Personality correlates of auditory augmenting response to clicks repeated around 2Hz

Trait impulsivity and increased pre-attentional sensitivity to intense stimuli in bipolar disorder and controls

Impulsivity and sensation seeking are stimulus-oriented traits. Because they differ in degree of intention and planning, they may have distinct neurophysiological mechanisms. Impulsivity is prominent in bipolar disorder, and may be related to pre-attentional information filtering and stimulus-orientation. We investigated specificity of relationships between impulsivity and sensitivity to stimulus intensity in bipolar disorder and controls, using intensity-sensitivity of auditory evoked potentials. Seventy-six subjects (37 healthy controls, 39 with bipolar disorder) were administered an intensity-sensitivity paradigm. Additional measures included Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and Eysenck Impulsivity and Venturesomeness scores. State-dependent rapid-response impulsivity was measured using the Immediate Memory Task. Intensity-sensitivities of the auditory evoked P1N1, N1P2, P1, N1, and P2 potentials were assessed as the slope of amplitude relative to loudness. Analyses used general linear models (GLM) with impulsivity-related measures as dependent variables and age, gender, education, and diagnosis as dependent variables. BIS-11 total, motor, and attentional impulsivity scores correlated positively with pre-attentional N1 and P1N1 intensity-sensitivity slopes in bipolar disorder, but not in controls. BIS-11 nonplanning and Eysenck Venturesomeness scores did not correlate with intensity-sensitivity. Intensity-sensitivity slopes did not correlate with rapid-response impulsivity. Correlations between N1 or P1N1 slopes and BIS-11 scores in bipolar disorder were not affected by age, education, WAIS, treatment, symptoms, or gender. Trait impulsivity in bipolar disorder may be related to poorly modulated stimulus-driven late pre-attentional responses to stimuli, potentially resulting in exaggerated responses to intense stimuli even before conscious awareness. Components of trait impulsivity are physiologically heterogenous relative to intensity-sensitivity.

Neural correlates of stopping and self-reported impulsivity

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relation between self-reported impulsivity, inhibitory control, and the neural correlates of stopping performance within the normal population.

METHODS

Healthy individuals scoring high and low on trait impulsivity performed an auditory stop-signal task. Stopping performance and neural correlates of stopping (i.e. N1 and stop P3) were compared between the impulsive groups as well as between participants who were slow and fast in stopping.

RESULTS

As expected, N1 and stop P3 were larger for successful relative to failed stops (i.e. N1 and stop P3 effects). Participants scoring high relative to low on impulsivity showed equal stopping performance, had larger stop P3, but similar N1 effects. Slow as compared to fast stoppers had reduced stop P3, but similar N1 effects.

CONCLUSIONS

Participants scoring high relative to low on impulsivity may need more effortful inhibitory control to yield equal stopping performance. Slow relative to fast stoppers may have weaker inhibition processes and abnormal error processing. In contrast to ADHD, both high impulsives as well as slow stoppers had an intact N1 effect.

SIGNIFICANCE

Subjective impulsivity and slow stopping in healthy individuals cannot be generalized to ADHD.

Evidence for disturbed cortical signal processing and altered serotonergic neurotransmission in generalized anxiety disorder

BACKGROUND

Current pathophysiological concepts of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) assume a disturbed exteroceptive sensory system. Furthermore, central serotonergic neurotransmission has been shown to play an important role in anxiety disorder. Cortical signal processing as measured by auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) may reflect the integrity of the exteroceptive sensory system. Because a special aspect of AEP, the loudness dependence of the N1/P2-component (LD), has been related to central serotonergic activity, the LD may be useful for investigating serotonergic dysfunctions in GAD.

METHODS

The LD was recorded in 31 medication-free patients with GAD without any psychiatric co-morbidity and in 31 matched control subjects. Dipole source analysis was performed to separate the LD of regions including the primary (LD-tangential dipole) and regions including the secondary auditory cortex (LD-radial dipole).

RESULTS

A shallower LD-tangential was observed in patients with GAD as compared to healthy control subjects [F(1,60) = 6.727, p =.012; one-way analysis of variance]. The LD-radial showed no differences between groups. Severity of the anxiety symptoms was not related to the LDs.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate an altered exteroceptive sensory system in GAD occurring at the level of the primary but not secondary auditory cortex. Because a shallow LD of the primary auditory cortex was related to a high firing rate of neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus, the results may support evidence for an enhanced serotonergic activity in GAD.

Sensation seeking and subjective unpleasantness ratings of stimulus intensity

Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale measures tendency to seek novel, varied, complex, and intense sensations and experiences and the willingness to take risks for the sake of such experiences. In this study, the subjective experience of sensory intensity change was explored by asking six high and six low sensation seekers to expose themselves to a combined sound and vibration stimulus that increased in intensity until one of three different levels of subjective unpleasantness was reached. Analysis showed that high sensation seekers consistently exposed themselves to longer periods of stimulation and thus higher intensities.