strain), and (d) severe relational problems (e.g. partner aggression). Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural Temporal Dynamics of Facial Emotion Processing: Age Effects and Relationship to Cognitive Function

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaoyan Liao

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This study used event-related potentials (ERPs to investigate the effects of age on neural temporal dynamics of processing task-relevant facial expressions and their relationship to cognitive functions. Negative (sad, afraid, angry, and disgusted, positive (happy, and neutral faces were presented to 30 older and 31 young participants who performed a facial emotion categorization task. Behavioral and ERP indices of facial emotion processing were analyzed. An enhanced N170 for negative faces, in addition to intact right-hemispheric N170 for positive faces, was observed in older adults relative to their younger counterparts. Moreover, older adults demonstrated an attenuated within-group N170 laterality effect for neutral faces, while younger adults showed the opposite pattern. Furthermore, older adults exhibited sustained temporo-occipital negativity deflection over the time range of 200–500 ms post-stimulus, while young adults showed posterior positivity and subsequent emotion-specific frontal negativity deflections. In older adults, decreased accuracy for labeling negative faces was positively correlated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scores, and accuracy for labeling neutral faces was negatively correlated with age. These findings suggest that older people may exert more effort in structural encoding for negative faces and there are different response patterns for the categorization of different facial emotions. Cognitive functioning may be related to facial emotion categorization deficits observed in older adults. This may not be attributable to positivity effects: it may represent a selective deficit for the processing of negative facial expressions in older adults.

Infant Cries Rattle Adult Cognition.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Dudek

Full Text Available The attention-grabbing quality of the infant cry is well recognized, but how the emotional valence of infant vocal signals affects adult cognition and cortical activity has heretofore been unknown. We examined the effects of two contrasting infant vocalizations (cries vs. laughs on adult performance on a Stroop task using a cross-modal distraction paradigm in which infant distractors were vocal and targets were visual. Infant vocalizations were presented before (Experiment 1 or during each Stroop trial (Experiment 2. To evaluate the influence of infant vocalizations on cognitive control, neural responses to the Stroop task were obtained by measuring electroencephalography (EEG and event-related potentials (ERPs in Experiment 1. Based on the previously demonstrated existence of negative arousal bias, we hypothesized that cry vocalizations would be more distracting and invoke greater conflict processing than laugh vocalizations. Similarly, we expected participants to have greater difficulty shifting attention from the vocal distractors to the target task after hearing cries vs. after hearing laughs. Behavioral results from both experiments showed a cry interference effect, in which task performance was slower with cry than with laugh distractors. Electrophysiology data further revealed that cries more than laughs reduced attention to the task (smaller P200 and increased conflict processing (larger N450, albeit differently for incongruent and congruent trials. Results from a correlation analysis showed that the amplitudes of P200 and N450 were inversely related, suggesting a reciprocal relationship between attention and conflict processing. The findings suggest that cognitive control processes contribute to an attention bias to infant signals, which is modulated in part by the valence of the infant vocalization and the demands of the cognitive task. The findings thus support the notion that infant cries elicit a negative arousal bias that is

Decision making, cognitive distortions and emotional distress: A comparison between pathological gamblers and healthy controls.

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Ciccarelli, Maria; Griffiths, Mark D; Nigro, Giovanna; Cosenza, Marina

2017-03-01

The etiology of problem gambling is multifaceted and complex. Among others factors, poor decision making, cognitive distortions (i.e., irrational beliefs about gambling), and emotional factors (e.g., negative mood states) appear to be among the most important factors in the development and maintenance of problem gambling. Although empirical evidence has suggested that cognitive distortions facilitate gambling and negative emotions are associated with gambling, the interplay between cognitive distortions, emotional states, and decision making in gambling remains unexplored. Pathological gamblers (N = 54) and healthy controls (N = 54) completed the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), the Gambling Related Cognitions Scale (GRCS), and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Compared to healthy controls, pathological gamblers showed poorer decision making and reported higher scores on measures assessing cognitive distortions and emotional distress. All measures were positively associated with gambling severity. A significant negative correlation between decision making and cognitive distortions was also observed. No associations were found between poor decision making and emotional distress. Logistic regression analysis indicated that cognitive distortions, emotional distress, and poor decision making were significant predictors of problem gambling. The use of self-report measures and the absence of female participants limit the generalizability of the reported findings. The present study is the first to demonstrate the mutual influence between irrational beliefs and poor decision making, as well as the role of cognitive bias, emotional distress, and poor decision making in gambling disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual differences in the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal predict the reward-related processing.

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Sai, Liyang; Wang, Sisi; Ward, Anne; Ku, Yixuan; Sang, Biao

2015-01-01

Recent studies have shown that instructed cognitive reappraisal can regulate the neural processing of reward. However, it is still unclear whether the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life is related to brain activity involved in reward processing. In the present study, participants' neural responses to reward were measured using electroencephalography (EEG) recorded during a gambling task and their tendency to use cognitive reappraisal was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Event-related potential (ERP) results indicated that losses on the gambling task elicited greater negative reward-related feedback negativity (FN) than gains. The differential FN between losses and gains was significantly correlated with cognitive reappraisal scores across participants such that individuals with a higher tendency to use cognitive reappraisal showed stronger reward processing (i.e., amplified FN difference between losses and gains). This correlation remained significant after controlling for expressive suppression scores. However, expressive suppression per se was not correlated with FN differences. Taken together, these results suggest that the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal is associated with increased neural processing of reward.

Fluid cognitive ability is associated with greater exposure and smaller reactions to daily stressors.

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Stawski, Robert S; Almeida, David M; Lachman, Margie E; Tun, Patricia A; Rosnick, Christopher B

2010-06-01

The authors of this study investigated whether fluid cognitive ability predicts exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors. A national sample of adults from the Midlife in the United States study and the National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 1,202) who had a mean age of 57 years (SD = 12; 56% women, 44% men) completed positive and negative mood reports as well as a stressor diary on 8 consecutive evenings via telephone. Participants also completed a telephone-based battery of tests measuring fluid cognitive ability. Higher levels of fluid cognitive ability were associated with greater exposure to work- and home-related overload stressors. Possessing higher levels of fluid cognitive ability was associated with smaller stressor-related increases in negative mood, primarily for interpersonal tensions and network stressors, and smaller stressor-related decreases in positive mood for interpersonal tensions. Furthermore, fluid cognitive ability was unrelated to subjective severity ratings of the stressors reported. Discussion focuses on the role of fluid cognitive ability in daily stress processes. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Performance costs when emotion tunes inappropriate cognitive abilities: implications for mental resources and behavior.

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Storbeck, Justin

2012-08-01

Emotion tunes cognition, such that approach-motivated positive states promote verbal cognition, whereas withdrawal-motivated negative states promote spatial cognition (Gray, 2001). The current research examined whether self-control resources become depleted and influence subsequent behavior when emotion tunes an inappropriate cognitive tendency. In 2 experiments, either an approach-motivated positive state or a withdrawal-motivated negative state was induced, and then participants completed a verbal or a spatial working memory task creating conditions of emotion-cognition alignment (e.g., approach/verbal) or misalignment (e.g., approach/spatial). A control condition was also included. To examine behavioral costs due to depleted self-control resources, participants completed either a Stroop task (Stroop, 1935; Experiment 1) or a Black/White implicit association test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; Experiment 2). Participants in the misalignment conditions performed worse on the Stroop task, and they were worse at controlling their implicit attitude biases on the IAT. Thus, when emotion tunes inappropriate cognitive tendencies for one's current environment, self-control resources become depleted, impairing behavioral control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive function is associated with risk aversion in community-based older persons

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Buchman Aron S

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Emerging data from younger and middle-aged persons suggest that cognitive ability is negatively associated with risk aversion, but this association has not been studied among older persons who are at high risk of experiencing loss of cognitive function. Methods Using data from 369 community-dwelling older persons without dementia from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing longitudinal epidemiologic study of aging, we examined the correlates of risk aversion and tested the hypothesis that cognition is negatively associated with risk aversion. Global cognition and five specific cognitive abilities were measured via detailed cognitive testing, and risk aversion was measured using standard behavioral economics questions in which participants were asked to choose between a certain monetary payment ($15 versus a gamble in which they could gain more than $15 or gain nothing; potential gamble gains ranged from $21.79 to $151.19 with the gain amounts varied randomly over questions. We first examined the bivariate associations of age, education, sex, income and cognition with risk aversion. Next, we examined the associations between cognition and risk aversion via mixed models adjusted for age, sex, education, and income. Finally, we conducted sensitivity analyses to ensure that our results were not driven by persons with preclinical cognitive impairment. Results In bivariate analyses, sex, education, income and global cognition were associated with risk aversion. However, in a mixed effect model, only sex (estimate = -1.49, standard error (SE = 0.39, p i.e., semantic memory, episodic memory, working memory, and perceptual speed; performance on visuospatial abilities was not. Conclusion A lower level of cognitive ability and female sex are associated with greater risk aversion in advanced age.

