An integrative study of motivation and goal regulation processes in subclinical anxiety, depression and hypomania

Research has implicated motivation and goal regulation in susceptibility to mood disorders. We studied for the first time key facets of motivation and goal regulation concurrently in relation to affective symptoms. The cross-national sample comprised 510 university students from the United States (n = 279) and United Kingdom (n = 231). Participants completed self-report measures of motivation, conditional goal setting, urgency, depression, anxiety, and mania risk. Structural Equation Modeling results found that behavioral activation system scores correlated negatively with depression and positively with mania risk, but were unrelated to anxiety. High conditional goal setting correlated uniquely with higher depression but not to anxiety or mania risk. Urgency correlated with higher anxiety, depression, and mania risk. Behavioral inhibition system scores correlated negatively with mania risk but unexpectedly did not correlate with anxiety in the multivariate model. The behavioral activation, behavioral inhibition, conditional goal setting, and urgency results showed shared and distinct patterns of relationships with depression, anxiety and mania risk. Our findings indicate unique and common risk vulnerabilities in depressive, anxious, and manic syndromes and extend an integrative knowledge of these syndromes in relation to goal regulation

Reviews in New Jersey and Regional History

John Fea reviews Riordan, Many Identities, One Nation: The Revolution and its Legacy in the Mid-AtlanticTerry Golway reviews Quinn, The Irish in New Jersey: Four Centuries of American LifePaul Israel reviews Koszarski,  Fort Lee: The Film TownRichard Veit reviews Berkey, Early Architecture of Cape May County, New Jersey: The Heavy Timber Frame LegacyAndrew Shankman reviews Fea, The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early Americ

Frontal brain asymmetry in depression with comorbid anxiety: A neuropsychological investigation.

The approach-withdrawal model posits that depression and anxiety are associated with a relative right asymmetry in frontal brain activity. Most studies have tested this model using measures of cortical brain activity such as electroencephalography. However, neuropsychological tasks that differentially employ left vs. right frontal cortical regions can also be used to test hypotheses from the model. In two independent samples (Study 1 and 2), the present study investigated the performance of currently depressed individuals with or without a comorbid anxiety disorder and healthy controls on neuropsychological tasks tapping primarily left (verbal fluency) or right (design fluency) frontal brain regions. Across both samples, results indicated that comorbid participants performed more poorly than depressed only and control participants on design fluency, while all groups showed equivalent performance on verbal fluency. Moreover, comorbid participants showed “asymmetrical” performance on these two tasks (i.e., poorer design [right frontal] relative to verbal [left frontal] fluency), while depressed only and control participants showed approximately symmetrical profiles of performance. Results from these two samples suggest an abnormal frontal asymmetry in neurocognitive performance driven primarily by right frontal dysfunction among anxious-depressed individuals and highlight the importance of considering comorbid anxiety when examining frontal brain functioning in depression

Biomarkers of Threat and Reward Sensitivity Demonstrate Unique Associations With Risk for Psychopathology

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Two emotional/motivational constructs that have been posited to underlie anxiety and depressive disorders are heightened sensitivity to threat and reduced sensitivity to reward, respectively. It is unclear, though, whether these constructs are only epiphenomena or also connote risk for these disorders (and relatedly, whether they connote risk for separate disorders). Using family history of psychopathology as an indicator of risk, the present study examined whether biomarkers of sensitivity to threat (startle potentiation) and reward (frontal EEG asymmetry) were associated with similar or different familial liabilities. In addition, the present study examined whether these biomarkers were associated with risk independent of proband DSM–IV diagnosis. One-hundred and seventy-three individuals diagnosed with panic disorder (PD), early onset major depressive disorder (MDD), both (comorbids), or controls completed two laboratory paradigms assessing sensitivity to predictable/unpredictable threat (measured via startle response) and reward (measured via frontal EEG asymmetry during a gambling task). Results indicated that across all participants: (a) startle potentiation to unpredictable threat was associated with family history of PD (but not MDD); and (b) frontal EEG asymmetry while anticipating reward wa

A Psychophysiological Investigation of Threat and Reward Sensitivity in Individuals With Panic Disorder and/or Major Depressive Disorder

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Heightened sensitivity to threat and reduced sensitivity to reward are potential mechanisms of dysfunction in anxiety and depressive disorders, respectively. However, few studies have simultaneously examined whether these mechanisms are unique or common to these disorders. In this study, sensitivity to predictable and unpredictable threat (measured by startle response during threat anticipation) and sensitivity to reward (measured by frontal electroencephalographic [EEG] asymmetry during reward anticipation) were assessed in 4 groups (N � 191): those with (1) panic disorder (PD) without a lifetime history of depression, (2) major depression (MDD) without a lifetime history of an anxiety disorder, (3) comorbid PD and MDD, and (4) controls. General distress/negative temperament (NT) was also assessed via self-report. Results indicated that PD (with or without comorbid MDD) was uniquely associated with heightened startle to predictable and unpredictable threat, and MDD (with or without comorbid PD) was uniquely associated with reduced frontal EEG asymmetry. Both psychophysiological measures of threat and reward sensitivity were stable on retest approximately 9 days later in a subsample of participants. Whereas the comorbid group did not respond differently on the tasks relative to the PD-only and MDD-only groups, they did report greater NT than thes