Most-Read CPS Articles as of June 2015
Massive Open Online Interventions: A Novel Model for Delivering Behavioral-Health Services Worldwide Selective Attention Toward Angry Faces and Risk for Major Depressive Disorder in Women: Converging Evidence From Retrospective and Prospective Analyses
Psychosis Uncommonly and Inconsistently Precedes Violence Among High-Risk Individuals
Read Article The Emerging Field of Nutritional Mental Health: Inflammation, the Microbiome, Oxidative Stress, and Mitochondrial FunctionRead ArticleDelineating the Role of Negative Verbal Thinking in Promoting Worry, Perceived Threat, and Anxiety Read ArticleSee the full list of most-read articles
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How Traumatized Air Transat Passengers Are Helping Brain Research
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Near-Death Experiences Change the Brain Discovery NewsRead Article
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  Clinical Psychological Science |
The links below take you to the journal via the APS website. If not already logged in, you will be redirected to log-in using your last name (Garcia) and Member ID (81665).
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New articles are now online.
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The Neural Correlates of Memory for a Life-Threatening Event: An fMRI Study of Passengers From Flight AT236
Daniela J. Palombo, Margaret C. McKinnon, Anthony R. McIntosh, Adam K. Anderson,
Rebecca M. Todd, and Brian Levine
Studies examining the neural correlates of trauma-related memory often use laboratory stimuli to induce emotional memories, which may fail to capture the range of emotional experience of real-world traumatic events. Eight passengers from Air Transat (AT) flight 236 -- a flight that nearly crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2001
-- and control participants underwent an fMRI scan while recalling the AT disaster, the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York, or a nonemotional event from the same time period. Compared with control participants, AT passengers showed enhanced activation of the amygdala, medial temporal lobe, anterior and posterior midline, and visual cortex when recalling AT- and 9/11-related memories. The authors hypothesize that this pattern reflects amygdalar influence on the hippocampus that results in the emotional enhancement of memories.
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The Unhappy Triad: Pain, Sleep Complaints, and Internalizing Symptoms
Erin Koffel, Erin E. Krebs, Paul A. Arbisi, Christopher R. Erbes, and Melissa A. Polusny
Chronic pain, sleep complaints, and anxiety/depression are three significant sources of distress that incur great personal and societal costs. Two competing theories describing the relationships among these factors suggest that internalizing symptoms mediate the relationship between sleep complaints and pain or that pain mediates the relationship between sleep complaints and internalizing symptoms. National Guard soldiers completed assessments of physical complaints, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and personality traits before (at 1 month) and after (at 2-3 months and 2 years) combat deployment in Iraq. The findings suggested that sleep problems lead to an increased risk of internalizing problems and a resulting increase in pain, indicating that improving sleep may also help improve anxiety/depression and pain problems in this population.
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Clarifying the Behavioral Economics of Social Anxiety Disorder: Effects of Interpersonal Problems and Symptom Severity on Generosity
Thomas L. Rodebaugh, Richard G. Heimberg, Kristin P. Taylor, and Eric J. Lenze
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with lower interpersonal warmth, something previous studies have detected via behavioral economic tasks. In two studies, the researchers attempted to replicate and expand on these findings by having participants with and without an anxiety disorder complete a flexible iterated prisoner's dilemma (FIPD) task. In neither study did participants with SAD give less in the task than participants without SAD; however, the researchers did find that patterns of giving throughout the task were associated with the severity of SAD symptoms and with self-reported vindictiveness. Future research using multiple methodologies may help researchers better understand mechanisms and treatment targets for the interpersonal impairments seen in those with SAD.
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Selective Attention Toward Angry Faces and Risk for Major Depressive Disorder in Women: Converging Evidence From Retrospective and Prospective Analyses
Mary L. Woody, Max Owens, Katie L. Burkhouse, and Brandon E. Gibb
Past research has shown that attention bias toward emotional images is a risk factor for depression. Women with remitted major depressive disorder (MDD) and never-depressed women were assessed for attention bias using a dot-probe task that included angry, happy, sad, and neutral faces. They were assessed for depression 6, 12, 18, and 24 months later. Women with remitted MDD showed a greater attention bias to angry and sad faces than did never-depressed women. Greater time spent looking at angry faces in the dot-probe task was associated with a shorter time to MDD onset in the 2-year follow-up period. The identification of attention bias to angry faces as a risk factor for MDD reoccurrence suggests that attention-bias modification measures may be beneficial for those with remitted depression.