Decision making, cognitive distortions and emotional distress: a comparison between pathological gamblers and healthy controls

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Ciccarelli, M; Griffiths, MD; Nigro, G; Cosenza, M

2017-01-01

Background and objectives: The etiology of problem gambling is multifaceted and complex. Among others factors, poor decision making, cognitive distortions (i.e., irrational beliefs about gambling), and emotional factors (e.g., negative mood states) appear to be among the most important factors in the development and maintenance of problem gambling. Although empirical evidence has suggested that cognitive distortions facilitate gambling and negative emotions are associated with gambling, the i...

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Following Stillbirth: Trauma Characteristics, Locus of Control, Posttraumatic Cognitions.

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Chung, Man Cheung; Reed, Jacqueline

2017-06-01

This study examined the incidence of PTSD and psychiatric co-morbidity among women who experienced stillbirth and investigated the relationship between locus of control, trauma characteristics of stillbirth, posttraumatic cognitions, PTSD and co-morbid psychiatric symptoms following stillbirth. Fifty women recorded information on stillbirth experiences, and completed the Posttraumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale, General Health Questionnaire-28, Edinburgh Post-natal Depression Scale, Rotter's Locus of Control Scale and the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory. 60, 28 and 12 % met the diagnostic criteria for probable full-PTSD, partial and no-PTSD respectively. Sixty-two percent and 54 % scored at or above the cutoff of the General Health Questionnaire-28 and postnatal depression respectively. Women who experienced stillbirth reported significantly more psychiatric co-morbid and post-natal depressive symptoms than the comparison group. Both groups were similar in locus of control. Women who experienced stillbirth reported negative cognitions about the self the most. After adjusting for postnatal depression, trauma characteristics were significantly correlated with Posttraumatic cognitions which, in turn, were significantly correlated with PTSD and psychiatric co-morbidity. Locus of control was not significantly correlated with psychological outcomes. Mediational analyses showed that negative cognitions about self mediated the relationship between trauma characteristics and psychiatric co-morbidity only. Women reported a high incidence of probable PTSD and co-morbid psychiatric symptoms following stillbirth. Stillbirth trauma characteristics influenced how they negatively perceived themselves. This then specifically influenced general psychological problems rather than PTSD symptoms.

Emotional exhaustion and cognitive performance in apparently healthy teachers: a longitudinal multi-source study.

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Feuerhahn, Nicolas; Stamov-Roßnagel, Christian; Wolfram, Maren; Bellingrath, Silja; Kudielka, Brigitte M

2013-10-01

We investigate how emotional exhaustion (EE), the core component of burnout, relates to cognitive performance, job performance and health. Cognitive performance was assessed by self-rated cognitive stress symptoms, self-rated and peer-rated cognitive impairments in everyday tasks and a neuropsychological test of learning and memory (LGT-3); job performance and physical health were gauged by self-reports. Cross-sectional linear regression analyses in a sample of 100 teachers confirm that EE is negatively related to cognitive performance as assessed by self-rating and peer-rating as well as neuropsychological testing (all p Longitudinal linear regression analyses confirm similar trends (p longitudinal analyses, EE also significantly predicts physical health. Contrary to our expectations, EE does not affect job performance. When reversed causation is tested, none of the outcome variables at Time 1 predict EE at Time 2. This speaks against cognitive dysfunctioning serving as a vulnerability factor for exhaustion. In sum, results underpin the negative consequences of EE for cognitive performance and health, which are relevant for individuals and organizations alike. In this way, findings might contribute to the understanding of the burnout syndrome. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Psychological determinants of erectile dysfunction: testing a cognitive-emotional model.

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Nobre, Pedro J

2010-04-01

Recent studies have shown the impact of sexual dysfunctional beliefs, negative cognitive schemas, negative automatic thoughts, and depressed affect on male erectile dysfunction. Despite this fact, there are only few conceptual models that try to integrate these findings, and more importantly, there is a lack of studies that test the validity of those conceptual models. The aim of the present article was to test a cognitive-emotional model for erectile dysfunction. Taking previous research findings into account, we developed a cognitive-emotional model for erectile disorder (ED) and used path analysis to test it. A total of 352 men (303 participants from the general population and 49 participants with a DSM-IV diagnosis of sexual dysfunction) answered a set of questionnaires assessing cognitive and emotional variables. Erectile Function measured by the EF subscale of the International Index of Erectile Function, cognitive schemas measured by the Questionnaire of Cognitive Schema Activation in Sexual Context, sexual beliefs measured by the Sexual Dysfunctional Beliefs Questionnaire, thoughts and emotions measured by the Sexual Modes Questionnaire. The effects of the main proposed direct predictors explained 55% of the erectile function variance (R = 0.74). Most remaining direct effects proposed in the model were also statistically significant. The analysis of the absolute residuals showed that most of the implied correlations were close to the observed zero order correlations, indicated the adjustment of the model to the observed data. These findings support the role played by cognitive and emotional factors on the predisposition and maintenance of male erectile dysfunction and suggest important implications for assessment and treatment of ED.

Effect of Cognitive Processing Therapy and Holographic Reprocessing on Reduction of Posttraumatic Cognitions in Students Exposed to Trauma

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Parviz molavi

2011-10-01

Full Text Available "nObjective: This research was conducted to examine the effect of cognitive processing therapy and holographic reprocessing on the reduction of posttraumatic cognitions in students exposed to trauma. "nMethod: This was an experimental study with spread pretest-posttest randomized groups design. Statistical society of this research consisted of male freshman, junior and senior high school students of Uremia (N=10286. Utilizing Traumatic Events Screening Inventory, and SCL-90 R on 1000 randomly selected high school students, 129 students were recognized as having experienced traumatic events. Of the subjects, 60 were selected randomly. Then, clinical interview was conducted, and the selected sample was randomly assigned in to three groups of cognitive processing therapy, holographic reprocessing and control. These groups responded to Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory in pretest and post test. Differences of pre-post test scores were analyzed using one way ANOVA and Scheffe test. "nResults: The results demonstrated significant differences between the three groups in total score of the Posttraumatic Cognition Inventory. Difference was also observed in negative cognitions on self and self-blame dimensions. Furthermore, these two therapeutic methods were equally effective in the reduction of posttraumatic cognitions.   "nConclusion: It appears that cognitive processing therapy and holographic reprocessing which had been originally developed and tested for sexually assaulted females, can also be applied for the victims of other traumatic events, particularly  adolescents.

Cognitive performance and iron status are negatively associated with hookworm infection in Cambodian schoolchildren

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Khov, Kuong; Fiorentino, Marion; Perignon, Marlene

2016-01-01

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection has been associated with lower cognitive performance of schoolchildren. To identify pathways through which STH infection might affect school performance, baseline data from a large rice-fortification trial in Cambodian schoolchildren were used to investig...

Executive functioning during full and partial remission (positive and negative symptomatic remission) of schizophrenia.

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Braw, Yoram; Benozio, Avi; Levkovitz, Yechiel

2012-12-01

Despite the upsurge of research regarding cognitive impairment in schizophrenia we still lack adequate understanding of the executive functioning of patients in symptomatic remission. Moreover, the cognitive functioning of patients in partial remission has not been studied previously although they comprise a significant proportion of schizophrenia patients. The current study therefore examined the executive functioning of patients in full symptomatic remission and for the first time assessed two sub-groups of patients in partial remission. Executive functioning of five groups was compared; symptomatic patients, patients in positive symptomatic remission, negative symptomatic remission, full symptomatic remission (SP, PSR, NSR, and FSR; N=101) and healthy controls (N=37). A graded cognitive profile was evident between the groups. SP patients exhibited widespread executive dysfunction while the performance of FSR patients was comparable to that of the healthy controls. Both PSR and NSR patients had working memory deficits, with PSR patients showing additional deficits in cognitive planning. The findings are encouraging, tentatively suggesting intact executive functioning among patients in full symptomatic remission. The graded cognitive profile of the patient groups strengthens earlier findings indicating the significant role of negative symptoms in determining executive dysfunction in schizophrenia. The findings point toward potential targets for therapeutic efforts and emphasize the need for further research of sub-groups of schizophrenia patients in partial remission. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Selective phosphodiesterase inhibitors: a promising target for cognition enhancement

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Reneerkens, Olga A. H.; Rutten, Kris; Steinbusch, Harry W. M.; Blokland, Arjan; Prickaerts, Jos

2008-01-01

Rationale One of the major complaints most people face during aging is an impairment in cognitive functioning. This has a negative impact on the quality of daily life and is even more prominent in patients suffering from neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders including Alzheimer?s disease, schizophrenia, and depression. So far, the majority of cognition enhancers are generally targeting one particular neurotransmitter system. However, recently phosphodiesterases (PDEs) have gained increa...

