Individual Differences In Negative Emotionality Research Articles

Is frequent sighing an indicator of dispositional negative emotionality? A multi-sample, multi-measure naturalistic-observation study

Sighing is a common nonverbal everyday behavior thought to signal the experiencing of negative emotions. Prior research from a small-scale study suggests that observed daily expressions of sighing is associated with subclinical depression (Robbins, Mehl, Holleran, & Kasle, 2011). This paper replicates and extends these findings, hypothesizing that individual differences in negative emotionality are associated with frequency of spontaneous sighing. Study 1 (N = 320) documents a strong lay assumption that frequent sighing signals dispositional negative emotionality. Study 2 estimates the actual association between daily sighing, assessed naturalistically using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), and negative emotionality in a large, diverse, pooled sample (N = 469). Bayesian tests across six measures (neuroticism, depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue, loneliness) strongly support the null model. Together, results suggest the common intuition that people who sigh frequently experience more negative emotionality is inaccurate. Assessing whether an individual sighs more (or less) than others cannot be used to infer that they experience more negative emotions.

Individual differences in fear acquisition: multivariate analyses of different emotional negativity scales, physiological responding, subjective measures, and neural activation

Negative emotionality is a well-established and stable risk factor for affective disorders. Individual differences in negative emotionality have been linked to associative learning processes which can be captured experimentally by computing CS-discrimination values in fear conditioning paradigms. Literature suffers from underpowered samples, suboptimal methods, and an isolated focus on single questionnaires and single outcome measures. First, the specific and shared variance across three commonly employed questionnaires [STAI-T, NEO-FFI-Neuroticism, Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) Scale] in relation to CS-discrimination during fear-acquisition in multiple analysis units (ratings, skin conductance, startle) is addressed (NStudy1 = 356). A specific significant negative association between STAI-T and CS-discrimination in SCRs and between IU and CS-discrimination in startle responding was identified in multimodal and dimensional analyses, but also between latent factors negative emotionality and fear learning, which capture shared variance across questionnaires/scales and across outcome measures. Second, STAI-T was positively associated with CS-discrimination in a number of brain areas linked to conditioned fear (amygdala, putamen, thalamus), but not to SCRs or ratings (NStudy2 = 113). Importantly, we replicate potential sampling biases between fMRI and behavioral studies regarding anxiety levels. Future studies are needed to target wide sampling distributions for STAI-T and verify whether current findings are generalizable to other samples.

Neural responses to negative feedback are related to negative emotionality in healthy adults

Prior neuroimaging and electrophysiological evidence suggests that potentiated responses in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), particularly the rostral ACC, may contribute to abnormal responses to negative feedback in individuals with elevated negative affect and depressive symptoms. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) represents an electrophysiological index of ACC-related activation in response to performance feedback. The purpose of the present study was to examine the FRN and underlying ACC activation using low resolution electromagnetic tomography source estimation techniques in relation to negative emotionality (a composite index including negative affect and subclinical depressive symptoms). To this end, 29 healthy adults performed a monetary incentive delay task while 128-channel event-related potentials were recorded. We found that enhanced FRNs and increased rostral ACC activation in response to negative--but not positive--feedback was related to greater negative emotionality. These results indicate that individual differences in negative emotionality--a putative risk factor for emotional disorders--modulate ACC-related processes critically implicated in assessing the motivational impact and/or salience of environmental feedback.

