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The impact of induced anxiety on affective response inhibition.

ABSTRACT: Studying the effects of experimentally induced anxiety in healthy volunteers may increase our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning anxiety disorders. Experimentally induced stress (via threat of unpredictable shock) improves accuracy at withholding a response on the sustained attention to response task (SART), and in separate studies improves accuracy to classify fearful faces, creating an affective bias. Integrating these findings, participants at two public science engagement events (n?=?46, n?=?55) were recruited to explore the effects of experimentally induced stress on an affective version of the SART. We hypothesized that we would see an improved accuracy at withholding a response to affectively congruent stimuli (i.e. increased accuracy at withholding a response to fearful 'no-go' distractors) under threat of shock. Induced anxiety slowed reaction time, and at the second event quicker responses were made to fearful stimuli. However, we did not observe improved inhibition overall during induced anxiety, and there was no evidence to suggest an interaction between induced anxiety and stimulus valence on response accuracy. Indeed Bayesian analysis provided decisive evidence against this hypothesis. We suggest that the presence of emotional stimuli might make the safe condition more anxiogenic, reducing the differential between conditions and knocking out any threat-potentiated improvement.

SUBMITTER: Aylward J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5493909 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of induced anxiety on affective response inhibition.

Aylward Jessica J Valton Vincent V Goer Franziska F Mkrtchian Anahit A Lally Níall N Peters Sarah S Limbachya Tarun T Robinson Oliver J OJ

Royal Society open science 20170607 6

Studying the effects of experimentally induced anxiety in healthy volunteers may increase our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning anxiety disorders. Experimentally induced stress (via threat of unpredictable shock) improves accuracy at withholding a response on the sustained attention to response task (SART), and in separate studies improves accuracy to classify fearful faces, creating an affective bias. Integrating these findings, participants at two public science engagement events (< ...[more]

PMID: 28680667

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Project description:Background and objectivesCurrent cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) propose that individual, situation-specific self-beliefs are central to SAD. However, the role of differences in the degree to which individuals with social anxiety are convinced of self-beliefs, in particular positive ones, is still not fully understood. We compared how much high and low socially anxious individuals agree with their own negative and positive self-beliefs. Furthermore, we investigated whether agreeing with one's self-belief can explain the relation between negative affect in response to self-beliefs and social anxiety. Specifically, we were interested whether social anxiety increases negative affect in response to self-beliefs through an increase in agreement.MethodsWe developed a new experimental self-belief task containing positive and negative semi-idiosyncratic, situation specific self-beliefs typical of high social anxiety and included a direct measure of agreement with these beliefs. Using extreme group sampling, we a-priori selected high (n = 51) and low (n = 50) socially anxious individuals. By multi-level mediation analysis, we analyzed agreement with self-beliefs in both groups and its association with affect.ResultsHigh and low socially anxious individuals chose similar self-beliefs. However, high socially anxious individuals (HSA) agreed more with negative self-beliefs and less with positive self-beliefs compared to low socially anxious individuals (LSA). HSA individuals reported increased negative affect after both, exposition to negative and positive self-beliefs compared to LSA. We found that social anxiety increases affective responses towards negative-self beliefs through an increase in agreeing with these self-beliefs.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that cognitive models of social anxiety can be improved by including not only the content of a self-belief but also the strength of such a belief. In addition, they emphasize the relevance of positive self-beliefs in social anxiety, which has frequently been overlooked.

Project description:Several studies have recently suggested that an abnormal processing of respiratory interoceptive and nociceptive (painful) stimuli may contribute to eating disorder (ED) pathophysiology. Mood and anxiety disorders (MA) are also characterized by abnormal respiratory symptoms, and show substantial comorbidity with ED. However, no studies have examined both respiratory and pain processing simultaneously within ED and MA. The present study systematically evaluated responses to perturbations of respiratory and nociceptive signals across the levels of physiology, behavior, and symptom report in a transdiagnostic ED sample (n = 51) that was individually matched to MA individuals (n = 51) and healthy comparisons (HC; n = 51). Participants underwent an inspiratory breath-holding challenge as a probe of respiratory interoception and a cold pressor challenge as a probe of pain processing. We expected both clinical groups to report greater stress and fear in response to respiratory and nociceptive perturbation than HCs, in the absence of differential physiological and behavioral responses. During breath-holding, both the ED and MA groups reported significantly more stress, feelings of suffocation, and suffocation fear than HC, with the ED group reporting the most severe symptoms. Moreover, anxiety sensitivity was related to suffocation fear only in the ED group. The heightened affective responses in the current study occurred in the absence of group differences in behavioral (breath hold duration, cold pressor duration) and physiological (end-tidal carbon dioxide, end-tidal oxygen, heart rate, skin conductance) responses. Against our expectations, there were no group differences in the response to cold pain stimulation. A matched-subgroup analysis focusing on individuals with anorexia nervosa (n = 30) produced similar results. These findings underscore the presence of abnormal respiratory interoception in MA and suggest that hyperreactivity to respiratory signals may be a potentially overlooked clinical feature of ED.

Project description:This study was designed to explore the potential mechanisms of electroacupuncture (EA) in treating inflammatory bowel disease- (IBD-) related anxiety and mood disorders. A colitis model was induced in rats with 2, 4, 6-trinitrohydrosulfonic acid (TNBS), followed by ST36 and SP6 targeted therapy by EA or sham EA treatment. The elevated plus maze (EPM) and open-field test (OFT) were performed to assess the state of anxiety and depression-like behavior. Tests were carried out by 16S rDNA amplification sequence, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy, immunofluorescence staining, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The analyses detailed metabolic alterations and the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling pathway/NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in rats' hippocampal region. Furthermore, the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and gut microbiome was assessed. As a result of treatment, EA significantly improved in the behavioral tests and altered the composition of the gut microbiome through a significant increase in the density of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) producers mainly including Ruminococcaceae, Phascolarctobacterium, and Akkermansiaceae. EA upregulated the metabolites of the hippocampus mainly containing l-glutamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), as well as ZO-1 expression. Whereas the treatment blocked the TLR4/nuclear factor- kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathways and NLRP3 inflammasomes, along with downregulating the interleukin- (IL-) 1β level. The hyperactivity of the HPA axis was also diminished. In conclusion, EA at ST36 and SP6 attenuated anxiety and depression-like behavior in colitis model rats through their effects on the gut microbiome by modulating the hippocampal inflammatory response and metabolic disorders, as well as the HPA axis. This study provides evidence for clinical application of EA to serve as an adjunctive treatment for IBD-related anxiety and depression.

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The impact of induced anxiety on affective response inhibition.

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The impact of induced anxiety on affective response inhibition.

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