Cognitive Control and Anxious Arousal in Worry and Generalized Anxiety: An Initial Test of an Integrative Model

Vasey, Michael W.; Chriki, Lyvia; Toh, Gim Y.

doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9809-6

Cited by 23 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Furthermore, many individuals with GAD fail to respond to current treatments and those who do respond often fail to maintain improvement over several years (e.g., Cuijpers et al, 2014 ), suggesting there may be sources of heterogeneity that moderate treatment response. One candidate domain of heterogeneity is the capacity for top-down control over cognition ( Toh and Vasey, 2017 ; Vasey et al, 2017 ). Understandably, scholars have linked pathological worry to deficits in such cognitive control (e.g., Borkovec et al, 1983 ; Hirsch and Mathews, 2012 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, studies of top-down control capacity in worriers and individuals with GAD reveal substantial heterogeneity in their results. For example, evidence suggests that such individuals vary widely in their self-reported levels of attentional control (AC) or, more broadly, the dimension of effortful control (EC; see Vasey et al, 2017 ). Whereas some studies have found significant negative correlations between GAD status/symptoms and self-reported AC/EC and similar constructs (e.g., Armstrong et al, 2011 ; Olatunji et al, 2011 ), others have found no association (e.g., Bienvenu et al, 2004 ) or even a significant positive association (e.g., Rosellini and Brown, 2011 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Heart Rate Variability Moderates the Association Between Beliefs About Worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Fishback

Chriki²,

Thayer

et al. 2020

Front. Neurosci.

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Paradoxically, some individuals who experience pathological worry also have good capacity for top-down control over their thoughts. Why such individuals would nevertheless worry excessively remains unclear. One explanation is suggested by research showing that those experiencing pathological worry are set apart from healthy controls by their beliefs that worry has utility and that effective worrying requires them to consider all possibilities before terminating a worry bout. This suggests that worriers with good capacity for cognitive control may engage in prolonged worry because they believe it is adaptive to do so. In a sample of 109 college students, among whom individuals reporting pathological worry were overrepresented, we tested this hypothesis using an objective index of top-down control capacity (i.e., resting vagally mediated heart rate variability [vmHRV]) and self-report measures of beliefs about worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptom severity/status. As predicted, GAD symptom severity and vmHRV interacted to predict beliefs about worry. Specifically, high GAD symptoms were most strongly associated with beliefs that worry has utility at higher levels of vmHRV. Furthermore, this pattern was mostly a function of the belief that worry serves to distract the worrier from more emotional things. Similarly, high GAD symptoms were most strongly associated with endorsement of an ‘as many as can’ (AMAC) problem-solving rule when vmHRV was high . From the opposite perspective, both worry utility beliefs and AMAC rule endorsement were associated with the highest GAD symptom severity at higher levels of vmHRV. This was also true for the belief that worry distracts from more emotional things predicting analog GAD status. These results suggest that worriers who have higher levels of top-down control capacity may initiate and persist in worry, at least initially, because they value it. However, why they nevertheless rate their worry as excessive and uncontrollable is an important question for future research.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heart Rate Variability Moderates the Association Between Beliefs About Worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Fishback

Chriki²,

Thayer

et al. 2020

Front. Neurosci.

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“…If patients frequently switch to cognitive coping strategies to avoid unpleasant autonomic arousal, they might need to practice how to direct attention properly to adequately deal with negative thoughts and feelings (Derryberry & Reed, 2002;Hirsch & Mathews, 2012). If patients frequently struggle to disengage attention from negative stimuli and are overwhelmed by negative affect, as has been indicated by other studies (Derryberry & Reed, 2002;Vasey et al, 2017), they might need a different type of support during therapy, perhaps intensively directed at the intersubjective regulation of both ANS activity and attention (Bentzen, 2015). Shirk, Talmi, and Olds (2000) emphasize that from a developmental psychopathology perspective, treatment guidelines should not exclusively depend on diagnosis.…”

Section: Conclusion and Clinical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…While worry has been associated with lower HRV in some studies (e.g. Chalmers, Heathers, Abbott, Kemp, & Quintana, 2016), there are inconsistencies in this literature as well (as reviewed by Vasey et al, 2017). The association between different Published in Journal of Psychophysiology at https://doi.org/10.1027/0269-8803/a000241 25 modes of worry (i.e.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, higher AC could also facilitate maladaptive coping strategies, for instance the use of cognitive avoidance such as worry (Derryberry & Reed, 2002). Vasey et al (2017) suggest that, in the face of threatening stimuli, individuals with higher levels of cognitive control might more often manage to make a shift to verbal worry, while individuals with lower levels of cognitive control might struggle to disengage from a more imagerybased worry. Interestingly, worrisome thinking has been associated with a lower heart rate response compared to processing fear imagery (Borkovec, Lyonfields, Wiser & Deihl, 1993;Vrana, Cuthbert & Lang, 1986), and efforts to decrease autonomic arousal were more effective if a verbal compared to an imaginal strategy was used (Tucker & Newman, 1981).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Internalizing Problems and Attentional Control

Andersen

Fiskum

Aslaksen

et al. 2020

Journal of Psychophysiology

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Individuals with internalizing problems differ in levels of attentional control (AC), and this heterogeneity could be associated with differences in autonomic arousal. The present study investigated whether AC moderated the effect of internalizing problems on self-reported experience and autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses after the induction of negative affect. Children aged 9-13 years were recruited into a patient group (29) and a healthy control group (25). AC was measured by the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire. Heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV) and pre-ejection period (PEP) were recorded during baseline, a sad film clip and recovery, and analyzed using a marginal linear model. Children reported their experienced emotion, valence and arousal in response to the film. A significant interaction effect showed increased HRV and longer PEP from baseline to recovery for patients with higher AC. Patients with lower AC showed increased HRV followed by a return to baseline values after the film clip and no significant changes in PEP. Healthy controls showed no significant changes in HRV or PEP independent of level of AC. There were no differences between groups in self-reported experience. The results indicate that AC moderated the effect of internalizing problems on ANS regulation. Increased HRV and longer PEP from baseline to recovery were uniquely associated with higher AC and internalizing problems. This physiological response might indicate a cognitive avoidance strategy. AC could be an important factor explaining heterogeneity in ANS activity among individuals with internalizing problems. Clinical implications of the present findings are discussed.

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Inhibitory Control Moderates the Effect of Anxiety on Vagally Mediated Heart Rate Variability: Findings from a Community Sample of Young School-Aged Children

et al. 2021

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Cognitive Control and Anxious Arousal in Worry and Generalized Anxiety: An Initial Test of an Integrative Model

Cited by 23 publications

References 94 publications

Heart Rate Variability Moderates the Association Between Beliefs About Worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Heart Rate Variability Moderates the Association Between Beliefs About Worry and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Internalizing Problems and Attentional Control

Inhibitory Control Moderates the Effect of Anxiety on Vagally Mediated Heart Rate Variability: Findings from a Community Sample of Young School-Aged Children

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