Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience最新文献

Reward and punishment learning are critical across multiple clinical populations. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is frequently used to assess these constructs and multiple forms of psychopathology are associated with IGT performance. However, it is not clear whether alterations in IGT performance are general to psychopathology or specific to different forms of psychopathology. Thus, we examined whether IGT performance was uniquely predicted by anxiety, depression, and substance use disorder. We tested a sample of adults (N = 293) on the play-or-pass version of the IGT. We characterized behavior using a hierarchical Bayesian computational model, formalizing parameters underlying task behavior. With the model, we examined unique associations between IGT performance and lifetime diagnostic history of anxiety, depression, and substance use disorder. Anxiety, but not depression or substance use, was associated with higher punishment learning rates, posterior mean β = 0.15, 95% CI [0.01, 0.28]. In addition, women showed lower punishment learning rates, posterior mean β =  - 0.17, 95% CI [- 0.3, - 0.03], and lower response bias, posterior mean β =  - 0.3, 95% CI [- 0.56, - 0.05]. The relation between punishment learning rates and history of anxiety was small; however, our findings were consistent with established findings in anxiety derived from self-report. In addition, only main effects of diagnostic status were examined; thus, future research should examine comorbidity between diagnoses on IGT performance. Overall, our findings are consistent with research showing that anxiety is associated with punishment avoidance. In addition, our behavioral findings with respect to gender are also consistent with previous research employing the IGT.

Stroke patients have shown low reward sensitivity, which is a transdiagnostic dimension that defines the extent to which a person actively pursues rewarding stimuli. Low reward sensitivity has been related to depression and dysregulation of the frontostriatal network. To date, studies have addressed this dimension in heterogenic stroke lesions and the underlying mechanisms of frontostriatal stroke patients are still unknown. This study included 54 participants (32 chronic frontostriatal stroke patients and 22 healthy controls). Reward sensitivity was assessed using the probabilistic reversal learning task. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Adult Self-Report, and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) was examined using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in prefrontal, motor, and parietal cortices. Group differences and predictors of reward sensitivity were analyzed using Bayesian ANCOVA and multiple regression models. Stroke patients displayed lower reward sensitivity, higher depressive problems, and lower resting-state functional connectivity between the right orbitrofrontal cortex and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the right orbitrofrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal, and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right premotor cortex and supplementary motor area. In stroke patients, lower reward sensitivity was predicted by higher depressive problems and lower resting-state functional connectivity between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the right premotor cortex and the right supplementary motor area. This work showed the relevance of reward sensitivity in frontostriatal post-stroke patients and its relationship with depression, and supports the resting-state functional connectivity measurement for characterizing abnormalities in connectivity in stroke patients.

Decision-making under uncertainty is a key cognitive function that is sensitive to acute stress. While prior studies have documented gender-specific effects of stress (i.e., typically increased risk-taking in males and greater caution in females), such findings have primarily emerged in conditions where participants were aware of the ongoing stressor. The present study explored whether stress awareness modulates gender differences in risk-taking by manipulating participants' awareness of being under mild hypoxia (i.e., reduced oxygen availability), a systemic stressor that often goes unnoticed by individuals. Sixty-four participants completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) under normoxic (fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO₂) = 20.9%) and mildly hypoxic (FiO₂ = 14.1%) conditions, with participants either being informed or uninformed about the stressor. Results indicated that when participants were aware of the stressor, males exhibited an increased selection of disadvantageous decks (corresponding to greater risk-taking in the IGT) under mild hypoxia, whereas females demonstrated a trend toward more cautious and advantageous choices. In contrast, when unaware of the stressor, both genders showed similar, modest increases in disadvantageous choices under hypoxia. These findings suggest that gender-specific coping strategies in risky decision-making are triggered by the conscious appraisal of stress, rather than by its mere physiological presence, and support theoretical models emphasizing the role of cognitive appraisal and internalized gender norms in shaping decision-making under stress.

