Does Emotional Distress Tolerance Predict Fear Responding in a Heights-Fearful Sample?

Emotional distress tolerance—or the ability to withstand negative emotional states—is considered a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. Although it is theorized to play an important role in anxiety, research aiming to delineate the relationship between anxiety and emotional distress tolerance is lacking. The current study tested whether an individual’s self-reported emotional distress tolerance predicted avoidance in the presence of feared stimuli using a heights-fearful sample. Moreover, the study tested whether emotional distress tolerance predicted other relevant in-the-moment fear responses, such as peak anxiety, anxious cognitions, and bodily sensations while in a heights scenario. Participants (N = 85) completed a series of questionnaires assessing fear of heights, general negative affect, anxious cognitions, and bodily sensations, as well as two behavioral avoidance tasks (BATs) related to heights, one occurring in vivo and one occurring in virtual reality (VR). Results demonstrated that emotional distress tolerance did not predict avoidance on either of the two BATs. Emotional distress tolerance also did not predict other in-the-moment fear responses in either of the BATs except for peak anxiety in the in vivo task. Post-hoc analyses revealed that emotional distress tolerance did predict self-reported avoidance of heights above and beyond fear of heights and general negative affect. Taken together, results suggest that one’s perception of their ability to tolerate emotional distress predicts their perception of their avoidance of heights, but not their actual avoidance of heights or reactions to heights (with the exception of peak anxiety in vivo). Given these findings, self-reported emotional distress tolerance may not adequately capture how individuals react in distressing situations. Future research should clarify in what ways, if any, emotional distress tolerance affects behavior

Freeze! The Impact of a Guided Imagery Intervention on Looming Vulnerability and Subclinical Contamination-OCD Symptoms

Looming vulnerability (LV) refers to the tendency to appraise and perceive potential threats as dynamic and increasing in risk. Research suggests that contamination-fearful individuals may have an increased tendency to interpret contamination as growing or spreading (i.e., “looming”), which may hinder habituation to contamination and play a role in the maintenance of contamination-OCD symptoms. Studies have shown that engaging in imagery in which one mentally freezes contamination in place decreases state levels of fear, though little is known about its longer-term effects (e.g., after one week). The present study aimed to experimentally manipulate LV using freeze imagery in a subclinical contamination-OCD sample and test the effects of this intervention on contamination fear-related symptoms over time. In sessions one (baseline) and two (24-hours later), participants (N = 127) completed self-report measures of 1) LV, including the tendency to interpret both contamination and threat in general as looming; and 2) contamination fear, disgust sensitivity and propensity, and OCD symptoms. Additionally, participants completed a “chain of contagion” task in which they provided contamination ratings of objects over a series of removals from an initial contaminant. At the end of session one, participants were randomized to one of three conditions in which they completed a guided imagery intervention: freeze imagery (i.e., imagining germs as frozen in place), loom imagery (i.e., imagining germs as moving and spreading), or a no-task control condition (i.e., no imagery intervention). Participants completed their same assigned intervention at the end of session two. One-week later (session three), participants completed the same self-report measures and chain of contagion task. As expected, participants in the freeze imagery condition (but not other conditions) demonstrated significant reductions over time (i.e., from sessions one to three) in contamination fear, OCD symptoms, and in their tendency to interpret contamination and threat in general as looming. Further, participants in the freeze condition demonstrated decreased average chain of contagion contamination ratings from sessions two to three, whereas those in the loom and control conditions demonstrated increased contamination ratings over time (i.e., from sessions one to three). Condition did not affect disgust sensitivity or propensity. Finally, results revealed that changes in looming of contamination cognitions mediated the relationship between condition and changes in contamination fear and OCD symptoms. Findings suggest that engaging in freeze imagery may effectively modify LV in a subclinical contamination-OCD sample and be an adaptive strategy to reduce related symptoms over time. Overall, this study provides meaningful information about the role of LV in contamination-OCD and provides support for LV as an important target for intervention

A Framework for Understanding the Role of Psychological Processes in Disease Development, Maintenance, and Treatment: The 3P-Disease Model

