Thought suppression and its effects on thought frequency, appraisal and mood state in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Leading models of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) implicate thought suppression as a key factor in the escalation and persistence of the disorder. This experiment examined the effects of suppression on the frequency of obsessional thoughts in 50 individuals with a primary diagnosis of OCD, and also investigated the effects of participants' appraisals regarding their failures in thought control on distress about intrusive thoughts and on mood. Participants' most upsetting obsessional thought was primed and they then monitored its occurrence over two 4-min intervals. In the first interval, half of the participants were instructed to suppress their obsessional thought and half were instructed not to suppress any thoughts. In the second interval, all participants were given the 'Do Not Suppress' instructions. Participants rated their suppression effort and discomfort over thought occurrences after each interval and recorded their appraisals of thought recurrences during the first interval. Mood state was then reassessed. No ironic effect of suppression on frequency was noted. However, negative appraisals of thought recurrences were associated with more discomfort over thought occurrences and more negative mood at Time 2. These findings suggest that interpretations regarding failures in thought control may be of central importance in understanding obsessional problems.     

Dissociation and memory suppression: A comparison of high and low dissociative individuals’ performance on the Think–No Think task

The present study examined whether high and low dissociative individuals differ in their ability to keep target stimuli out of their awareness (suppression) and how this relates to their memory of those targets during a later cued recall task. The prediction was that high dissociators display a general inability to focus attention and that their distractibility undermines successful suppression, thereby enhancing memory for suppressed items. College students with high (n = 35) and low (n = 33) scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale participated in a Dutch version of Anderson and Green’s (2001) Think–No Think (TNT) task. Overall, a significant suppression effect emerged. However, no differences between high and low dissociators were observed. Thus, the present results do not confirm that dissociation is linked to heightened distractibility.     

记忆抑制在正常人群与抑郁人群中的研究进展

抑郁症认知障碍的突出表现之一为患者的负性记忆偏向。已有研究常关注患者对负性信息自下而上的选择性注意,往往忽略了自上而下执行控制障碍对记忆的影响。近年研究提示,抑郁症患者和抑郁状态个体的记忆抑制缺陷在其负性记忆偏向的形成和维持中起到了重要作用,无法有效地主动抑制负性记忆可能是患者持续性负性反刍的主要原因。从抑郁症自上而下的执行控制缺陷入手,研究患者的记忆抑制障碍与其主要症状－负性反刍间的相关性,不仅能从理论上丰富Beck的抑郁症认知模型,还能指导临床建立更准确的预后评估指标,同时制定更有效的治疗方案。本文分别介绍了健康成人及抑郁症患者和抑郁状态个体的记忆抑制研究现状,并就当前在抑郁人群研究领域亟待解决的三个问题进行了探讨。     

跨视听通道主动遗忘的期待加工与抑制控制过程：来自ERPs的证据

基于视觉通道的研究表明,人们可以通过主动抑制记忆提取而实现遗忘。但目前对跨通道的主动遗忘尚缺乏探讨。本研究以声音为记忆线索,以文字为目标记忆,采用“想/不想”范式,探究主动遗忘在跨视听通道条件下的可行性。结果发现,“不想”条件下目标记忆的回忆率低于基线条件,主动遗忘发生。此外,我们通过分离任务指令和记忆线索的呈现时间,在中央区域的ERP中发现了记忆抑制的期待效应;并在额叶观察到“不想”条件下晚期正成分的增强,反映了持续的抑制控制过程。本研究不但验证了跨视听通道主动遗忘的可能性,而且第一次从ERPs角度分离了跨通道遗忘相关的期待加工和抑制控制过程。     

An ERP investigation of conditional reasoning with emotional and neutral contents

In two experiments we investigate conditional reasoning using event-related potentials (ERPs). Our goal was to examine the time course of inference making in two conditional forms, one logically valid (Modus Ponens, MP) and one logically invalid (Affirming the Consequent, AC). We focus particularly on the involvement of semantically-based inferential processes potentially marked by modulations of the N400. We also compared reasoning about emotional and neutral contents with separate sets of stimuli of differing linguistic complexity across the two experiments. Both MP and AC modulated the N400 component, suggesting the involvement of a semantically-based inferential mechanism common across different logical forms, content types, and linguistic features of the problems. Emotion did not have an effect on early components, and did not interact with components related to inference making. There was a main effect of emotion in the 800–1050 ms time window, consistent with an effect on sustained attention. The results suggest that conditional reasoning is not a purely formal process but that it importantly implicates semantic processing, and that the effect of emotion on reasoning does not primarily operate through a modulation of early automatic stages of information processing.     

