Emotional Stroop Effect Research Articles

1819 – Perceived body shape distortions among eating disorders: preliminary evaluation of the behavioral indices of a modified emotional stroop test

Introduction Body shape and weight concerns are considered core features of eating disorders (EDs); however, it is still debated whether subjects with anorexia nervosa (AN) also present distortion of the body perception with respect to those with bulimia nervosa (BN). Objectives To demonstrate differences in behavioral response patterns to their own distorted and undistorted body images in subjects with and without EDs. Aims To characterize the perception of body images in EDs. Methods We recruited 15 female subjects with AN, 13 subjects with BN and 22 healthy controls (HC). All subjects were presented with their own body images, distorted according to the body shape questionnaire score (BSQ), an index of body dissatisfaction, and control stimuli including own non-distorted and “scrambled” body images. Each image type was presented 80 times in a randomized order and contained one, two or three body images; subjects were asked to press a button when two body images of any kind appeared. Results Although BN patients had the highest score on the BSQ (131.4) as compared with AN (111.1) and HC (97.58) subjects, AN patients committed significantly more omissions (6.34%), with respect to BN (2.23%) and HC (1.54%) subjects. Furthermore, AN patients needed a significantly longer time to process distorted body images (670.7 msec, on average), with respect to BN (650.1 msec) and HC (579.6 msec) subjects. Conclusions Our preliminary data confirmed the presence of a body distortion bias in AN subjects and suggest that it is independent from the degree of body dissatisfaction.

Emotional Information Processing in Major Depression Remission and Partial Remission: Faces Come First

Although there is considerable knowledge of the cognitive and perceptual deficits associated with the acute phases of major depressive disorder (MDD), the processes involved in remission and relapse are still being evaluated. In the present study emotional information processing in remission was investigated. A Stroop paradigm was used to compare responses from a group of remitted or partially remitted MDD patients with a matched control group. The stimuli consisted of lexical and visual facial stimuli, with one word (positive/negative) superimposed on a face (happy/sad), presented in the same trial, and being congruent or incongruent. The task was to identify the emotional content of either the face (ignoring the word), or vice versa. The results showed that both patients and controls had the same interference patterns when the target was defined by the word, and that when the target was defined by the facial expression, reaction times were faster for both groups. However, patients showed a reduced positive bias, possibly indicating dissociation between patients and control groups in terms of attention to complex emotional information. Future studies testing the sensitivity of the Emotional Stroop test in the investigation of attention to complex emotional information is needed. Clinical implications are discussed.

Neuropeptide S receptor gene: Fear-specific modulations of prefrontal activation

Since central administration of neuropeptide S (NPS) has been shown to exert anxiolytic effects on rodent behavior in a number of studies, genetic variants of its cognate G-protein coupled receptor (NPSR1) became the focus of several recent human studies on anxiety and anxiety disorders. The T allele of rs324981, which goes along with enhanced receptor function, was associated with panic disorder, increased anxiety sensitivity in healthy subjects, attenuated prefrontal brain activation and elevated amygdala responses to fear-relevant stimuli. To investigate whether prefrontal attenuations in rs324981 T allele carriers are specific to fear-relevant stimulus content and cannot be attributed to a generally higher interference of emotional stimuli, 92 subjects performed a combined cognitive and emotional Stroop task while oxygenation changes in the prefrontal cortex were recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results showed a specific NPSR1 gene activation modulation in response to fear-relevant word stimuli. Only A-homozygotes displayed an emotional Stroop effect in terms of increased activation to fear-relevant stimuli in medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Specifically, activation in the fear-relevant condition was higher in A-homozygotes as compared to T allele carriers while no group differences were found during neutral, congruent or highly interfering incongruent color word presentation. The current results are in line with earlier imaging genetic studies and suggest a potential protective function of the NPSR1 rs324981 A/A genotype against pathologically enhanced anxiety that might be explained by stronger reflective prefrontal regulation over the subcortical fear response.

Neural correlates of the emotional Stroop task in panic disorder patients: An event-related fMRI study

Although being a standard tool to assess interference effects of disorder-specific words in clinical samples, the neural underpinnings of the emotional Stroop task are still not well understood and have hardly been investigated in experimental case–control studies. We therefore used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the attentional bias toward panic-related words in panic disorder (PD) patients and healthy controls. Twenty PD patients (with or without agoraphobia) and 23 healthy controls matched for age and gender performed an event-related emotional Stroop task with panic-related and neutral words while undergoing 3 Tesla fMRI. On the behavioral level, PD patients showed a significant emotional Stroop effect, i.e. color-naming of panic-related words was prolonged compared to neutral words. This effect was not observed in the control group. PD patients further differed from controls on the neural level in showing increased BOLD activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus in response to panic-related relative to neutral words. PD patients showed the expected attentional bias, i.e. an altered processing of disorder-specific stimuli. This emotional Stroop effect was paralleled by increased activation in the left prefrontal cortex which may indicate altered processing of emotional stimulus material.