Association of cognition with temporal discounting in community based older persons

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Boyle Patricia A

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that cognitive function is negatively associated with temporal discounting in old age. Methods Participants were 388 community-dwelling older persons without dementia from the Rush Memory and Aging Project, an ongoing longitudinal epidemiologic study of aging in the Chicago metropolitan area. Temporal discounting was measured using standard questions in which participants were asked to choose between an immediate, smaller payment and a delayed, larger one. Cognition was measured using a detailed battery including 19 tests. The association between cognition and temporal discounting was examined via mixed models adjusted for age, sex, education, income, and the number of chronic medical conditions. Results Descriptive data revealed a consistent pattern whereby older persons with lower cognitive function were more likely to discount greater but delayed rewards compared to those with higher cognitive function. Further, in a mixed effect model adjusted for age, sex, education, income, and chronic medical conditions, global cognitive function was negatively associated with temporal discounting (estimate = −0.45, SE = 0.18, p = 0.015, such that a person with lower cognition exhibited greater discounting. Finally, in subsequent models examining domain specific associations, perceptual speed and visuospatial abilities were associated with temporal discounting, but episodic memory, semantic memory and working memory were not. Conclusion Among older persons without dementia, a lower level of cognitive function is associated with greater temporal discounting. These findings have implications regarding the ability of older persons to make decisions that involve delayed rewards but maximize well-being.

Need for cognition and attitudes toward immigrants among russian students

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Sergei A. Shchebetenko

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The author examined how need for cognition may contribute to the attitudes toward immigrants among Russian students. It was shown that although need for cognition may not correlate with attitude toward immigrants directly it might either interact with other factors or influence several relations of attitudes. Specifically, low need for cognition may facilitate the application of immigrants' ethnicity as a cue for the attitudes toward immigrants. On the contrary, those participants having highneed for cognition probably may not use immigrants ethnicity as a cue for attitudes. Additionally, need for cognition might make attitudes toward immigrants more positive among Russian women comparing with Russian men. Furthermore, a positive correlation between perceived stereotypicity and attitude toward immigrants was eliminated among lowneed for cognition participants. Moreover, this correlation has become even negative among lowneed for cognition males. The results of the study are discussed.

Neural activation associated with the cognitive emotion regulation of sadness in healthy children

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Andy C. Belden

2014-07-01

Full Text Available When used effectively, cognitive reappraisal of distressing events is a highly adaptive cognitive emotion regulation (CER strategy, with impairments in cognitive reappraisal associated with greater risk for psychopathology. Despite extensive literature examining the neural correlates of cognitive reappraisal in healthy and psychiatrically ill adults, there is a dearth of data to inform the neural bases of CER in children, a key gap in the literature necessary to map the developmental trajectory of cognitive reappraisal. In this fMRI study, psychiatrically healthy schoolchildren were instructed to use cognitive reappraisal to modulate their emotional reactions and responses of negative affect after viewing sad photos. Consistent with the adult literature, when actively engaged in reappraisal compared to passively viewing sad photos, children showed increased activation in the vlPFC, dlPFC, and dmPFC as well as in parietal and temporal lobe regions. When children used cognitive reappraisal to minimize their experience of negative affect after viewing sad stimuli they exhibited dampened amygdala responses. Results are discussed in relation to the importance of identifying and characterizing neural processes underlying adaptive CER strategies in typically developing children in order to understand how these systems go awry and relate to the risk and occurrence of affective disorders.

Worry amplifies theory-of-mind reasoning for negatively valenced social stimuli in generalized anxiety disorder.

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Zainal, Nur Hani; Newman, Michelle G

2018-02-01

Theory-of-mind (ToM) is the ability to accurately infer others' thoughts and feelings. In generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), cognitive and emotion regulation theories allude to the plausibility that ToM is conditional on the degree of individuals' state worry, a hallmark symptom. GAD and state worry may interact to predict ToM constructs. However, no experiments have directly tested such interactional hypotheses, and used ToM as a framework to advance understanding of social cognition in GAD. This study therefore aimed to address this gap. 171 participants (69 GAD, 102 Controls) were randomly assigned to either a Worry or Relaxation induction and completed well-validated ToM decoding (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test) and reasoning (Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition) tasks. GAD status significantly interacted with state worry to predict accuracy of overall reasoning, cognitive-reasoning, positive-reasoning, and negative-reasoning ToM. Worry, as opposed to relaxation, led sufferers of GAD to display more accurate overall reasoning and cognitive-reasoning ToM than controls, especially for negative signals. Participants with GAD who worried, but not relaxed, were also significantly better than the norm at interpreting negative signals. These findings remained after controlling for gender, executive function, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms. For other ToM abilities, mean scores of persons with and without GAD who either worried or relaxed were normative. The ToM reasoning measure lacked self-reference, and these preliminary findings warrant replication. Theoretical implications, such as the state worry-contingent nature of ToM in GAD, and clinical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Negativity Bias in Dangerous Drivers.

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Jing Chai

Full Text Available The behavioral and cognitive characteristics of dangerous drivers differ significantly from those of safe drivers. However, differences in emotional information processing have seldom been investigated. Previous studies have revealed that drivers with higher anger/anxiety trait scores are more likely to be involved in crashes and that individuals with higher anger traits exhibit stronger negativity biases when processing emotions compared with control groups. However, researchers have not explored the relationship between emotional information processing and driving behavior. In this study, we examined the emotional information processing differences between dangerous drivers and safe drivers. Thirty-eight non-professional drivers were divided into two groups according to the penalty points that they had accrued for traffic violations: 15 drivers with 6 or more points were included in the dangerous driver group, and 23 drivers with 3 or fewer points were included in the safe driver group. The emotional Stroop task was used to measure negativity biases, and both behavioral and electroencephalograph data were recorded. The behavioral results revealed stronger negativity biases in the dangerous drivers than in the safe drivers. The bias score was correlated with self-reported dangerous driving behavior. Drivers with strong negativity biases reported having been involved in mores crashes compared with the less-biased drivers. The event-related potentials (ERPs revealed that the dangerous drivers exhibited reduced P3 components when responding to negative stimuli, suggesting decreased inhibitory control of information that is task-irrelevant but emotionally salient. The influence of negativity bias provides one possible explanation of the effects of individual differences on dangerous driving behavior and traffic crashes.

Cognitions as mediators in the relationship between self-compassion and affect

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Arimitsu, Kohki; Hofmann, Stefan G.

2014-01-01

Previous studies suggest that self-compassion is related to numerous facets of mental health, but the role of cognitions in this relationship remains unknown. To examine the mediating role of cognitions in the relationship between self-compassion and anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction when controlling for self-esteem in Japanese people, we conducted two studies. Study 1 (N = 231) examined the relationship between self-compassion and affect by modeling negative automatic thoughts as a mediator; Study 2 (N = 233) tested whether positive and negative automatic thoughts meditate this relationship. Results suggested that both self-compassion and self-esteem increased positive automatic thoughts and decreased trait anxiety, whereas only self-esteem increased life satisfaction and decreased depression directly. Positive automatic thoughts increased life satisfaction and decreased depression and trait anxiety, and positive automatic thoughts mediated the relationship between self-compassion and negative affect. These findings suggest that both positive and negative automatic thoughts mediate the relationship between self-compassion and affect in Japanese people. PMID:25395717

Modifying Adolescent Interpretation Biases Through Cognitive Training: Effects on Negative Affect and Stress Appraisals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Telman, M.D.; Holmes, E.A; Lau, J.Y.F

2013-01-01

Adolescent anxiety is common, impairing and costly. Given the scale of adolescent anxiety and its impact, fresh innovations for therapy are in demand. Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretations (CBM-I) studies of adults show that by training individuals to endorse benign interpretations of

Omega-3 fatty acids related to cognitive impairment in patients with schizophrenia

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Kazumi Satogami

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Cognitive impairment is strongly associated with functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia but its pathophysiology remains largely unclear. Involvement of omega-3 fatty acids in the cognitive function of healthy individuals and patients with neuropsychiatric disease has received increasing attention. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between omega-3 fatty acids with cognitive function, social function, and psychiatric symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. The subjects included 30 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Psychiatric symptoms, cognitive function, and social function were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS, and the Social Functioning Scale (SFS, respectively. Blood serum omega-3 fatty acids were assessed using gas chromatography. The BACS composite score was significantly correlated with blood eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA levels. In addition, a daily dose of antipsychotic medication was negatively and significantly correlated with the blood DHA level and with the BACS composite score. Step-wise multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the SFS score was significantly associated with the BACS composite score. Our results indicate that reduced blood omega-3 fatty acids are associated with cognitive impairment, which then impacts social functioning outcomes in schizophrenia.

Hormone therapy in menopausal women with cognitive complaints: a randomized, double-blind trial.

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Maki, P M; Gast, M J; Vieweg, A J; Burriss, S W; Yaffe, K

2007-09-25

To evaluate the effects of hormone therapy (HT) on cognition and subjective quality of life (QoL) in recently postmenopausal women with cognitive complaints. Cognitive Complaints in Early Menopause Trial (COGENT) was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, pilot study of 180 healthy postmenopausal women aged 45 to 55 years, randomly assigned to receive either placebo or conjugated equine estrogen 0.625 mg/medroxyprogesterone acetate 2.5 mg for 4 months. Outcome measures included memory, subjective cognition, QoL, sexuality, and sleep, which were assessed at baseline and month 4. The study was terminated before the expected final sample size of 275 due to a decrease in enrollment coinciding with the publication of findings from the Women's Health Initiative. There were no differences between groups on any cognitive or QoL measures, except for an increase in sexual interest and thoughts with HT. Modest negative effects on short- and long-term verbal memory approached significance (p or=0.45, this study suggests potential modest negative effects on verbal memory that are consistent with previous hormone therapy trials in older women.