Meaning making during high and low point life story episodes predicts emotion regulation two years later: How the past informs the future

Memory processes are commonly thought to relate to a host of personality systems. The current study specifies a particular way that memory relates to personality. Highly-valenced, identity-rich memories – high and low point episodes in the life story – were analyzed to see if aspects of these memories predicted self-reports of emotion regulation two years later. Meaning making in high and low points predicted emotion regulation. Moreover, valence mattered. Positive meaning making in high and low point stories predicted positive emotion regulation while negative meaning making in low point stories predicted negative emotion regulation. These relationships held while controlling for baseline extraversion, neuroticism, and memory word count. Limitations due to study design are discussed.     

The brain mechanism that reduces the vividness of negative imagery

The present study attempts to locate brain regions that are related to vividness control, a hypothesized mechanism that reduces the vividness of negative imagery by controlling memory retrieval and emotion processing. The results showed that BOLD response in the left posterior cingulate gyrus in the negative imagery condition, in which activation of vividness control mechanisms was considered to be strong, was greater than that in the positive imagery condition, in which the activation of control mechanisms was considered to be weak. Moreover, the activation of this region negatively correlated with the subjective vividness of negative imagery. These results support the idea that the posterior cingulate gyrus may be involved in the suppression of imagery generation. Several previous studies have suggested that the posterior cingulate cortex is involved in both memory and emotion processing. Therefore, the current results indicate that the posterior cingulate gyrus may function as the vividness control mechanism.     

Metaphor and music emotion: Ancient views and future directions

Music is often described in terms of emotion. This notion is supported by empirical evidence showing that engaging with music is associated with subjective feelings, and with objectively measurable responses at the behavioural, physiological, and neural level. Some accounts, however, reject the idea that music may directly induce emotions. For example, the ‘paradox of negative emotion’, whereby music described in negative terms is experienced as enjoyable, suggests that music might move the listener through indirect mechanisms in which the emotional experience elicited by music does not always coincide with the emotional label attributed to it.Here we discuss the role of metaphor as a potential mediator in these mechanisms. Drawing on musicological, philosophical, and neuroscientific literature, we suggest that metaphor acts at key stages along and between physical, biological, cognitive, and contextual processes, and propose a model of music experience in which metaphor mediates between language, emotion, and aesthetic response.     

Surviving the 2015 Mount Everest disaster: A phenomenological exploration into lived experience and the role of mental toughness

ObjectivesThe 2015 Nepal earthquake and subsequent avalanche at Mount Everest Base Camp is the deadliest mountaineering disaster to date. This study is novel in exploring the lived experiences of survivors and the role of mental toughness in their psychological responses to the disaster.DesignPhenomenological study.MethodTen mountaineers, who were on expeditions during the earthquake, participated in phenomenological interviews. Data were analysed inductively and thematically, while strategies to enhance trustworthiness were also employed.ResultsSeven dimensions emerged from the data, which captured climbers' psychological responses to the disaster, ranging from the moments the earthquake hit to reflections on the disaster after returning home. Contrasting emotional responses were described, and suggested to depend on experience and mental toughness. Negative emotional and behavioural responses were reported in the aftermath. Some climbers reported post-traumatic stress, but also a strong desire to return to Mount Everest and continue mountaineering.ConclusionsThese findings provide detailed insights into the lived experiences of climbers who survived the 2015 Nepal earthquake and Base Camp avalanche. Findings also shed light on the role of mental toughness in coping with and responding to a major natural disaster.     

Emotion Regulation Strategies in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Panic Disorder

Emotion regulation (ER) has been incorporated into many models of psychopathology, but it has not been examined directly in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for panic disorder with agoraphobia (PD/A). In this study, a preliminary model of ER in CBT for PD/A is proposed based on existing theories, and several propositions of the model are tested. We hypothesized that increases in cognitive reappraisal would precede decreases in biased cognitions, decreases in expressive suppression would follow decreases in biased cognitions, and a reduction in symptom severity would follow decreases in expressive suppression. Twenty-nine patients who received CBT for PD/A completed weekly self-report measures of symptom severity, anxiety sensitivity, reappraisal and expressive suppression. In addition, patients were compared to a matched normal sample. Cross-lagged analyses partially supported the hypotheses. Reappraisal did not change until late stages of therapy and was generally not associated with treatment outcome. Suppression decreased significantly and exhibited a reciprocal relationship with biased cognitions. Symptom reduction followed decreases in suppression as hypothesized. However, patients did not differ in ER from matched controls at either pre- or posttreatment. Results suggest the important distinction between reappraisal and appraisal, and stress the role of session-by-session decreases in suppression as a predictor of symptom reduction.