When emotion does and does not impair performance: A Garner theory of the emotional Stroop effect

It takes people longer to name the ink colour of emotion or threat words than that of neutral words, the emotional Stroop effect (ESE). In three experiments with normal and patient populations, we show that the ESE is a special case of a generic attention model and effect entailed in Garner's speeded classification paradigm. Guided by the Garner model we demonstrate that task-irrelevant dimensions that differ in salience can produce the ESE and mimic it with neutral stimuli. When each word appears in a constant colour, as mandated in the correlation condition of the Garner design, the ESE is eliminated. This important result is consistent with the attention account of the ESE. We conclude that when emotion stimuli appear in a random fashion they interfere with task performance. However, when emotion stimuli are correlated with features of the ongoing task they help task performance not least due to their extreme salience.

P2‐295: Prototypical emotional Stroop effect in the onset of Alzheimer's disease

P2‐295: Prototypical emotional Stroop effect in the onset of Alzheimer's disease

F5‐03‐03: A longitudinal study of the dissociation between implicit and explicit indications of awareness using the emotional Stroop effect for dementia‐related words in early stage dementia

F5‐03‐03: A longitudinal study of the dissociation between implicit and explicit indications of awareness using the emotional Stroop effect for dementia‐related words in early stage dementia

Lower but not higher doses of transdermal nicotine facilitate cognitive performance in smokers on gender non-preferred tasks

One of the most widely used treatments for smoking cessation is nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). There is some evidence that smokers experience abstinence-induced deficits in cognitive function, which are attenuated by NRTs. Additionally it's been suggested that the degree of reversal of cognitive deficits may depend on the NRT dose and the smoker's gender. In the present placebo-controlled study we investigated effects of three doses of transdermal nicotine (7mg, 14mg and 21mg) on cognitive performance of 48 male and 48 female smokers after overnight abstinence and 6h of patch application. Cognitive tasks used in the study included the Conners' CPT, emotional Stroop, mental arithmetic, and verbal recall of affective prose passages. The results showed greater probability of attentional problems in the male sample compared to females as identified by the Conners' CPT. Within gender women showed improved performance in the 7mg and 14mg conditions on several measures of the Conners' CPT, and faster hit reaction time on the emotional Stroop test compared to women in the placebo and 21mg of nicotine groups. Conversely, males showed a moderate overall advantage on the mental arithmetic task and were differentially sensitive to nicotine treatment on the prose recall task, on which the greatest improvement in recall of affective material was observed for the 14mg group compared to the 21mg group. The results are explained on the basis of an inverted U-shaped relationship between nicotinic stimulation and cognitive performance as well as greater sensitivity to nicotine dose manipulation on gender non-preferred cognitive tasks.

Measuring financial anxiety.

There is a scarcity of information concerning the emotional aspects of financial management. Two studies were conducted to evaluate the measurement of conscious and intuitive emotional anxiety toward one’s personal finances. Along with a selfreported financial anxiety questionnaire, a modified Emotional Stroop Test (EST) and Dot-Probe Paradigm (DPP) were separately utilized to evaluate financial anxiety. In both studies, the self-reported financial anxiety questionnaire correlated significantly with the implicit measures. Furthermore, the DPP was predominantly characterized by avoidance of financial information. Financial anxiety was shown to be a separate construct from depression and general anxiety. These findings indicate that those who report having financial anxiety also display reaction latencies in the processing of financial information. Accordingly, financial behavior could be more comprehensively evaluated and policy could be better determined by incorporating financial anxiety into economic models of financial illiteracy, mismanagement, and debt.

Don't be afraid of irrelevant words: The emotional Stroop effect is confined to attended words

The emotional Stroop effect denotes slower responses to the colour of negative words (e.g., death) compared to neutral words (e.g., mug). Popular explanations assume a general power of negative words to capture visual attention. However, in the typical task, the irrelevant word stimulus and the relevant colour stimulus are perceptually integrated. We compared interference from negative words, which were part of the relevant visual object, to interference from negative words that were part of an irrelevant object, or occurred in the background, respectively. Results showed that only negative words in the relevant object delayed colour-naming responses, compared to neutral words. Negative words outside the relevant object failed to affect performance. This finding is at odds with the claim that negative words could capture spatial or object-based mechanisms of visual attention. However, the finding is consistent with the idea that negative words interfere with the allocation of dimensional attention to different features of an attended object.

