Behaviour Research and Therapy最新文献

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) refers to a tendency to perceive the unknown as threatening and aversive. It is recognized as a trans-situational and transdiagnostic factor that contributes to the development and maintenance of various psychopathologies. While prior research has primarily focused on IU's role in uncertain threat processing, its influence on uncertain reward processing remains poorly understood. This study investigated how IU modulates neural dynamics of reward evaluation under conditions of risk (known probabilities) and ambiguity (unknown probabilities). Electroencephalography was recorded from 38 individuals high in IU and 38 individuals low in IU while they performed a wheel-of-fortune task in which monetary rewards were delivered with either known or unknown outcome probabilities. Results revealed that high-IU individuals exhibited an altered neural profile of uncertain reward evaluation, characterized by reduced differentiation between risk and ambiguity in the reward positivity and enhanced theta valence differentiation under ambiguity relative to risk. By delineating the distinct effects of IU on reward-related neural activity, these findings provide insight into how IU shapes reward processing under different forms of uncertainty and may help inform interventions for psychiatric conditions in which IU plays a central role.

Objectives: This study evaluated the comparative efficacy of a self-help mindfulness intervention (sMBI) and a combined mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy intervention (sMBI + CBT) in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. Additionally, it explored the mechanisms underlying these interventions.

Methods: In this randomized controlled trial (RCT), 335 university students from various institutions across China, all experiencing moderate to severe emotional distress, were randomly assigned to one of three groups: sMBI, sMBI + CBT, or a waitlist control group (WL). Interventions were delivered via an internet-based website over a 60-day period, with assessments conducted at baseline, during treatment, post-treatment, and at three-month and six-month follow-ups. An intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis using multilevel mixed-effects models was employed to estimate the effects of the interventions.

Results: Both sMBI and sMBI + CBT were significantly more effective than WL in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, no significant differences were observed between sMBI and sMBI + CBT in their impact on depression and anxiety. The effects of sMBI on depression and anxiety were sequentially mediated by increases in mindfulness and psychological flexibility. In contrast, the effects of sMBI + CBT were sequentially mediated by increases in mindfulness and reductions in irrational beliefs.

Conclusions: This RCT confirms the efficacy of sMBI in reducing depression and anxiety through improvements in mindfulness and psychological flexibility. It also supports the efficacy of sMBI + CBT in alleviating depression by enhancing mindfulness and correcting irrational beliefs. However, the addition of CBT to sMBI does not appear to provide additional benefits in the treatment of depression and anxiety.

Trial registration: Chictr.org Identifier: ChiCTR2300075928.https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=207327.

Conceptual fear generalization refers to the transfer of acquired fear to stimuli that are conceptually related to a conditioned threat, beyond perceptual similarity. Although previous studies have demonstrated that fear can generalize along semantic or associative relations, it remains unclear how the internal structure of conceptual knowledge shapes this process and under what conditions such structure is expressed. Across two experiments, we examined conceptual fear generalization within experimentally constructed associative structures. Prior to fear conditioning, participants learned artificial categories composed of meaningless symbols, within which associative strength was systematically manipulated via co-occurrence frequency (COF). Fear generalization was then assessed to category members that were never directly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, under varying levels of COF (Experiments 1 and 2) and retrieval context congruency (Experiment 2). Results revealed that fear generalization, indexed primarily by US expectancy, varied as a function of COF, with stronger prior co-occurrence with the conditioned threat predicting higher threat expectancy for threat-related generalization stimuli. Critically, these COF-based effects were amplified when the retrieval context matched the context in which the associative structure was originally learned. Skin conductance responses showed broader sensitivity to threat and context but provided less specific support for structure-dependent effects. Together, these findings demonstrate that conceptual fear generalization is shaped by graded associative structure and is contingent on retrieval conditions. The present study highlights the importance of considering both conceptual organization and retrieval context in understanding variability in fear generalization, with implications for models of learned fear and individual differences in threat processing.

Background: Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM), a tendency to retrieve events from memory that did not occur at a specific time, is a transdiagnostic mechanism in psychopathology. However, its specific role in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) remains unknown. This study aimed to examine the presence and cue-valence specificity of OGM in OCD, investigate its associations with executive function subcomponents, and explore how OGM and executive dysfunction individually and interactively predict OCD symptom severity.

Methods: A total of 112 OCD patients and 101 healthy controls completed the Autobiographical Memory Test to assess OGM, N-back task for working memory, task-switching paradigm for cognitive flexibility, stop signal task for inhibitory control, and Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale for OCD symptom severity. Group comparisons and regression analyses were conducted.

Results: After controlling for depression and anxiety, the OCD group exhibited significantly greater OGM for negative and positive cues compared to controls (ps < 0.001), while showing comparable specificity for neutral cues. Among executive function subcomponents in the OCD group, cognitive flexibility demonstrated the strongest prediction of OGM (β = 0.488, p < .001), followed by working memory (β = 0.362, p = .001), but inhibitory control had no significant correlation with OGM. Furthermore, OGM predicted OCD symptom severity (β = 0.415, p < .001). Cognitive flexibility deficits moderated the relationship between OGM and OCD symptom severity (β = -0.232, p = .039).

Conclusion: OGM in OCD is characterized by specificity to emotional-valence cues, which is linked closely to impaired cognitive flexibility and relates to greater OCD symptom severity. These findings identify OGM and its interaction with cognitive flexibility as key targets for therapeutic intervention in OCD.

Social media is fraught with ambiguity and opportunities for making skewed interpretations. Negative interpretation bias, or the tendency to assign negative meanings in response to ambiguous information, is associated with mental health problems like depression and anxiety, while positive interpretation bias, or the tendency to make positive interpretations in response to ambiguity, may be protective. Interpretation bias is a modifiable treatment target in cognitive interventions. Reappraisal, which involves considering different perspectives, may hold promise for shifting negative self-focused social media interpretations (i.e., "online" interpretation bias, such as catastrophic thoughts about the significance of not having enough likes or followers). Through a multiphase user-centered design process with college student stakeholders (N = 37), we developed a digital single-session reappraisal intervention to shift online interpretation bias, as well as secondary outcomes (e.g., "offline" interpretation bias, reflecting interpretations about situations that are not online, like in-person parties). A randomized-controlled trial with N = 162 college students who reported negative self-evaluations tied to social media was conducted to compare PRISM to an activity-matched social media control condition. As hypothesized, PRISM led to greater reductions in online and offline negative interpretation bias and increases in online and offline positive interpretation bias than the control condition, post-intervention and at two-week follow-up. However, PRISM was largely ineffective in shifting outcomes other than interpretation bias (e.g., anxiety and depressive symptoms), underscoring the need to enhance transfer of the interpretation bias changes to improve other clinical outcomes.