Spanking, corporal punishment and negative long-term outcomes: a meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies.

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Ferguson, Christopher J

2013-02-01

Social scientists continue to debate the impact of spanking and corporal punishment (CP) on negative child outcomes including externalizing and internalizing behavior problems and cognitive performance. Previous meta-analytic reviews have mixed long- and short-term studies and relied on bivariate r, which may inflate effect sizes. The current meta-analysis focused on longitudinal studies, and compared effects using bivariate r and better controlled partial r coefficients controlling for time-1 outcome variables. Consistent with previous findings, results based on bivariate r found small but non-trivial long-term relationships between spanking/CP use and negative outcomes. Spanking and CP correlated .14 and .18 respectively with externalizing problems, .12 and .21 with internalizing problems and -.09 and -.18 with cognitive performance. However, when better controlled partial r coefficients (pr) were examined, results were statistically significant but trivial (at or below pr = .10) for externalizing (.07 for spanking, .08 for CP) and internalizing behaviors (.10 for spanking, insufficient studies for CP) and near the threshold of trivial for cognitive performance (-.11 for CP, insufficient studies for spanking). It is concluded that the impact of spanking and CP on the negative outcomes evaluated here (externalizing, internalizing behaviors and low cognitive performance) are minimal. It is advised that psychologists take a more nuanced approach in discussing the effects of spanking/CP with the general public, consistent with the size as well as the significance of their longitudinal associations with adverse outcomes.

An investigation on the effect of cognitive emotion regulation strategies on job satisfaction

OpenAIRE

Somayeh Shahba; Seyed Mehdi Alvani; Shams Alsadat Zahedi; Gholamreza Memarzadeh

2014-01-01

This paper examined the effects of cognitive emotion regulation on employees’ job satisfaction. In this survey, Questionnaire and the questions were divided into two categories of cognitive emotion regulation and job satisfaction. To measure cognitive emotion regulation, including unadjusted emotion regulation strategies and adjusted strategies, 36 items questionnaire was used originally developed by Garnefski et al. (2001) [Garnefski, N., Kraaij, V., & Spinhoven, P. (2001). Negative life eve...

Effects of Cognitive Bias Modification Training via Smartphones

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Ranming Yang

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive biases have been linked to anxiety and mood problems. Accumulated data from laboratory studies show that positive and negative interpretation styles with accompanying changes in mood can be induced through cognitive bias modification (CBM paradigms. Despite the therapeutic potential of positive training effects, few studies have explored training paradigms administered via smartphones. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three different types of training programmes (cognitive bias modification-attention, CBM-A; cognitive bias modification-interpretation, CBM-I; attention and interpretation modification, AIM administered via smart-phones by using a control condition (CC.Methods:Seventy-six undergraduate participants with high social anxiety (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS ≥ 30 were randomly assigned to four groups: CBM-A (n = 20, CBM-I (n = 20, AIM (n = 16, and CC (n = 20.Results: The results showed that the effects of CBM training, CBM-I training, or AIM training vs. CC for attention yielded no significant differences in dot-probe attention bias scores. The CBM-I group showed significantly less threat interpretation and more benign interpretation than the CC group on interpretation bias scores.Conclusions: The present results supported the feasibility of delivering CBM-I via smartphones, but the effectiveness of CBM-A and AIM training via smartphones was limited.

Social priming improves cognitive control in elderly adults--evidence from the Simon task.

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Daniela Aisenberg

Full Text Available We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task, which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old person: 1 negative--characterized by poor cognitive abilities, 2 neutral--characterized by acts irrelevant to cognitive abilities, and 3 positive--excellent cognitive abilities. After the manipulation, the Simon task was performed again. Results showed improvement in cognitive control effects in seniors after the positive manipulation, indicated by a significant decrease in the magnitude of the Simon and interference effects, but not after the neutral and negative manipulations. Furthermore, a healthy pattern of sequential effect (Gratton that was absent before the manipulation in all 3 groups appeared after the positive manipulation. Namely, the Simon effect was only present after congruent but not after incongruent trials for the positive manipulation group. No influence of manipulations was found in young adults. These meaningful results were replicated in a second experiment and suggest a decrease in conflict interference resulting from positive cognitive state priming. Our study provides evidence that an implicit social concept of a positive cognitive condition in old age can affect the control process of the elderly and improve cognitive abilities.

Social priming improves cognitive control in elderly adults--evidence from the Simon task.

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Aisenberg, Daniela; Cohen, Noga; Pick, Hadas; Tressman, Iris; Rappaport, Michal; Shenberg, Tal; Henik, Avishai

2015-01-01

We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task), which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old person): 1) negative--characterized by poor cognitive abilities, 2) neutral--characterized by acts irrelevant to cognitive abilities, and 3) positive--excellent cognitive abilities. After the manipulation, the Simon task was performed again. Results showed improvement in cognitive control effects in seniors after the positive manipulation, indicated by a significant decrease in the magnitude of the Simon and interference effects, but not after the neutral and negative manipulations. Furthermore, a healthy pattern of sequential effect (Gratton) that was absent before the manipulation in all 3 groups appeared after the positive manipulation. Namely, the Simon effect was only present after congruent but not after incongruent trials for the positive manipulation group. No influence of manipulations was found in young adults. These meaningful results were replicated in a second experiment and suggest a decrease in conflict interference resulting from positive cognitive state priming. Our study provides evidence that an implicit social concept of a positive cognitive condition in old age can affect the control process of the elderly and improve cognitive abilities.

Conflict adaptation in positive and negative mood: Applying a success-failure manipulation.

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Schuch, Stefanie; Zweerings, Jana; Hirsch, Patricia; Koch, Iring

2017-05-01

Conflict adaptation is a cognitive mechanism denoting increased cognitive control upon detection of conflict. This mechanism can be measured by the congruency sequence effect, indicating the reduction of congruency effects after incongruent trials (where response conflict occurs) relative to congruent trials (without response conflict). Several studies have reported increased conflict adaptation under negative, as compared to positive, mood. In these studies, sustained mood states were induced by film clips or music combined with imagination techniques; these kinds of mood manipulations are highly obvious, possibly distorting the actual mood states experienced by the participants. Here, we report two experiments where mood states were induced in a less obvious way, and with higher ecological validity. Participants received success or failure feedback on their performance in a bogus intelligence test, and this mood manipulation proved highly effective. We largely replicated previous findings of larger conflict adaptation under negative mood than under positive mood, both with a Flanker interference paradigm (Experiment 1) and a Stroop-like interference paradigm (Experiment 2). Results are discussed with respect to current theories on affective influences on cognitive control. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abnormal proactive and reactive cognitive control during conflict processing in major depression.

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Vanderhasselt, Marie-Anne; De Raedt, Rudi; De Paepe, Annick; Aarts, Kristien; Otte, Georges; Van Dorpe, Jan; Pourtois, Gilles

2014-02-01

According to the Dual Mechanisms of Control framework, cognitive control consists of two complementary components: proactive control refers to anticipatory maintenance of goal-relevant information, whereas reactive control acts as a correction mechanism that is activated when a conflict occurs. Possibly, the well-known diminished inhibitory control in response to negative stimuli in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) patients stems from a breakdown in proactive control, and/or anomalies in reactive cognitive control. In our study, MDD patients specifically showed increased response latencies when actively inhibiting a dominant response to a sad compared with a happy face. This condition was associated with a longer duration of a dominant ERP topography (800-900 ms poststimulus onset) and a stronger activity in the bilateral dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, reflecting abnormal reactive control when inhibiting attention to a negative stimulus. Moreover, MDD patients showed abnormalities in proactive cognitive control when preparing for the upcoming imperative stimulus (abnormal modulation of the contingent negative variation component), accompanied by more activity in brain regions belonging to the default mode network. All together, deficits to inhibit attention to negative information in MDD might originate from an abnormal use of both proactive resources and reactive control processes. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Deception and Cognitive Load: Expanding Our Horizon with a Working Memory Model

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Sporer, Siegfried L.

2016-01-01

Deception and Cognitive Load: Expanding our Horizon with a Working Memory ModelAbstractRecently, studies on deception and its detection have increased dramatically. Many of these studies rely on the cognitive load approach as the sole explanatory principle to understand deception. These studies have been exclusively on lies about negative actions (usually lies of suspects of [mock] crimes). Instead, we need to re-focus more generally on the cognitive processes involved in generating both lies...

Smartphones and Cognition: A Review of Research Exploring the Links between Mobile Technology Habits and Cognitive Functioning

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Wilmer, Henry H.; Sherman, Lauren E.; Chein, Jason M.