The Pale Shades of Emotion: A Signal Detection Theory Analysis of the Emotional Stroop Task

In the emotional Stroop effect (ESE), people are slower to name the ink color of negative, emotion-laden words than that of neutral words. Two accounts have been suggested for the ESE, relating it to either deficient attention to color or to temporary disruption of action in the face of threat. Is the ESE driven by a threat-produced change in perception, or is it a strategic bias in responding? In a pioneer import of Signal Detection Theory to this realm, threat was found to diminish the psychological distance (d’) between the ink colors, but it did not impact response bias (β). The results indicate that the ESE derives from a deep perceptual change engendered by the negative stimuli and not from changes in the criterion for responding. These results constrain future theorizing in the domain of emotion-produced changes in behavior, and provide some support for the threat account of attention under emotion.

P-813 - Attentional bias to obsessive relative words in obsessive compulsive disorder

The purpose of this study is comparing attentional bias in patients with obsessive - compulsive disorder (OCD) with matched healthy individuals. In this cross - sectional study 46 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder are compared with 46 healthy individual by means of convenient sampling. Emotional Stroop test is used for evaluation. Data were analyzed through Student t-test. Finding shows significance difference between two groups (P value < 0.05). Correct response is more in healthy groups that patient (p = .04). Attention bias in OCD patient might be caused difficulties in disengagement and inhibition of attention to threaten stimuli.

P-135 - Emotional Training (ET): a group psychotherapy to improve awareness and modulation of emotional experience

Several studies have highlighted a poor emotional processing in patients with Panic Disorder (PD). Difficulty to identify and manage emotional experience might contribute to the enduring vulnerability to panic attacks. We describe our implementation of a group psychotherapy program, the Emotional Training (ET), aimed at relapse prevention in patients with PD. The ET group incorporates some elements of the so-called “emotion-focused therapies” in a cognitive-behavioral framework. In particular, it introduces elements of skills training to increase awareness of emotional states (including psychophysical reactions), their acceptance and adaptive modulation. The present study was designed to assess the feasibility and efficacy of ET group in healthy subjects. Nine participants completed this pilot study, which lasted 6 months, with weekly 2.5 hour sessions. General cognitive abilities, selective attention, cognitive flexibility, management of emotions, emotional expressivity, empathy, inhibition of interference from emotional stimuli (emotional Stroop test) and Theory of Mind were assessed before and at the end of the study. Significant differences at 6 months were found for the emotional Stroop test and the Emphaty Quotient, compared to baseline. These results suggest that ET intervention increases the ability to perceive the emotional states in social contexts and to inhibit the interference from emotional stimuli. This pilot study provided encouraging results; a further step will be to verify, in patients with PD, the effectiveness of ET and its usefulness in relapse prevention.

P-535 - Cognitive functioning may predict treatment response of escitalopram in major depression: an eight weeks open label study

Introduction Major depressive disorder is a prevalent mental disorder. Although several interventions are effective, treatment response (TR) remains difficult to predict. Objectives This study aimed a) to investigate whether cognitive functioning improved after treatment with escitalopram, b) to evaluate if baseline cognitive functioning predicted TR and c) to detect the biological processes underlying TR. Methods Thirty-seven patients and 32 healthy controls were included. Patients were treated with escitalopram flexible dose regime. Patients were assessed before treatment, 2 and 8 weeks after the start of escitalopram. Cognitive functioning was investigated using the STROOP colour word test, the verbal fluency test, future thinking task and the emotional STROOP test. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the BDI-II. Metabolism PET (18F-FDG) was performed at baseline and week 8. Results All patients significantly differed from controls on cognitive (p Conclusion Escitalopram improved depressive symptoms and cognitive functioning in depression. Poor treatment response of escitalopram may be associated with pre-treatment worse cognitive functioning and lower activity in the prefrontal cortex.

Implicit and explicit emotional behavior and mindfulness

The objective of this study was to examine whether the "step back and watch" attitude of mindfulness manifests in less emotional behavior. We hypothesized that the "acceptance" facet of mindfulness, but not the "presence" facet, is negatively associated with the magnitude of emotional behavior in four tests, i.e., (1) rating of words, (2) rating of aversive and neutral pictures, and (3) evaluative conditioning (EC). Additionally, we hypothesized that (4) the acceptance facet is associated with increased reaction time (RT) in an emotional Stroop test, and that the presence facet is associated with decreased RT and lower error rate. The sample consisted of N=247 non-clinical adults and was tested in a cross-sectional study. The results provide partial evidence that the acceptance facet of mindfulness may be associated with less aversive reactions towards aversive stimuli. Future studies should substantiate these findings but also determine their clinical relevance.

