Identifying real-world affective correlates of cognitive risk factors for internalizing disorders.

Abstract

Cognitive risk factors are key in the vulnerability for internalizing disorders. Cognitive risk factors modulate the way individuals process information from the environment which in turn impacts the day-to-day affective experience. In 296 young adults, we assessed two transdiagnostic, general risk factors—repetitive negative thinking (RNT) and anxiety sensitivity in a high-RNT subsample (N = 119). We also assessed disorderand content-specific risk factors including worry, rumination, and three facets of anxiety sensitivity (cognitive, social, physical). To determine the day-to-day affective experience, we used cell-phone-based ecological momentary assessment to assess the mean and variability of positive and negative affect (PA; NA) over 3–4 months. Two multilevel multivariate Bayesian models were used to predict PA and NA mean and variability from (1) general and (2) specific cognitive risk factors. Mean NA was a nonspecific correlate of cognitive risk across both models, while mean PA was most strongly related to RNT and rumination. NA variability was most strongly related to RNT, rumination, and the physiological facet of anxiety sensitivity. PA variability was a specific correlate of RNT. Results highlight that cognitive risk factors for internalizing disorders manifest in unique patterns of day-to-day emotional experience.

A Neural Signature of the Bias Towards Self-Focus

“…Among Human Connectome Project participants, repeatedly and rhythmically moving into the pre-self pattern during rest corresponded with internalizing symptoms, including depression and anxiety. Rumination-repetitive and recurrent negative thinking about oneself 52 -is thought to play a key role in internalizing disorders [53][54][55] . Yet, the neural mechanism that explains why and how rumination spontaneously occurs is not fully understood, although past work has associated the default network with depression and anxiety 63,64 .…”

“…The results from our dataset suggest that we can decode the bias towards self-focus-the pre-self pattern predicts self-focused decisions, subjective self-focus during rest, and the presence of active self-reflection neural patterns a few seconds later. Self-focused thought is implicated in mental health conditions, particularly internalizing disorders such as anxiety and depression [52][53][54][55] . Could the pre-self pattern be used to predict internalizing scores in an entirely separate sample of participants?…”