2017-01-01

While smartphones and related mobile technologies are recognized as flexible and powerful tools that, when used prudently, can augment human cognition, there is also a growing perception that habitual involvement with these devices may have a negative and lasting impact on users’ ability to think, remember, pay attention, and regulate emotion. The present review considers an intensifying, though still limited, area of research exploring the potential cognitive impacts of smartphone-related habits, and seeks to determine in which domains of functioning there is accruing evidence of a significant relationship between smartphone technology and cognitive performance, and in which domains the scientific literature is not yet mature enough to endorse any firm conclusions. We focus our review primarily on three facets of cognition that are clearly implicated in public discourse regarding the impacts of mobile technology – attention, memory, and delay of gratification – and then consider evidence regarding the broader relationships between smartphone habits and everyday cognitive functioning. Along the way, we highlight compelling findings, discuss limitations with respect to empirical methodology and interpretation, and offer suggestions for how the field might progress toward a more coherent and robust area of scientific inquiry. PMID:28487665

Smartphones and Cognition: A Review of Research Exploring the Links between Mobile Technology Habits and Cognitive Functioning

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Jason M. Chein

2017-04-01

Full Text Available While smartphones and related mobile technologies are recognized as flexible and powerful tools that, when used prudently, can augment human cognition, there is also a growing perception that habitual involvement with these devices may have a negative and lasting impact on users’ ability to think, remember, pay attention, and regulate emotion. The present review considers an intensifying, though still limited, area of research exploring the potential cognitive impacts of smartphone-related habits, and seeks to determine in which domains of functioning there is accruing evidence of a significant relationship between smartphone technology and cognitive performance, and in which domains the scientific literature is not yet mature enough to endorse any firm conclusions. We focus our review primarily on three facets of cognition that are clearly implicated in public discourse regarding the impacts of mobile technology – attention, memory, and delay of gratification – and then consider evidence regarding the broader relationships between smartphone habits and everyday cognitive functioning. Along the way, we highlight compelling findings, discuss limitations with respect to empirical methodology and interpretation, and offer suggestions for how the field might progress toward a more coherent and robust area of scientific inquiry.

The association of lifetime insight and cognition in psychosis.

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Sánchez-Torres, Ana M; Zarzuela, Amalia; Peralta, Victor; Cuesta, Manuel J

2015-03-01

Poor insight has been related to poor course in psychosis. However, the role of cognition in insight remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of cognition and lifetime psychopathological dimensions on insight in psychosis. We followed up 42 patients with psychotic disorders over 10years. Lifetime psychopathological dimensions and cognitive performance were assessed. Patients were divided into two groups by lifetime patterns of insight and compared with 42 healthy volunteers. Lower IQ and poorer social cognition were associated with higher risks of poorer lifetime insight of feeling ill and global insight respectively. Lifetime negative symptoms were associated with a higher risk of poorer lifetime insight into symptoms. Lifetime lack of insight is independent of cognitive impairment in specific domains, except for social cognition. Higher IQ may contribute to better lifetime awareness of illness, while better ability to manage emotions is involved in lifetime global insight. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Catechol-O-methyltransferase genotype modulates cancer treatment-related cognitive deficits in breast cancer survivors.

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Small, Brent J; Rawson, Kerri Sharp; Walsh, Erin; Jim, Heather S L; Hughes, Tiffany F; Iser, Lindsay; Andrykowski, Michael A; Jacobsen, Paul B

2011-04-01

Recent attention has focused on the negative effects of chemotherapy on the cognitive performance of cancer survivors. The current study examined modification of this risk by catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genotype based on evidence in adult populations that the presence of a Val allele is associated with poorer cognitive performance. Breast cancer survivors treated with radiotherapy (n = 58), and/or chemotherapy (n = 72), and 204 healthy controls (HCs) completed tests of cognitive performance and provided saliva for COMT genotyping. COMT genotype was divided into Val carriers (Val+; Val/Val, Val/Met) or COMT-Met homozygote carriers (Met; Met/Met). COMT-Val+ carriers performed more poorly on tests of attention, verbal fluency, and motor speed relative to COMT-Met homozygotes. Moreover, COMT-Val+ carriers treated with chemotherapy performed more poorly on tests of attention relative to HC group members who were also Val+ carriers. The results suggest that persons treated with chemotherapy for breast cancer who also possess the COMT-Val gene are susceptible to negative effects on their cognitive health. This research is important because it strives to understand the factors that predispose some cancer survivors to more negative quality-of-life outcomes. Copyright © 2010 American Cancer Society.

The effect of cognitive appraisal for stressors on the oral health-related QOL of dry mouth patients.

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Matsuoka, Hirofumi; Chiba, Itsuo; Sakano, Yuji; Saito, Ichiro; Abiko, Yoshihiro

2014-01-01

Dry mouth is very common symptom, and psychological factors have an influence on this symptom. Although the influence of emotional factor related to patients with oral dryness has been examined in previous studies, the cognitive factors have not been examined thus far. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of cognitive factors on patients with oral dryness. The participants were 106 patients complaining of oral dryness. They were required to complete a questionnaire measuring subjective oral dryness, oral-related QOL, cognition for stressors, and mood state. Correlational analyses revealed that OHIP-14 is significantly related to oral dryness, appraisal for effect, appraisal for threat, and commitment. These correlations were maintained even after controlling for the influence of depression and anxiety. Using oral dryness, appraisal for effect, appraisal for threat, and commitment, cluster analysis was done and three clusters (cluster-1, severe oral dryness; cluster-2, positive cognitive style: cluster-3, negative cognitive style) were extracted. The results of ANOVA showed that the group with severe oral dryness (cluster-1) had a significantly higher score on OHIP-14 than the other two groups. There was no significant difference between the groups with positive (cluster-2) and negative (cluster-3) cognitive style. Although the group of patients with positive cognitive style complained of more severe oral dryness than the group with negative cognitive style, no significant difference was observed between these two groups in OHIP-14. These results indicate that cognitive factors would be a useful therapeutic target for the improvement of the oral-related QOL of patients with oral dryness.

Moderating Effects of Cortisol on Neural-Cognitive Association in Cognitively Normal Elderly Subjects

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Lau, Way K. W.; Leung, Mei Kei; Law, Andrew C. K.; Lee, Tatia M. C.

2017-01-01

Cortisol homeostasis is important for healthy brain and cognitive aging. The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of serum cortisol levels in the relationship between regional brain volumes and cognitive processing speed in a group of cognitively normal elderly subjects. Forty-one healthy elderly participants were from a parallel longitudinal study. The reported data in this study reflects baseline measurements. Whole-brain anatomical scanning was performed using a 3.0 Tesla Philips Medical Systems Achieva scanner. Cognitive processing speed was assessed by the digit-symbol and symbol search tests, from the Chinese version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—third edition (WAIS-III). Serum cortisol levels (sampled in the late morning) were measured by ELISA kits. Whole-brain regression analysis revealed that serum cortisol levels positively predicted the white matter volumes (WMV) of the right thalamus, the gray matter volumes (GMV) of the left thalamus and right cerebellar tonsil, and negatively predicted the WMV and GMV of the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) in 41 healthy elderly participants. Furthermore, serum cortisol significantly moderated the relationship between the GMV of the left MTG and processing speed, as well as the GMV of the left thalamus and processing speed. This study provided the first piece of evidence supporting serum cortisol levels in moderating the relationship between regional brain volumes and processing speed in healthy elderly subjects. This observation enriches our understanding of the role of cortisol in brain morphology and cognitive functioning. PMID:28596732

Moderating Effects of Cortisol on Neural-Cognitive Association in Cognitively Normal Elderly Subjects

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Way K. W. Lau

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Cortisol homeostasis is important for healthy brain and cognitive aging. The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of serum cortisol levels in the relationship between regional brain volumes and cognitive processing speed in a group of cognitively normal elderly subjects. Forty-one healthy elderly participants were from a parallel longitudinal study. The reported data in this study reflects baseline measurements. Whole-brain anatomical scanning was performed using a 3.0 Tesla Philips Medical Systems Achieva scanner. Cognitive processing speed was assessed by the digit-symbol and symbol search tests, from the Chinese version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—third edition (WAIS-III. Serum cortisol levels (sampled in the late morning were measured by ELISA kits. Whole-brain regression analysis revealed that serum cortisol levels positively predicted the white matter volumes (WMV of the right thalamus, the gray matter volumes (GMV of the left thalamus and right cerebellar tonsil, and negatively predicted the WMV and GMV of the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG in 41 healthy elderly participants. Furthermore, serum cortisol significantly moderated the relationship between the GMV of the left MTG and processing speed, as well as the GMV of the left thalamus and processing speed. This study provided the first piece of evidence supporting serum cortisol levels in moderating the relationship between regional brain volumes and processing speed in healthy elderly subjects. This observation enriches our understanding of the role of cortisol in brain morphology and cognitive functioning.

Treatment with escitalopram improves the attentional bias toward negative facial expressions in patients with major depressive disorders.

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Zhou, Zhenhe; Cao, Suxia; Li, Hengfen; Li, Youhui

2015-10-01

We hypothesized that treatment with escitalopram would improve cognitive bias and contribute to the recovery process for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Many previous studies have established that patients with MDD tend to pay selective attention to negative stimuli. The assessment of the level of cognitive bias is regarded as a crucial dimension of treatment outcomes for MDD. To our knowledge, no prior studies have been reported on the effects of treatment with escitalopram on attentional bias in MDD, employing a dot probe task of facial expression. We studied 25 patients with MDD and 25 controls, and used a dot probe task of facial expression to measure cognitive bias. The patients' psychopathologies were rated using the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) at baseline and after 8 weeks of treatment with escitalopram. All participants performed the facial expression dot probe task. The results revealed that the 8 week escitalopram treatment decreased the HAMD scores. The patients with MDD at baseline exhibited an attentional bias towards negative faces, however, no significant bias toward either negative or happy faces were observed in the controls. After the 8 week escitalopram treatment, no significant bias toward negative faces was observed in the patient group. In conclusion, patients with MDD pay more attention to negative facial expressions, and treatment with escitalopram improves this attentional bias toward negative facial expressions. This is the first study, to our knowledge, on the effects of treatment with escitalopram on attentional bias in patients with MDD that has employed a dot probe task of facial expression. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Affective and cognitive reactivity to mood induction in chronic depression.