Influence of arousal in emotional stroop effect

Objective To investigate the arousal effect in the emotional Stroop effect by systematically manipulating the valence and arousal of affective stimuli.Methods 27 college students were recruited to distinThe main effect of emotion on RT was significant (F(5.130) = 5.90, P ＜ 0.01 ), RTs in positive (( 893±36 ) ms)main effect of Emotion on ACC was marginally significant (F(5.130) = 2.63, P = 0.05 ), ACC in high arousing negalence on RT was significant (F(1.26 = 7.03, P =0.013 ).Further analysis revealed that RTs in positive condition was significant (F(1.26) =5.63, P=0.025),ACC in high arousing condition (0.93 ±0.17) was lower than ACC in low arousing condition (0.95 ± 0.09 ).Conclusion The emotional Stroop effect mainly depends on the arousal information of affective stimuli. Key words: Valence; Arousal; Emotional stroop effect; Automatic processing

“Why Am I so Anxious?” A Study of Attention Bias in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Previous research investigating attentional bias has produced intriguingly equivocal results. The present large-scale study explored attentional bias in subjects diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and in a control group (n = 80) using the Emotional Stroop Test. Results clearly indicated poorer performances across the board amongst patients diagnosed with OCD compared to the control group, particularly in the case of anxiety-related stimuli. This paper discusses, in the light of current models of attentional bias towards threat in anxiety disorders, the processes whereby attentional bias towards anxiety stimuli might play a vital role in the causation and maintenance of OCD.

Attentional Bias in Depressive Patients and the Moderating Effect of Concurrent Anxiety

Background: Most previous studies finding positive results in the emotional Stroop test did not control for concurrent anxiety symptoms. This study investigated depressive patients without comorbid anxiety disorders in order to clarify existing inconsistent findings. Furthermore, we examined the relationship between anxiety level and the emotional Stroop effect in patients and healthy subjects. Subjects and Methods: Twenty-three depressive patients without comorbid anxiety disorder and 27 healthy subjects performed a mixed computerized version of the emotional Stroop test (attentional bias test). We assessed the state and trait anxiety and examined its correlation with the emotional Stroop effect. Results: We failed to find evidence for attentional bias in the patients as measured by longer reaction times to the emotional stimuli. However, there was a positive correlation between state anxiety and attentional bias in depressed patients. On the other hand, in healthy subjects the trait anxiety correlated negatively with attentional bias. Conclusions: Attentional bias is not found in depressed patients if only patients without comorbid anxiety disorders are included. Furthermore, healthy subjects with high trait anxiety levels may be vulnerable to affective disorders because they use avoidance strategies when encountering negative information.

Attentional Bias in Anxiety Disorders Following Cognitive Behavioral Treatment

A substantive literature suggests that anxious people have an attentional bias toward threatening stimuli. To date, however, no systematic review has examined the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety on attentional bias. A better understanding of the extant literature on CBT and its effect on attentional bias can serve to bridge the gap between experimental research on cognitive bias and the implications for clinical treatment of anxiety disorders. The present review examined studies that measured the effects of CBT on attentional bias. Of the 13 studies reviewed, 10 demonstrated that attentional bias, as assessed by dichotic listening tasks, the emotional Stroop test, or probe detection tasks, was significantly reduced from pretreatment to posttreatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder, spider phobia, social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. Methodological issues are considered, and implications for cognitive behavioral treatments of anxiety are discussed.

Dissociation between implicit and explicit manifestations of awareness in early stage dementia: evidence from the emotional Stroop effect for dementia‐related words

To determine whether people with dementia (PwD), and carers of PwD, show a processing bias to dementia-related words in an emotional Stroop task, and if so, whether the presence of such a bias is related to level of explicit awareness of the condition. Seventy-nine people with early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular or mixed dementia, and their carers, completed an emotional Stroop task. Time taken to colour-name dementia-related and neutral words was compared within and between groups. Additionally, as a comparison, ratings of the awareness of the condition shown by PwD were made on the basis of a detailed interview with each PwD and his/her carer. PwD and carers showed the same level of increase in response times to salient compared to neutral words. In the PwD this effect was unrelated to the degree of awareness that they demonstrated regarding the condition. The emotional Stroop effect in response to dementia-related words in PwD indicates that preserved implicit awareness of the condition can be elicited even where there is reduced explicit awareness.