Negative recall bias and neuroticism: state vs trait effects

The Relationship Between Personality Traits and the Processing of Emotion Words: Evidence from Eye-Movements in Sentence Reading

Previous research shows that processing times on emotion words (both negative and positive) are faster than on non-emotional neutral words. In the current study, we explored how personality traits (the Big Five and the trait emotional intelligence factors) may further influence the processing of emotion versus non-emotion words by conducting two experiments where participants silently read sentences while their eye movements were recorded. The results replicated the facilitative emotion effect and showed that those with higher agreeableness scores had stronger emotion effects on positive words and those with higher extraversion scores, higher openness scores, higher agreeableness scores, lower sociability scores, and higher emotionality scores had stronger emotion effects on negative words. Furthermore, some personality traits also led to different ways that readers approach text, for example, through more risky reading strategies.

Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict the Phenome of Affective Disorders and These Effects Are Mediated by Staging, Neuroimmunotoxic and Growth Factor Profiles

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) enhance pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidant responses. In affective disorders, recent precision nomothetic psychiatry studies disclosed new pathway phenotypes, including an ROI-reoccurrence of illness (ROI)-oxidative stress latent construct. The aim of the present study is to delineate a) whether ACEs sensitize the M1 macrophage, the T helper cells (Th)1, Th2, and Th17, the IRS (immune-inflammatory-responses system), the CIRS (compensatory immunoregulatory system), and the neuroimmunotoxic and growth factor (GF) profiles and whether they are associated with ROI and the phenome of affective disorders and b) the molecular pathways underpinning the effects of the ACEs. We collected supernatants of stimulated (5 μg/mL of PHA and 25 μg/mL of LPS) and unstimulated diluted whole blood in 20 healthy controls and 30 depressed patients and measured a panel of 27 cytokines/GF using a Luminex method. ACEs (comprising mental and physical trauma, mental neglect, domestic violence, family history of mental disease, and parent loss) are accompanied by the increased stimulated, but not unstimulated, production of M1, Th1, Th2, Th17, IRS, neuroimmunotoxic, and GF profiles and are strongly correlated with ROI and the phenome. A latent vector extracted from the ROI features (recurrent episodes and suicidal behaviors) and the IRS/neuroimmunotoxic/GF profiles explains 66.8% of the variance in the phenome and completely mediates the effects of ACEs on the phenome. Enrichment analysis showed that the ACE-associated sensitization of immune/GF profiles involves JAK-STAT, nuclear factor-κB, tumor necrosis factor-α, G-protein coupled receptor, PI3K/Akt/RAS/MAPK, and hypoxia signaling. In summary, the ACE-induced sensitization of immune pathways and secondary immune hits predicts the phenome of affective disorders.

The Functional Connectivity Between Right Middle Temporal Gyrus and Right Superior Frontal Gyrus Impacted Procrastination through Neuroticism

Procrastination is generally recognized as a problematic behavior and the consequences of which spread to various aspects of an individual's life such as academic performance, social accomplishment, well-being, and health. Previous studies have indicated that neuroticism is positively correlated with procrastination; however, little is known about the neural substrates underlying the link between neuroticism and procrastination. To address this issue, we employed voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) methods to investigate the neural underpinning for their relationship in the present study (N = 153). Consistent with our hypothesis, the behavior results verified a positive correlation between neuroticism and procrastination (r = 0.47). The VBM analysis revealed that the gray matter (GM) volumes in the right middle temporal gyrus (RMTG) were positively correlated with neuroticism. Moreover, results from RSFC analysis suggested that the functional connectivity between RMTG and the right superior frontal gyrus (RSFG) was positively associated with neuroticism. More importantly, a mediation analysis demonstrated that neuroticism played a full mediating role in the impact of RMTG-RSFG functional connectivity on procrastination. Overall, the present study offered new insights into the relation between neuroticism and procrastination from a neural basis perspective, which also suggested the importance of emotional regulation with regard to the link between such an association.

Personality, threat identification and emotional processing

Individual differences in threat identification moderate the associations of personality with emotional experience and behaviour. The present two studies examined whether adeptness at threat identification also moderates the associations between personality and emotional processing. Participants completed personality scales, different emotional processing measures and a threat versus non‐threat categorization task. Adeptness at threat identification moderated the relations between agreeableness and negative interpretation of ambiguous stimuli, negative reactivity and positive likelihood judgments, and the relation between neuroticism and negative recall. The results supported the view that agreeableness and adeptness at threat identification together form a self‐regulation system. The results may have important implications for trait and health psychology. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cannabis-associated impairments in the fading affect bias and autobiographical memory specificity

We investigated potential relationships between cannabis use and 2 phenomena associated with autobiographical remembering: the fading affect bias (FAB) and memory specificity. The FAB is an emotional affect regulation mechanism that is observed when the intensity of affect associated with experiencing negative memories fades faster than the intensity of affect associated with experiencing positive memories. Memory specificity refers to the level of detail with which events are recalled. No studies have examined the relationships between cannabis use, the FAB, and memory specificity simultaneously. Chronic cannabis users (N = 47) and non-users (N = 52) recalled and described positive and negative autobiographical events and rated the affective intensity for the events at the time of occurrence and at time of test. Participants retrieved additional memories using a sentence-completion recall task, which were coded for specificity. Cannabis users showed reduced fading affect for unpleasant events and reduced memory specificity compared to non-users.