Health psychology is multidisciplinary, with researchers, practitioners, and policy makers finding themselves needing at least some level of competency in a variety of areas from psychology to physiology, public health, and others. Given this multidisciplinary ontology, prior attempts have been made to establish a framework for understanding the role of biological, psychological, and socio-environmental constructs in disease development, maintenance, and treatment. Other models, however, do not explain how factors may interact and develop over time. The aim here was to apply and adapt the 3P model, originally developed and used in the treatment of insomnia, to couch the biopsychosocial model in a way that explains how diseases develop, are maintained, and can be treated. This paper outlines the role of predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors in disease states and conditions (the 3Ps) and provides examples of how this model may be adapted and applied to a number of health-related diseases or disorders including chronic pain, gastrointestinal disorders, oral disease, and heart disease. The 3P framework can aid in facilitating a multidisciplinary, theoretical approach and way of conceptualizing the study and treatment of diseases in the future

Model comparison from LIGO–Virgo data on GW170817’s binary components and consequences for the merger remnant

International audienceGW170817 is the very first observation of gravitational waves originating from the coalescence of two compact objects in the mass range of neutron stars, accompanied by electromagnetic counterparts, and offers an opportunity to directly probe the internal structure of neutron stars. We perform Bayesian model selection on a wide range of theoretical predictions for the neutron star equation of state. For the binary neutron star hypothesis, we find that we cannot rule out the majority of theoretical models considered. In addition, the gravitational-wave data alone does not rule out the possibility that one or both objects were low-mass black holes. We discuss the possible outcomes in the case of a binary neutron star merger, finding that all scenarios from prompt collapse to long-lived or even stable remnants are possible. For long-lived remnants, we place an upper limit of 1.9 kHz on the rotation rate. If a black hole was formed any time after merger and the coalescing stars were slowly rotating, then the maximum baryonic mass of non-rotating neutron stars is at most , and three equations of state considered here can be ruled out. We obtain a tighter limit of for the case that the merger results in a hypermassive neutron star

Search for intermediate mass black hole binaries in the first observing run of Advanced LIGO

International audienceDuring their first observational run, the two Advanced LIGO detectors attained an unprecedented sensitivity, resulting in the first direct detections of gravitational-wave signals produced by stellar-mass binary black hole systems. This paper reports on an all-sky search for gravitational waves (GWs) from merging intermediate mass black hole binaries (IMBHBs). The combined results from two independent search techniques were used in this study: the first employs a matched-filter algorithm that uses a bank of filters covering the GW signal parameter space, while the second is a generic search for GW transients (bursts). No GWs from IMBHBs were detected; therefore, we constrain the rate of several classes of IMBHB mergers. The most stringent limit is obtained for black holes of individual mass 100  M⊙, with spins aligned with the binary orbital angular momentum. For such systems, the merger rate is constrained to be less than 0.93  Gpc−3 yr−1 in comoving units at the 90% confidence level, an improvement of nearly 2 orders of magnitude over previous upper limits

First low-frequency Einstein@Home all-sky search for continuous gravitational waves in Advanced LIGO data

International audienceWe report results of a deep all-sky search for periodic gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in data from the first Advanced LIGO observing run. This search investigates the low frequency range of Advanced LIGO data, between 20 and 100 Hz, much of which was not explored in initial LIGO. The search was made possible by the computing power provided by the volunteers of the Einstein@Home project. We find no significant signal candidate and set the most stringent upper limits to date on the amplitude of gravitational wave signals from the target population, corresponding to a sensitivity depth of 48.7  [1/Hz]. At the frequency of best strain sensitivity, near 100 Hz, we set 90% confidence upper limits of 1.8×10-25. At the low end of our frequency range, 20 Hz, we achieve upper limits of 3.9×10-24. At 55 Hz we can exclude sources with ellipticities greater than 10-5 within 100 pc of Earth with fiducial value of the principal moment of inertia of 1038  kg m2

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

International audienceSpinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far