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Guhn, Anne; Sterzer, Philipp; Haack, Friderike H; Köhler, Stephan

2018-03-15

Chronic depression (CD) is strongly associated with childhood maltreatment, which has been proposed to lead to inefficient coping styles that are characterized by abnormal affective responsiveness and dysfunctional cognitive attitudes. However, while this notion forms an important basis for psychotherapeutic strategies in the treatment of CD, there is still little direct empirical evidence for a role of altered affective and cognitive reactivity in CD. The present study therefore experimentally investigated affective and cognitive reactivity to two forms of negative mood induction in CD patients versus a healthy control sample (HC). For the general mood induction procedure, a combination of sad pictures and sad music was used, while for individualized mood induction, negative mood was induced by individualized scripts with autobiographical content. Both experiments included n = 15 CD patients versus n = 15 HC, respectively. Interactions between affective or cognitive reactivity and group were analyzed by repeated measurements ANOVAs. General mood induction neither revealed affective nor cognitive reactivity in the patient group while the control group reported the expected decrease of positive affect [interaction (IA) affective reactivity x group: p = .011, cognitive reactivity x group: n.s.]. In contrast, individualized mood induction specifically increased affective reactivity (IA: p = .037) as well as the amount of dysfunctional cognitions in patients versus controls (IA: p = .014). The experiments were not balanced in a crossover design, causal conclusions are thus limited. Additionally, the differences to non-chronic forms of depression are still outstanding. The results suggest that in patients with CD, specific emotional activation through autobiographical memories is a key factor in dysfunctional coping styles. Psychotherapeutic interventions aimed at modifying affective and cognitive reactivity are thus of high relevance in the treatment of CD. Copyright �

Cognitive Training among Cognitively-Impaired Older Adults: A Feasibility Study Assessing the Potential Improvement in Balance

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Renae L Smith-Ray

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Background: Emerging literature suggests that mobility and cognition are linked. Epidemiological data support a negative association between cognition and falls among cognitively intact older adults. A small number of intervention studies found that regimented cognitive training (CT improves mobility among this population, suggesting that CT may be an under-explored approach toward reducing falls. To date, no studies have examined the impact of CT on balance among those who are cognitively impaired. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of implementing a CT program among cognitively impaired older adults and examine whether there are potential improvements in balance following CT.Method: A single group repeated measures design was used to identify change in balance, depressive symptoms, and global cognition. A mixed method approach was employed to evaluate the feasibility of a CT intervention among a cohort of cognitively impaired older adults. CT was delivered in a group 2 days/week over 10 weeks using an online brain exercise program, Posit Science Brain HQ (20 hours. All participants completed a one-on-one data collection interview at baseline and post-program. Results: Participants (N=20 were on average 80.5 years old and had mild to moderate cognitive impairment. Following the 10-week cognitive training intervention, mean scores on 4 of the 5 balance measures improved among CT participants. Although none of the balance improvements reached significance, these findings are promising given the small sample size. Depressive symptoms significantly improved between baseline and 10 weeks (p=0.021. Mean global cognition also improved across the study period, but neither of these improvements were statistically significant. Based on participant responses, the CT program was feasible for this population.Conclusion: This study provides support for the feasibility of implementing a CT program among cognitively-impaired older adults

The effect of overweight/obesity on cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder.

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Yim, C Y; Soczynska, J K; Kennedy, S H; Woldeyohannes, H O; Brietzke, E; McIntyre, R S

2012-04-01

Persistent impairment in cognitive function has been described in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Collective work indicates that obesity is associated with reduced cognitive function in otherwise healthy individuals. This sub-group post-hoc analysis preliminarily explores and examines the association between overweight/obesity and cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Euthymic adults with DSM-IV-TR-defined bipolar I or II disorder were enrolled. Subjects included in this post-hoc analysis (n=67) were divided into two groups (normal weight, body mass index [BMI] of 18.5-24.9 kg/m2; overweight/obese, BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m2). Demographic and clinical information were obtained at screening. At baseline, study participants completed a comprehensive cognitive battery to assess premorbid IQ, verbal learning and memory, attention and psychomotor processing speed, executive function, general intellectual abilities, recollection and habit memory, as well as self-perceptions of cognitive failures. BMI was negatively correlated with attention and psychomotor processing speed as measured by the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (Pfunction, non-significant trends suggesting a negative association with BMI were observed, with the exception of measures of executive function (i.e., trail making test B) and recollection memory (i.e., process-dissociation task). Notwithstanding the post-hoc methodology and relatively small sample size, the results of this study suggest a possible negative effect of overweight/obesity on cognitive function in euthymic individuals with bipolar disorder. Taken together, these data provide the impetus for more rigorous evaluation of the mediational role of overweight/obesity (and other medical co-morbidity) on cognitive function in psychiatric populations. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

[Rumination and cognitive fusion in dementia family caregivers].

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Romero-Moreno, Rosa; Márquez-González, María; Losada, Andrés; Fernández-Fernández, Virginia; Nogales-González, Celia

2015-01-01

Rumination has been described as a dysfunctional coping strategy related to emotional distress. Recently, it has been highlighted from the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy therapeutic approach, the negative role that cognitive fusion (the extent to which we are psychologically tangled with and dominated by the form or content of our thoughts) has on the explanation of distress. The aim of this study is to simultaneously analyze the role of rumination and cognitive fusion in the caregiving stress process. The sample of 176 dementia caregivers was divided in four groups, taking into account their levels of rumination and cognitive fusion: HRHF=high rumination+high cognitive fusion; HRLF=high rumination+low cognitive fusion; LRHF= low rumination+high cognitive fusion; and LRLC=low rumination and low cognitive fusion. Caregiver stress factors, frequency of pleasant events, experiential avoidance, coherence and satisfaction with personal values, depression, anxiety and satisfaction with life, were measured. The HRHF group showed higher levels of depression, anxiety, experiential avoidance and lower levels of satisfaction with life, frequency of pleasant events, coherence and satisfaction with personal values, than the other three groups. Considering simultaneously rumination and cognitive fusion may contribute to a better understanding of caregiver coping and distress. Copyright © 2014 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Verbal makes it positive, spatial makes it negative: working memory biases judgments, attention, and moods.

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Storbeck, Justin; Watson, Philip

2014-12-01

Prior research has suggested that emotion and working memory domains are integrated, such that positive affect enhances verbal working memory, whereas negative affect enhances spatial working memory (Gray, 2004; Storbeck, 2012). Simon (1967) postulated that one feature of emotion and cognition integration would be reciprocal connectedness (i.e., emotion influences cognition and cognition influences emotion). We explored whether affective judgments and attention to affective qualities are biased by the activation of verbal and spatial working memory mind-sets. For all experiments, participants completed a 2-back verbal or spatial working memory task followed by an endorsement task (Experiments 1 & 2), word-pair selection task (Exp. 3), or attentional dot-probe task (Exp. 4). Participants who had an activated verbal, compared with spatial, working memory mind-set were more likely to endorse pictures (Exp. 1) and words (Exp. 2) as being more positive and to select the more positive word pair out of a set of word pairs that went 'together best' (Exp. 3). Additionally, people who completed the verbal working memory task took longer to disengage from positive stimuli, whereas those who completed the spatial working memory task took longer to disengage from negative stimuli (Exp. 4). Interestingly, across the 4 experiments, we observed higher levels of self-reported negative affect for people who completed the spatial working memory task, which was consistent with their endorsement and attentional bias toward negative stimuli. Therefore, emotion and working memory may have a reciprocal connectedness allowing for bidirectional influence.

[Cognitive remediation and work outcome in schizophrenia].

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Franck, N

2014-06-01

Recovery is partly defined by the patients' capacity to work, since doing well in a job favors hope and responsibilities' taking. Diminished job placement or tenure is linked with cognitive disorders, which impact directly and indirectly (through negative symptoms) functional outcomes. Attention, executive functions and working memory disorders can result in an alteration of the ability to manage the tasks required in the workplace. Executive function, working memory and social cognition disorders may also have an impact on behavior in relationships. Cognitive disorders do not automatically directly contribute to vocational outcome, yet their effects may be mediated by other variables such as symptoms, metacognition, social skills and intrinsic motivation. Then, since all these dimensions have to be taken into account, reducing the impact of cognitive troubles becomes a major challenge for the care of schizophrenia. Cognitive remediation is the more effective therapeutic tool to reduce cognitive dysfunctions. It rests in particular on the development of new strategies that allow taking concrete situations into account more efficiently. Cognitive remediation reduces the detrimental consequences of cognitive disorders and permits their compensation. It has emerged as an effective treatment, that improves not only cognitive abilities but also functioning, as it has been shown by numerous randomized controlled studies and several meta-analyses. The present article considers the effects on cognitive remediation on work function in schizophrenia. Several randomized controlled trials that compared supported employment alone versus supported employment associated with cognitive remediation showed significant improvement of employment rates in the latter condition. These results favor the use of cognitive remediation before job placement. The specific needs of the occupation that will be provided and the cognitive profile of the user should be taken into account. Copyright

Environmental Enrichment Mitigates Detrimental Cognitive Effects of Ketogenic Diet in Weanling Rats.