Personality and Cognitive Processing of Affective Information

Several studies have demonstrated that the personality traits of extraversion and neuroticism are positively correlated with susceptibilities to positive and negative affect, respectively. These findings are often explained in terms of Jeffrey Gray's theory of personality, which predicts that extraverts and neurotics are differentially susceptible to stimuli that generate positive and negative emotional states. The current research provides a further test of Gray's theory using a series of cognitive tasks with positive and negative stimuli. In Study 1, participants completed a word-fragment completion task, a reaction-time task and a recall task. Results showed that extraversion was generally related to performance when stimuli were positive but not when stimuli were negative or neutral. Study 2 replicated these findings and demonstrated that the relationships between personality and performance were not mediated by current mood state. Discussion focuses on integrating a cognitive analysis of personality with existing biological theories.

Cognition in Clinical Psychology: Measures, Methods or Models?

This paper critically examines the recent impact of cognitivism upon the field of clinical psychology, and concludes that certain criteria of scientific adequacy have been compromised. The argument is developed that the introduction of information processing constructs to theoretical models of psychopathology has made a potentially valuable contribution to the discipline; but that the acceptance of mental events as dependent measures has severely undermined the scientific credibility of experimental attempts to evaluate such models. It is proposed that future progress will require the adoption of a particular methodological constraint. Specifically, it is suggested that cognitive explanations of psychopathology can only be tested adequately by evaluating the validity of the behavioural predictions that they generate. Using examples of recent research that has investigated the cognitive characteristics of vulnerability to anxiety and depression, an attempt is made to demonstrate that adherence to this proposed constraint not only is possible, but actually provides a far greater degree of understanding than could be attained through the use of alternative methodologies. It is postulated that the future scientific status of clinical psychology may depend upon our collective response to the issues that are raised in this paper.

Amygdala to hippocampal volume ratio is associated with negative memory bias in healthy subjects

BACKGROUND

Negative memory bias is thought to be one of the main cognitive risk and maintenance factors for depression, but its neural substrates are largely unknown. Here, we studied whether memory bias is related to amygdala and hippocampal volume, two structures that are critical for emotional memory processes and that show consistent volume alterations in depression.

METHOD

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was carried out in 272 healthy participants (62% female, 18-50 years old). All images were acquired on 1.5 T Siemens MRI scanners. Automatic segmentation of amygdala and hippocampus was performed using the FIRST module of FSL. Negative memory bias was assessed by the self-referent encoding/evaluation test.

RESULTS

Negative memory bias was associated with larger amygdala (p=0.042) and smaller hippocampal (p=0.029) volumes. In additional analyses, we found that, compared with the associations found with hippocampus and amygdala volume separately, a stronger association was found between negative memory bias and the ratio of amygdala:hippocampus volume (p=0.021).

CONCLUSIONS

In non-depressed subjects we found that larger amygdala and smaller hippocampal volumes are associated with negative memory bias. This suggests that an increased amygdala:hippocampus volume ratio plays a role in cognitive vulnerability often seen in individuals with high risk for depression and that these structural brain differences may pre-date the onset of depression.

Emotion and autobiographical memory

Autobiographical memory encompasses our recollections of specific, personal events. In this article, we review the interactions between emotion and autobiographical memory, focusing on two broad ways in which these interactions occur. First, the emotional content of an experience can influence the way in which the event is remembered. Second, emotions and emotional goals experienced at the time of autobiographical retrieval can influence the information recalled. We discuss the behavioral manifestations of each of these types of interactions and describe the neural mechanisms that may support those interactions. We discuss how findings from the clinical literature (e.g., regarding depression) and the social psychology literature (e.g., on emotion regulation) might inform future investigations of the interplay between the emotions experienced at the time of retrieval and the memories recalled, and we present ideas for future research in this domain.