The Serotonin Transporter and Emotionality: Risk, Resilience, and New Therapeutic Opportunities

g m R esearch aimed at elucidating the impact of genetic variation on the development of psychiatric disorders holds enormous potential to advance both pathophysiological models of disase and point the way toward new treatments. However, the idenification of specific gene variants associated with a specific psychitric disorder remains an elusive target. One likely reason for this is hat discrete genetic variations influence intermediate biological henotypes in the context of other (“background”) genes, epigeetic variation, and environmental and developmental factors, hich in turn contribute to risk or resilience to develop psychiatric llness. Consequently, a potentially fruitful research strategy might e to test for associations between specific hypothesis-driven canidate gene variants and intermediate phenotypes presumed to lie etween a moderating allele and a more complex disease phenoype. In this issue of Biological Psychiatry, two original research rticles examine the influence of a common repeat polymorphism n the gene coding for the serotonin transporter protein (5-HTTLRP) n aspects of negative emotion. Pluess et al. (1) tested whether an ssociation between maternal anxiety during gestation and subseuent levels of infant negative emotionality was moderated by the -HTTLRP. The authors report a significant gene environment nteraction, with infants carrying the short allele (s) of the 5-HTTLRP, ypically considered the risk variant, showing a high level of assocition between maternal anxiety and negative emotionality, hereas there was no association in infants carrying the long allele l). In a second article, Montag et al. (2) report an interaction between the 5-HTTLRP and an oxytocin receptor gene variant on individual differences in negative emotionality, representing a gene gene interaction. In a third article, Homburg and Lesch (3) review evidence that the s allele of the 5-HTTLRP has the ability to confer enhanced cognitive functioning in humans and animals. The authors argue that the s allele confers adaptive functioning under certain environmental and developmental conditions, which might account for its continued prevalence in the human gene pool and encourage a broader and more nuanced understanding of the 5-HTTLRP.

Interaction of 5-HTTLPR and a Variation on the Oxytocin Receptor Gene Influences Negative Emotionality

Pharmacological studies indicate a functional interaction between the serotonergic and oxytocinergic system. This study tested for an interaction of the prominent serotonin transporter polymorphism (SLC6A4) and an oxytocin receptor gene variation on individual differences in negative emotionality in healthy Caucasians (n = 750). Participants carrying both the homozygous LL-variant of the serotonin transporter polymorphism and the TT variant of the single nucleotide polymorphism rs2268498 on the oxytocin receptor gene showed lowest scores on the personality dimensions Fear and Sadness of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales, as well as on an underlying factor Negative Emotionality. The observed interaction effect provides converging evidence from human molecular genetics that serotonergic and oxytocinergic neurotransmission are entwined and play a crucial role for human personality with implications for affective disorders.

Negative emotionality influences the effects of emotion on time perception.

In this study I used a temporal bisection task to test if greater overestimation of time due to negative emotion is moderated by individual differences in negative emotionality. The effects of fearful facial expressions on time perception were also examined. After a training phase, participants estimated the duration of facial expressions (anger, happiness, fearfulness) and a neutral-baseline facial expression. In accordance to the operation of an arousal-based process, the duration of angry expressions was consistently overestimated relative to other expressions and the baseline condition. In support of a role for individual differences in negative emotionality on time perception, temporal bias due to angry and fearful expressions was positively correlated to individual differences in self-reported negative emotionality. The results are discussed in relation both to the literature on attentional bias to facial expressions in anxiety and fearfulness and also, to the hypothesis that angry expressions evoke a fear-specific response.

The Symptom of Sighing: Physiologic and Pathologic Observations

Sighing is a common nonverbal everyday behavior thought to signal the experiencing of negative emotions. Prior research from a small-scale study suggests that observed daily expressions of sighing is associated with subclinical depression (Robbins, Mehl, Holleran, & Kasle, 2011). This paper replicates and extends these findings, hypothesizing that individual differences in negative emotionality are associated with frequency of spontaneous sighing. Study 1 (N = 320) documents a strong lay assumption that frequent sighing signals dispositional negative emotionality. Study 2 estimates the actual association between daily sighing, assessed naturalistically using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), and negative emotionality in a large, diverse, pooled sample (N = 469). Bayesian tests across six measures (neuroticism, depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue, loneliness) strongly support the null model. Together, results suggest the common intuition that people who sigh frequently experience more negative emotionality is inaccurate. Assessing whether an individual sighs more (or less) than others cannot be used to infer that they experience more negative emotions.