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Scichilone, John M; Yarraguntla, Kalyan; Charalambides, Ana; Harney, Jacob P; Butler, David

2016-09-01

For decades, the ketogenic diet has been an effective treatment of intractable epilepsy in children. Childhood epilepsy is pharmacoresistant in 25-40 % of patients taking the current prescribed medications. Chronic seizure activity has been linked to deficits in cognitive function and behavioral problems which negatively affect the learning abilities of the child. Recent studies suggest the ketogenic diet (KD), a high fat with low carbohydrate and protein diet, has adverse effects on cognition in weanling rats. The diet reduces circulating glucose levels to where energy metabolism is converted from glycolysis to burning fat and generating ketone bodies which has been suggested as a highly efficient source of energy for the brain. In contrast, when weanling rats are placed in an enriched environment, they exhibit increased spatial learning, memory, and neurogenesis. Thus, this study was done to determine if weanling rats being administered a KD in an environmental enrichment (EE) would still exhibit the negative cognitive effects of the diet previously observed. The present study suggests that an altered environment is capable of reducing the cognitive deficits in weanling rats administered a KD. Learning was improved with an EE. The effect of diet and environment on anxiety and depression suggests a significant reduction in anxiety with enrichment rearing. Interestingly, circulating energy substrate levels were increased in the EE groups along with brain-derived neurotrophic factor despite the least changes in weight gain. In light of numerous studies using KDs that seemingly have adverse effects on cognition, KD-induced reductions in excitotoxic events would not necessarily eliminate that negative aspect of seizures.

LORETA current source density for duration mismatch negativity and neuropsychological assessment in early schizophrenia.

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Tomohiro Miyanishi

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: Patients with schizophrenia elicit cognitive decline from the early phase of the illness. Mismatch negativity (MMN has been shown to be associated with cognitive function. We investigated the current source density of duration mismatch negativity (dMMN, by using low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (LORETA, and neuropsychological performance in subjects with early schizophrenia. METHODS: Data were obtained from 20 patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder, and 20 healthy control (HC subjects. An auditory odd-ball paradigm was used to measure dMMN. Neuropsychological performance was evaluated by the brief assessment of cognition in schizophrenia Japanese version (BACS-J. RESULTS: Patients showed smaller dMMN amplitudes than those in the HC subjects. LORETA current density for dMMN was significantly lower in patients compared to HC subjects, especially in the temporal lobes. dMMN current density in the frontal lobe was positively correlated with working memory performance in patients. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to identify brain regions showing smaller dMMN current density in early schizophrenia. Further, poor working memory was associated with decreased dMMN current density in patients. These results are likely to help understand the neural basis for cognitive impairment of schizophrenia.

Emotion-cognition interaction in people at familial high risk for schizophrenia: the impact of sex differences.

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Phillips, Laura K; Giuliano, Anthony J; Lee, Erica H; Faraone, Stephen V; Tsuang, Ming T; Seidman, Larry J

2011-11-01

Cognitive deficits are fundamental to schizophrenia, and research suggests that negative emotion abnormally interferes with certain cognitive processes in those with the illness. To a lesser extent, cognitive impairment is found in persons at risk for schizophrenia, but there is limited research on the impact of emotion on cognitive processing in at-risk groups. It is unknown whether interference of negative emotion precedes illness and contributes to vulnerability for the disorder. We studied the extent to which negative emotional information interferes with working memory in 21 adolescent and young adult first-degree relatives of people with schizophrenia and 22 community controls. Groups were comparable in age, sex, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Primary measures were n-back tasks varying in cognitive load (1-back, 2-back, 3-back) with emotional faces (neutral, happy, fearful) as stimuli. The control group's response times (RTs) and the women's RTs, regardless of group, differed depending on the emotion condition. In contrast, the RTs of the relatives and of the men, regardless of group, did not differ by emotion. This study is the first to examine emotion-cognition interactions in relatives of individuals with schizophrenia. Reduced efficiency in processing emotional information may contribute to a greater vulnerability for schizophrenia that may be heightened in men. Additional research with larger samples of men and women is needed to test these preliminary findings.

Positive and Negative Effects of Parental Conflicts on Children’s Condition and Behaviour

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Joëlle Barthassat

2014-01-01

Previous research focused on the negative consequences of parental conflict behaviours. In contrast, this review is about the positive and negative effects that constructive and destructive parental conflict behaviours have on a child’s condition and behaviour. It employs the cognitive-contextual framework of Grych and Fincham (1990) and the emotional security hypothesis of Davies and Cummings (1994). Parental conflicts are represented as a continuum from very destructive to very constructive...

Cognitive Engagement Mediates the Relationship between Positive Life Events and Positive Emotionality

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Alexander Strobel

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Need for Cognition (NFC is conceptualized as an individuals’ tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity and, thus, captures one’s cognitive engagement. It plays a well-established role in information processing in experimental or academic contexts. However, so far comparably little is known about its consequences for other than purely cognitive or academic outcomes. Indeed, NFC is positively associated with personality traits pertaining to Positive Emotionality (PE and negatively to traits related to Negative Emotionality (NE. Moreover, evidence suggests NFC to be related to an active, problem-focused coping style. We therefore hypothesized NFC to mediate between life events and individual differences in PE and NE. In a sample of N = 202 volunteers from the general population, we observed that the number of past positive and negative life events had direct effects on PE, and NE, respectively, and that for positive life events, a mediating effect on PE via NFC was observed, with a higher number of past positive life events being related to higher NFC that in turn was related to increased PE. Thus, the present results lend support to the notion of NFC as an important factor supporting personal well-being by way of its mediating role between the number of past positive life events and positive affect.

Intraindividual Coupling of Daily Stressors and Cognitive Interference in Old Age

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Mogle, Jacqueline; Sliwinski, Martin J.

2011-01-01

Objectives. The current study examined emotional and cognitive reactions to daily stress. We examined the psychometric properties of a short cognitive interference measure and how cognitive interference was associated with measures of daily stress and negative affect (NA) between persons and within persons over time. Methods. A sample of 87 older adults (Mage = 83, range = 70–97, 28% male) completed measures of daily stress, cognitive interference, and NA on 6 days within a 14-day period. Results. The measure yielded a single-factor solution with good reliability both between and within persons. At the between-person level, NA accounted for the effects of daily stress on individual differences in cognitive interference. At the within-person level, NA and daily stress were unique predictors of cognitive interference. Furthermore, the within-person effect of daily stress on cognitive interference decreased significantly with age. Discussion. These results support theoretical work regarding associations among stress, NA, and cognitive interference, both across persons and within persons over time. PMID:21743045

Cultural differences in hedonic emotion regulation after a negative event.

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Miyamoto, Yuri; Ma, Xiaoming; Petermann, Amelia G

2014-08-01

Beliefs about emotions can influence how people regulate their emotions. The present research examined whether Eastern dialectical beliefs about negative emotions lead to cultural differences in how people regulate their emotions after experiencing a negative event. We hypothesized that, because of dialectical beliefs about negative emotions prevalent in Eastern culture, Easterners are less motivated than Westerners to engage in hedonic emotion regulation-up-regulation of positive emotions and down-regulation of negative emotions. By assessing online reactions to a recent negative event, Study 1 found that European Americans are more motivated to engage in hedonic emotion regulation. Furthermore, consistent with the reported motivation to regulate emotion hedonically, European Americans show a steeper decline in negative emotions 1 day later than do Asians. By examining retrospective memory of reactions to a past negative event, Study 2 further showed that cultural differences in hedonic emotion regulation are mediated by cultural differences in dialectical beliefs about motivational and cognitive utility of negative emotions, but not by personal deservingness or self-efficacy beliefs. These findings demonstrate the role of cultural beliefs in shaping emotion regulation and emotional experiences.

Auditory stimulus discrimination recorded in dogs, as indicated by mismatch negativity (MMN).

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Howell, Tiffani J; Conduit, Russell; Toukhsati, Samia; Bennett, Pauleen

2012-01-01

Dog cognition research tends to rely on behavioural response, which can be confounded by obedience or motivation, as the primary means of indexing dog cognitive abilities. A physiological method of measuring dog cognitive processing would be instructive and could complement behavioural response. Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been used in humans to study stimulus processing, which results in waveforms called event-related potentials (ERPs). One ERP component, mismatch negativity (MMN), is a negative deflection approximately 160-200 ms after stimulus onset, which may be related to change detection from echoic sensory memory. We adapted a minimally invasive technique to record MMN in dogs. Dogs were exposed to an auditory oddball paradigm in which deviant tones (10% probability) were pseudo-randomly interspersed throughout an 8 min sequence of standard tones (90% probability). A significant difference in MMN ERP amplitude was observed after the deviant tone in comparison to the standard tone, t5 = -2.98, p = 0.03. This difference, attributed to discrimination of an unexpected stimulus in a series of expected stimuli, was not observed when both tones occurred 50% of the time, t1 = -0.82, p > 0.05. Dogs showed no evidence of pain or distress at any point. We believe this is the first illustration of MMN in a group of dogs and anticipate that this technique may provide valuable insights in cognitive tasks such as object discrimination. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Inharmonic music elicits more negative affect and interferes more with a concurrent cognitive task than does harmonic music.

