The effects of cognitive load on attention control in subclinical anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder

Najmi, Sadia; Amir, Nader; Frosio, Kristen E.; Ayers, Catherine R.

doi:10.1080/02699931.2014.975188

Cited by 47 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…This threat-related hypervigilance is a prominent symptom of clinical anxiety, cutting across multiple diagnoses 2 , and these results suggest that it may be mediated by a hyperactive parietal cortex 33,34,36,38,39 . This diminished attention control may explain why (1) individuals with specific phobias may show attentional biases to threatening information [40][41][42][43] , (2) generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients have difficulties maintaining attentional focus [44][45][46][47] anxiety interferes with the manipulation of items in working memory 29 . If this is the case, then inhibitory parietal rTMS should also reduce the attention bias to threat seen in anxiety patients.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-frequency parietal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces fear and anxiety

et al. 2020

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Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders, with few effective neuropharmacological treatments, making treatments development critical. While noninvasive neuromodulation can successfully treat depression, few treatment targets have been identified specifically for anxiety disorders. Previously, we showed that shock threat increases excitability and connectivity of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Here we tested the hypothesis that inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) targeting this region would reduce induced anxiety. Subjects were exposed to neutral, predictable, and unpredictable shock threat, while receiving double-blinded, 1 Hz active or sham IPS rTMS. We used global brain connectivity and electric-field modelling to define the single-subject targets. We assessed subjective anxiety with online ratings and physiological arousal with the startle reflex. Startle stimuli (103 dB white noise) probed fear and anxiety during the predictable (fear-potentiated startle, FPS) and unpredictable (anxietypotentiated startle, APS) conditions. Active rTMS reduced both FPS and APS relative to both the sham and no stimulation conditions. However, the online anxiety ratings showed no difference between the stimulation conditions. These results were not dependent on the laterality of the stimulation, or the subjects' perception of the stimulation (i.e. active vs. sham). Results suggest that reducing IPS excitability during shock threat is sufficient to reduce physiological arousal related to both fear and anxiety, and are consistent with our previous research showing hyperexcitability in this region during threat. By extension, these results suggest that 1 Hz parietal stimulation may be an effective treatment for clinical anxiety, warranting future work in anxiety patients.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-frequency parietal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces fear and anxiety

et al. 2020

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“…In the current study participants were selected from a participant pool according to their self-reported trait anxiety scores. Although previous studies have shown similar effect sizes in clinical and subclinical groups for threat-related attentional bias (Bar-Haim, Lamy, Pergamin, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van, 2007) and attentional control (Najmi, Amir, Frosio, & Ayers, 2015;Vytal, Cornwell, Letkiewicz, Arkin, & Grillon, 2013) findings require replication in clinical groups. Our findings support frameworks that highlight working memory and executive control processes as therapeutic targets in anxiety and invite future trial protocols to examine improvements in processing efficiency and effectiveness across behaviour, peripheral and electrocortical markers, in addition to self-report symptoms of anxiety.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 74%

The impact of cognitive load on processing efficiency and performance effectiveness in anxiety: evidence from event-related potentials and pupillary responses

et al. 2019

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Anxiety has been associated with poor attentional control, as reflected in lowered performance on experimental measures of executive attention and inhibitory control. Recent conceptualisations of anxiety propose that individuals who report elevated anxiety symptoms worry about performance and will exert greater cognitive effort to complete tasks well, particularly when cognitive demands are high. Across two experiments we examined the effect of anxiety on task performance and across two load conditions using (1) measures of inhibitory control (behavioural reaction times and eye-movement responses), and (2) task effort with pupillary and electrocortical markers of effort (CNV) and inhibitory control (N2). Experiment 1 used an oculomotor-delayed-response task that manipulated load by increasing delay duration to create a high-load, relative to a low load, condition. Experiment 2 used a Go/No-Go task and load was manipulated by decreasing the No-Go probabilities (i.e., 20% No-Go in the high load condition and 50% No-Go in the low load condition). Experiment 1 showed individuals with high (vs. low) anxiety made more antisaccade errors across load conditions, and made more effort during the high load condition, as evidenced by greater frontal CNV and increased pupillary responses. In Experiment 2 individuals with high anxiety showed increased effort (irrespective of cognitive load), as characterised by larger pupillary responses. In addition, N2 amplitudes were sensitive to load only in individuals with low anxiety. Evidence of reduced performance effectiveness and efficiency across electrophysiological, pupillary and oculomotor systems in anxiety provides some support for neurocognitive models of frontocortical attentional dysfunction in anxiety.

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“…First, this study did not consider several individual difference, including childhood experiences, anxiety trait or childhood adversity—all of which can affect approach and avoidance behaviors (De Carli, Riem Madelon, & Parolin, ) and moderate the effect of cognitive load (Hiraoka & Nomura, ; Najmi, Amir, Frosio, & Ayers, ). It is possible that such individual differences may moderate the effect of cognitive load on postural and physiological responses to infant vocalization; therefore, future studies should examine the more comprehensive mechanism of mothers’ responses to infants’ emotional vocalizations by considering personal characteristics as an individual‐difference factor.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of cognitive load on maternal postural sway and heart rate in response to infant vocalizations

Hiraoka

Nomura

2020

Developmental Psychobiology

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Infants communicate their emotions to their caregivers through cries and laughter. Recent work suggests that adaptive parenting requires cognitive regulation of intuitive behaviors toward infants’ signals. In this study, we examined the effects of cognitive regulation on mothers’ unconscious behavioral and cardiac responses to infant cries and laughs. In all, 55 mothers took part in this study. To manipulate cognitive load, mothers were asked to memorize alphabet characters (two letters in the low cognitive load condition and eight in the high cognitive load condition). Then, they heard infant vocalizations (cries or laughs) for 6 s. During this time, we measured mothers’ behavioral (center of pressure, an index of approach–avoidance behavior) and physiological (heart rate) responses. Regardless of vocalization type (infant cries or laughs), high cognitive load increased mothers’ forward movement toward the infant sounds as well as mothers’ heart rate. These findings advance our understanding of the link between executive function and maternal response to infant signals by utilizing postural and physiological measures of maternal response during memory tasks that require cognitive resources.

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The effects of cognitive load on attention control in subclinical anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder

Cited by 47 publications

References 44 publications

Low-frequency parietal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces fear and anxiety

Low-frequency parietal repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reduces fear and anxiety

The impact of cognitive load on processing efficiency and performance effectiveness in anxiety: evidence from event-related potentials and pupillary responses

The influence of cognitive load on maternal postural sway and heart rate in response to infant vocalizations

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