Procrastination is a maladaptive behavior associated with a wide range of negative life outcomes, such as poorer educational and occupational performance, and lower levels of physical and mental health. Although previous research has demonstrated that individuals with heightened future time perspective (FTP) exhibit reduced procrastination, the cognitive and neural bases of this relationship remain unclear. Drawing on the self-regulatory framework of time perspective, the present study used two large independent samples (N₁ = 447, N₂ = 459) to test whether self-control and its underlying neural substrates mediate the relationship between FTP and procrastination. Participants were recruited to undergo resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging and complete questionnaires assessing FTP, procrastination, and self-control. Behavioral results from both samples indicated that self-control partially mediated the association between FTP and procrastination. Whole-brain correlation analysis in Sample 1 further revealed that self-control was associated with greater amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Notably, amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations in the left DLPFC was also found to mediate the FTP-procrastination relationship in both samples. The current study provides considerable evidence that spontaneous activity in the DLPFC, which supports self-control, serves as a neural substrate mediating the association between FTP and procrastination.

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) affects autonomic function and enhances cognitive performance by increasing vagal activation and central noradrenergic activity. Nevertheless, the impact of taVNS on acute mental stress remains largely unexplored. This study examined whether taVNS can mitigate the acute sympathetic stress response and improve cognitive performance during a socially evaluated version of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT). The PASAT is a demanding task that assesses working memory and divided attention and serves as a potent stressor. Forty-one young healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to receive either taVNS stimulation (n = 21) at the left cymba conchae or a sham stimulation (n = 20) at the ear lobe. Participants received 15-min stimulation before they were challenged with the PASAT while the stimulation continued. Electrocardiogram, electrodermal activity and self-reports of stress and anxiety were collected. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation increased heart rate variability and sympathetic electrodermal activity during the stimulation. Self-reports, cognitive performance and physiological stress responses remained unaffected by taVNS. Physiological measures were highly intercorrelated in participants receiving taVNS. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation did not influence physiological, psychological or behavioral responses to an acute mental/social stressor. The strong intercorrelation between sympathetic and parasympathetic indexes in the taVNS group, however, suggests that taVNS improves autonomic regulation in healthy participants.

Many studies have explored the neural correlates and benefits of mindfulness, but have rarely focused on its components. This neuroimaging study investigates two components of a short mindfulness training, namely interoception and mindful attention, compared to immersion as an active control condition. Healthy participants were trained in three conditions: (1) interoception, (2) mindful attention of bodily sensations, and (3) immersion. In the scanner, participants read and imagined stressful self-relevant events while adopting one of these three strategies and rated subjective arousal. Participants felt the least aroused in the mindful attention condition compared to both immersion and interoception. Compared to immersion, interoception decreased activation in regions of the Default Mode Network (DMN), including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)/medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), precuneus, angular gyrus, and hippocampus, while mindful attention increased activation in regions related to the sensation of bodily states, such as the bilateral insula. Although the results broadly align with prior research, we argue that inconsistent past findings concerning the amygdala and insula activation might be due to a differential focus on mindfulness components. We discuss other explanations for our results, including differences in prior mindfulness experience.

Recent studies have found cognitive control deficits in high test anxiety (HTA) individuals, yet the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Guided by the Expected Value of Control (EVC) model, this study used a mixed factorial design to examine how task efficacy influences cognitive control in individuals with HTA. We utilized event-related potentials (ERPs) in a cued Flanker task, manipulating the evaluative threat context and task difficulty. Behavioral results showed that in threat contexts, HTA individuals exhibited longer reaction times in the Flanker task and lower accuracy in high-conflict conditions compared to low test anxiety (LTA) individuals. The results of ERP showed that during cue processing, HTA individuals exhibited exaggerated contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitudes across all difficulty cues in nonthreat contexts, suggesting excessive preparatory activity and resource allocation. However, in threat contexts, CNV amplitudes were significantly reduced, reflecting inadequate cognitive resource mobilization. During cognitive control processing, HTA individuals exhibited more negative N2 amplitudes in high-conflict conditions in nonthreat contexts, suggesting enhanced cognitive control. In contrast, in threat contexts, their N2 amplitudes were significantly more positive than those of LTA individuals, indicating impaired cognitive control. The study found that HTA individuals overinvested cognitive resources in nonthreat contexts but reduced investment in threat contexts, possibly due to lower perceptions of efficacy, which may have impaired cognitive control. This research extended the application of the EVC model, provided new theoretical insights into the mechanisms of cognitive control deficits in test anxiety, and informed targeted interventions.