A Double Dissociation Between Mood States and Personality Traits in the Anterior Cingulate

Neuroticism and extraversion are personality traits associated with negative and positive mood states, respectively, confounding trait and state factors that may affect brain responses to emotional stimuli. The authors dissociated these factors using fMRI and the emotional Stroop attention task: Anterior cingulate (AC) response to positive stimuli varied as a function of personality trait, but not mood state, whereas AC response to negative stimuli varied as a function of mood state, but not personality trait. Negative mood, but not personality trait, also increased the functional connectivity between AC and other regions. Variance in AC activation can thus be ascribed to an intersubject variable (extraversion) when responding to positive stimuli and an intrasubject variable (mood) when responding to negative stimuli. The former may explain stable differences between extraverts and introverts. The latter may provide an adaptive mechanism to expand an individual's dynamic range in response to potentially dangerous or threatening stimuli.

The occurrence of recall bias in pediatric headache: a comparison of questionnaire and diary data

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether children and adolescents can recall prior headache complaints accurately and to study whether age, gender, headache severity, preferred coping strategies, depression, somatization, and trait anxiety are related to recall errors, causing recall bias.

METHODS

A retrospective headache questionnaire and a prospective 4-week headache diary were filled out by 181 children aged 9 to 16 years who experienced headache at least weekly. In addition, several other questionnaires were administered, measuring coping strategies, depression, somatization, and trait anxiety. Headache frequency, intensity, and duration, as scored on the questionnaire and the diary, were compared using Wilcoxon tests. Regression analyses were performed to study whether age, gender, headache severity, preferred coping strategies, depression, somatization, and trait anxiety can predict the size of differences between the diary and the questionnaire.

RESULTS

Compared with the diary, headache intensity and headache duration were overestimated on the questionnaire. At group level, median headache frequency as measured by the diary and the questionnaire was equal. Regarding headache frequency and headache intensity, age and headache severity were statistically related to errors in recall. For headache frequency, depression was also predictive of the size of recall error.

CONCLUSIONS

Recall errors occur when children are asked to report their headaches on a retrospective questionnaire. As compared to a prospective diary, pain complaints are evaluated more negatively on a questionnaire. Other factors such as age, depression, and headache severity influence the way children and adolescents recall their headaches. To minimize bias, the use of a diary when studying recurrent headache complaints in children is recommended.

Levels of Analysis and the Organization of Affect

This article presents a framework for the organization of affective processes, including the affective traits, moods, and emotions. Section 1 introduces the levels-of-analysis approach, defines the three levels of affect, presents criteria for ordering these levels hierarchically in terms of simple and complex temporally driven processes, and examines the interrelations among the various levels of affect, including an in-depth analysis of affective trait–emotion relationships. Section 2 offers an application of the hierarchical view to research on affect–cognition interactions, including a brief review of affect congruency effects and a discussion of the conceptual and empirical challenges to such research necessitated by consideration of the differences among the levels of affect.

Developmental background and outcome in patients with nonepileptic versus epileptic seizures: a controlled study

PURPOSE

This study was designed to evaluate the relevance of developmental emotional stress factors, which are considered to influence emotional functioning, as contributing factors in the development of psychogenic symptoms.

METHODS

Ten patients with nonepileptic seizures (non-ESs) (frequently referred to as psychogenic seizures), in whom diagnosis had been confirmed by a placebo-infusion test (PT), and 10 control patients with complex partial seizures (ESs) were evaluated with regard to developmental background by using structured in-depth interviews performed by a single interviewer blinded to the diagnosis. In addition, outcome assessment in the non-ES group after PT was done.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences between groups in developmental psychosocial stress or in any single developmental stress factor. Six months after PT, the outcome was favorable in patients with non-ES: six were seizure free, and two had a considerable reduction in frequency of seizures.

CONCLUSIONS

Our research indicates the following: (a) a high incidence of developmental stress factors and functional disturbances may be found in patients with non-ESs and ESs; (b) assessment of developmental emotional stress and functional disturbances as a basis for validating the diagnosis of non-ES should be treated with caution; (c) use of PT followed by supportive information about the nonepileptic origin of the attacks may have a positive therapeutic effect or help to introduce psychotherapeutic treatment.

Neuroticism, mood, and retrieval of negative personal memories

Most studies of the effects of neuroticism on memory investigate the recall of self-related material learned during the course of the experimental session. The present study was designed to examine the effects of neuroticism on more complex personal events in real life. High levels of neuroticism were associated with a tendency toward fewer happy thoughts and memories. The results also suggest that neuroticism increased retrieval of negative personal memories independent of depressed mood. These findings are discussed in relation to cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Mood and personality in recall of positive and negative information

The present study examined the relationships between a number of personality and mood indices, and memory bias. Results suggested that Neuroticism scores were associated with negative recall but this effect depended on current level of dysphoria. Across the sample as a whole, negative recall bias appeared to be associated with general negative affect. When the sample was divided into high and low dysphoric groups, Neuroticism predicted increased negative recall only in the high dysphoria group. These results suggest that the tendency to recall negative information may be an interactive function of depressed mood and vulnerable personality.