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Accounting for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity With Pre- and Posttrauma Measures: A Longitudinal Study of Older Adults
Christin M. Ogle, David C. Rubin, and Ilene C. Siegler
To understand the contributions of the many factors that interact to influence posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity, the authors examined 15 factors shown to correlate with PTSD symptom severity and 12 theoretically and empirically supported individual difference, trauma memory-related, and behavioral-health factors related to PTSD in a single sample of older adults drawn from the longitudinal University of North Carolina Alumni Heart Study. They found that PTSD symptom severity was driven by a combination of properties of the current trauma memory, posttrauma measures of insecure adult attachment, appraisals of event severity, centrality of the event to personal identity, and depressive symptoms. This finding suggests that reducing properties of traumatic memories, such as the centrality of the memory to a person's identity, may help reduce PTSD symptoms.
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Targeting Biased Emotional Attention to Threat as a Dynamic Process in Time: Attention Feedback Awareness and Control Training (A-FACT)
Ariel Zvielli, Iftach Amir, Pavel Goldstein, and Amit Bernstein
Attention bias to emotional stimuli has traditionally been conceptualized as a stable trait; however, new research has suggested that it is more dynamic than once thought. A novel cognitive bias modification intervention -- Attention Feedback Awareness and Control Training (A-FACT) -- that is sensitive to variability in biases of emotional attention (BEA) was tested against a placebo training in high-anxiety young adult participants. Participants completed a measure of attention bias before and after completing the intervention and a measure of stress reactivity and recovery after completing the intervention. A-FACT training led to reductions in attention bias toward and away from threat, BEA variability, and emotional reactivity to a stressor compared with the placebo condition. These findings indicate that A-FACT may be a promising intervention for reducing maladaptive attention bias patterns.
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Attentional Control and Suppressing Negative Thought Intrusions in Pathological Worry
Elaine Fox, Kevin Dutton, Alan Yates, George A. Georgiou, and Elias Mouchlianitis
One suggested mechanism for the development of pathological worry is problems with executive and attentional control. To examine the influence of attentional control on the suppression of worry, the researchers had participants with a high or low degree of trait worry complete a fear conditioning procedure in which angry faces were paired with a burst of white noise, an attentional control task, and a worry assessment task. High-worry participants had more problems ignoring angry faces and had greater difficulty suppressing worry than did low-worry participants. A follow-up study with high-trait worriers found that attempts to improve attentional control using cognitive training provided some benefit, although more research is needed.
This article is part of a Special Series on Mechanisms of Repetitive Thinking.
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Ernst H. W. Koster, Lin Fang, Igor Marchetti, Ulrich Ebner-Priemer, Peter Kirsch, Silke Huffziger, and Christine Kuehner
Cognitive theories of depression suggest that those who have had one depressive episode are at greater risk for future episodes. In this study, the researchers specifically examined the relationship between mood and rumination in individuals remitted from depression (RMD) and in those who have never been depressed. Participants reported their moods 10 times a day for 2 days and were assessed for depression 6 months later. Although there was no difference in entropy - defined by the researchers as the unpredictability in the relationship between rumination and mood - between RMD and never-depressed participants, entropy did predict depression in RMD participants and was predictive of brooding in both groups. These findings indicate that unpredictability in the relationships between mood and rumination may be a vulnerability factor for depression.
This article is part of a Special Series on Mechanisms of Repetitive Thinking.
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Ruminative Thinking: Lessons Learned From Cognitive Training
Nilly Mor and Shimrit Daches
Rumination is considered to be a core risk factor for the development of depression. New research has also identified it as a potential transdiagnostic factor that contributes to a wide range of other psychiatric conditions. Researchers have theorized that deficits in cognitive control and the use of abstract and nonconcrete verbal processing may contribute to ruminative thinking. Consequently, researchers and practitioners have examined the use of cognitive bias modification (CBM) to enhance cognitive control and increase the use of concrete processing styles. However, the treatment has shown somewhat mixed results. Future research should focus on examining the underlying mechanisms of rumination. Once these causal mechanisms are understood, researchers can focus on understanding the transferability and the long- and short-term impacts of CBM interventions.
This article is part of a Special Series on Mechanisms of Repetitive Thinking.
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Clinical Psychological Science is a publication of the Association for Psychological Science . Please contact APS by email or by telephone at +1 202.293.9300 with questions or comments.
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