Depression is associated with impairments in memory processes. Evidence suggests that poorer recognition of positive information and quicker disengagement with positive information from working memory in depressed versus nondepressed individuals. The working memory deficits are speculated to be downstream effects of a taxed working memory due to rumination processes that impair reward learning leading to anhedonia symptoms. Downstream effects are also hypothesized for episodic memory with impairments particularly for positive information due to dopamine dysregulation from anhedonia affecting memory formation processes. To examine the association of memory impairments in individuals with mild-to-severe anhedonia and depressive symptoms, 108 young adults completed a working memory task where they had to remember an abstract shape while presented with two consecutive positive, neutral, or negative images. This task was followed by a surprise episodic memory recognition test for the images the next day. The Drift Diffusion Model index drift rate was used to examine whether anhedonia severity predicted evidence accumulation rates during working and episodic memory retrieval. Contrary to expectations, based on multivariate models, anhedonia severity did not predict evidence accumulation rate for any specific valence in either task. These results suggest that anhedonia symptoms may not be uniquely associated with memory differences for emotionally valenced compared with neutral stimuli. Further studies should investigate the role of specific facets of anhedonia, including anticipatory reward and use different paradigms and neurophysiological measures, to examine the proposed hypotheses.

Emotion regulation emerges during childhood and engages prefrontal brain systems. While most developmental studies focus on the neural underpinnings of negative emotion regulation, less is known about the neuroanatomical correlates of positive emotion regulation. In adults, prefrontal areas in the left hemisphere are critical for positive emotion regulation, but whether this association is present in children is unknown. We investigated whether smaller gray matter volume in left prefrontal regions related to worse positive emotion regulation in children with and without dyslexia. Because dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder of reading in which there may be greater variability in left prefrontal structures, it offers a unique window into the neural basis of positive emotion regulation. Sixty-nine children (ages 7-13) were asked to hide their feelings while watching film clips that elicited either amusement or disgust, and evaluate their emotion regulation performance. Parents reported on children's everyday emotion regulation. Across the sample, children with smaller volumes in left prefrontal regions (i.e., lateral orbitofrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) had greater facial behavior (i.e., suggesting worse positive emotion regulation) yet more positive self-reported emotion regulation success during the amusement trial (i.e., suggesting more favorable self-evaluation). These regions did not relate to disgust regulation, however. Children with more positive views of their emotion regulation success also had better everyday parent-reported emotion regulation. Results suggest that positive emotion regulation in childhood relies on left prefrontal regions and a more optimistic view of one's emotion regulation abilities, regardless of one's actual emotional behavior, may confer real-world advantages.

Background: A growing literature has examined the reward positivity (RewP), an event-related potential indicator of reward sensitivity, to social feedback. Research has indicated that a larger RewP to social rejection is associated with multiple internalizing problems, including anxiety, depression, and borderline personality. However, it is not clear whether the similar relationships are due to higher-order transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology.

Methods: A total of 222 participants, 18 to 35 years (mean [M] = 23.06, standard deviation [SD] = 3.82; 86% assigned sex female), who were oversampled for psychopathology completed two social feedback tasks while electroencephalography was recorded to measure the RewP to social like (i.e., acceptance) and dislike (i.e., rejection) feedback. Participants also completed a self-report measure of pathological personality traits relevant to internalizing disorders, which was used to estimate a hierarchical model of internalizing psychopathology. We calculated direct, indirect, and total effects of the RewPs to social like and dislike feedback on higher-order (i.e., negative emotionality) and lower-order (i.e., traits) psychopathology.

Results: The results indicated a positive direct effect of the social dislike RewP on higher-order negative emotionality. There were several positive indirect effects of the social dislike RewP on maladaptive traits. The social like RewP did not show any direct or indirect associations with negative emotionality or traits.

Conclusions: The present study suggests that a larger neural response to social rejection is associated with greater higher-order negative emotionality. The RewP to negative social feedback may serve as a transdiagnostic marker of altered social information processing across internalizing disorders.