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Bonin, Tanor; Smilek, Daniel

2016-04-01

We evaluated whether task-irrelevant inharmonic music produces greater interference with cognitive performance than task-irrelevant harmonic music. Participants completed either an auditory (Experiment 1) or a visual (Experiment 2) version of the cognitively demanding 2-back task in which they were required to categorize each digit in a sequence of digits as either being a target (a digit also presented two positions earlier in the sequence) or a distractor (all other items). They were concurrently exposed to either task-irrelevant harmonic music (judged to be consonant), task-irrelevant inharmonic music (judged to be dissonant), or no music at all as a distraction. The main finding across both experiments was that performance on the 2-back task was worse when participants were exposed to inharmonic music than when they were exposed to harmonic music. Interestingly, performance on the 2-back task was generally the same regardless of whether harmonic music or no music was played. We suggest that inharmonic, dissonant music interferes with cognitive performance by requiring greater cognitive processing than harmonic, consonant music, and speculate about why this might be.

A Cognitive Distortions and Deficits Model of Suicide Ideation

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Laura L. Fazakas-DeHoog

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Although cognitive distortions and deficits are known risk factors for the development and escalation of suicide ideation and behaviour, no empirical work has examined how these variables interact to predict suicide ideation. The current study proposes an integrative model of cognitive distortions (hopelessness and negative evaluations of self and future and deficits (problem solving deficits, problem solving avoidance, and cognitive rigidity. To test the integrity of this model, a sample of 397 undergraduate students completed measures of deficits, distortions, and current suicide ideation. A structural equation model demonstrated excellent fit, and findings indicated that only distortions have a direct effect on suicidal thinking, whereas cognitive deficits may exert their effects on suicide ideation via their reciprocal relation with distortions. Findings underscore the importance of both cognitive distortions and deficits for understanding suicidality, which may have implications for preventative efforts and treatment.

Karolinska Scales of Personality, cognition and psychotic symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.

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Nilsson, Björn Mikael; Holm, Gunnar; Ekselius, Lisa

2016-01-01

Studies on both personality dimensions and cognition in schizophrenia are scarce. The objective of the present study was to examine personality traits and the relation to cognitive function and psychotic symptoms in a sample of patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. In total 23 patients with schizophrenia and 14 controls were assessed with the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). A broad cognitive test programme was used, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales, the Finger-Tapping Test, the Trail Making Test, the Verbal Fluency Test, the Benton Visual Retention Test, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test . Compared with controls, the patients exhibited prominent elevations on KSP scales measuring anxiety proneness and neuroticism (P = 0.000005-0.0001), on the Detachment scale (P < 0.00009) and lower value on the Socialization scale (P < 0.0002). The patients also scored higher on the Inhibition of Aggression, Suspicion, Guilt and Irritability scales (P = 0.002-0.03) while the remaining five scales did not differ between patients and controls. KSP anxiety-related scales correlated with the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) general psychopathology subscale. Cognitive test results were uniformly lower in the patient group and correlated with PANSS negative symptoms subscale. There was no association between KSP scale scores and PANSS positive or negative symptoms. The patients revealed a highly discriminative KSP test profile with elevated scores in neuroticism- and psychoticism-related scales as compared to controls. Results support previous findings utilizing other personality inventories in patients with schizophrenia. Cognitive test performance correlated inversely with negative symptoms.

Cerebral Blood Flow and Amyloid-β Interact to Affect Memory Performance in Cognitively Normal Older Adults

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Katherine J. Bangen

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Cerebral blood flow (CBF alterations and amyloid-β (Aβ accumulation have been independently linked to cognitive deficits in older adults at risk for dementia. Less is known about how CBF and Aβ may interact to affect cognition in cognitively normal older adults. Therefore, we examined potential statistical interactions between CBF and Aβ status in regions typically affected in Alzheimer’s disease (AD within a sample of older adults from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI study. Sixty-two cognitively normal participants (mean age = 72 years underwent neuroimaging and memory testing. Arterial spin labeling magnetic resonance imaging was used to quantify CBF and florbetapir PET amyloid imaging was used to measure Aβ deposition. Aβ status (i.e., positivity versus negativity was determined based on established cutoffs (Landau et al., 2013. The Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test was used to assess memory. Linear regression models adjusted for age, education, and sex, demonstrated significant interactions between CBF and Aβ status on memory performance. Among Aβ positive older adults, there were significant negative associations between higher CBF in hippocampus, posterior cingulate, and precuneus and poorer memory performance. In contrast, among Aβ negative older adults, there were no significant associations between CBF and cognition. Our findings extend previous CBF studies of dementia risk by reporting interactions between Aβ status and CBF on memory performance in a sample of well-characterized, cognitively normal older adults. Results suggest that differential CBF-cognition associations can be identified in healthy, asymptomatic Aβ positive older adults relative to Aβ negative individuals. Associations between higherCBF and poorer memory among Aβ positive older adults may reflect a cellular and/or vascular compensatory response to pathologic processes whereby higher CBF is needed to maintain normal memory

Cultural differences in emotion regulation during self-reflection on negative personal experiences.

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Tsai, William; Lau, Anna S

2013-01-01

Reflecting on negative personal experiences has implications for mood that may vary as a function of specific domains (e.g., achievement vs. interpersonal) and cultural orientation (e.g., interdependence vs. independence). This study investigated cultural differences in the social-cognitive and affective processes undertaken as Easterners and Westerners reflected on negative interpersonal and performance experiences. One hundred Asian Americans and 92 European-American college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: interpersonal rejection, achievement failure, or a control condition. Results revealed that Asian Americans experienced greater distress than European Americans after self-reflecting over a failed interpersonal experience, suggesting cultural sensitivity in the relational domain. Consistent with theoretical predictions, analysis of the social cognitive and affective processes that participants engaged in during self-reflection provided some evidence that self-enhancement may buffer distress for European Americans, while emotion suppression may be adaptive for Asian Americans.

Adolescent Depression and Negative Life Events, the Mediating Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation

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Stikkelbroek, Yvonne; Bodden, Denise H. M.; Kleinjan, Marloes; Reijnders, Mirjam; van Baar, Anneloes L.

2016-01-01

Background Depression during adolescence is a serious mental health problem. Difficulties in regulating evoked emotions after stressful life events are considered to lead to depression. This study examined if depressive symptoms were mediated by various cognitive emotion regulation strategies after stressful life events, more specifically, the loss of a loved one, health threats or relational challenges. Methods We used a sample of 398 adolescents (Mage = 16.94, SD = 2.90), including 52 depressed outpatients, who all reported stressful life event(s). Path analyses in Mplus were used to test mediation, for the whole sample as well as separately for participants scoring high versus low on depression, using multigroup analyses. Results Health threats and relational challenging stressful life events were associated with depressive symptoms, while loss was not. More frequent use of maladaptive strategies was related to more depressive symptoms. More frequent use of adaptive strategies was related to less depressive symptoms. Specific life events were associated with specific emotion regulation strategies. The relationship between challenging, stressful life events and depressive symptoms in the whole group was mediated by maladaptive strategies (self-blame, catastrophizing and rumination). No mediation effect was found for adaptive strategies. Conclusion The association between relational challenging, stressful life events and depressive symptoms was mediated by maladaptive, cognitive emotion regulation strategies. PMID:27571274

Transdiagnostic cognitive processes in high trait anger.

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Owen, John M

2011-03-01

Trait anger is a personality construct that refers to stable individual differences in the propensity to experience anger as an emotional state. The objective of this paper is to review relevant empirical studies in order to determine whether the transdiagnostic cognitive processes that have been identified across the DSM-IV Axis I disorders (specifically, selective attention, memory biases, reasoning biases and recurrent negative thinking) are also an underlying characteristic of high trait anger. On the basis of the review it is concluded that, whilst the research base is limited, there is good evidence that high trait anger is associated with selective attention to hostile social cues, the tendency to interpret the behaviour of others as indicating potential hostility and the tendency to ruminate over past anger-provoking experiences. The range of cognitive processes identified in high trait anger is consistent with those identified in the Axis I disorders. It is concluded that these findings provide support for (i) the broad applicability of the transdiagnostic approach as a theoretical framework for understanding a range of psychological conditions, not limited to the Axis I disorders, and (ii) the validity of conceptualising high trait anger as an aspect of personality functioning that is maintained, at least in part, by cognitive processes. Cognitive and motivational factors (specifically, beliefs and goals) that may underlie the hostile information-processing biases and recurrent negative thinking associated with high trait anger are discussed, and consideration is given to the clinical relevance of the findings of the review. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Association Between Peritraumatic Dissociation and PTSD Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Negative Beliefs About the Self.

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Thompson-Hollands, Johanna; Jun, Janie J; Sloan, Denise M

2017-04-01