This study provides preliminary evidence that VREs can be used to generate physiological arousal in response to substance use and sexual risk cues.

Emerging research suggests that a relationship exists between the cognitive aspects of anxiety (e.g. worry) and cognitive decline in older adults. The current study examined the association between anxiety, depressive, and worry symptoms on cognitive performance. Participants were 156 older adults enrolled in the Nathan Kline Institute-Rockland Sample Study (NKI-RS).  Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to determine the unique associations of anxiety, depressive, and worry symptoms on cognitive performance as measured by the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery (Penn CNB), the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS), and the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). Worry symptoms were a significant predictor of Penn CNB social cognition, complex cognition, executive function, and episodic memory performance as well as RAVLT immediate and short-delay recall, but not of D-KEFS performance or RAVLT long-delay recall. In contrast, anxiety and depressive symptoms had few unique associations with cognitive performance. Given that worry symptoms have a negative impact on many aspects of neurocognitive performance, they may have utility in predicting and preventing cognitive decline in older adults.

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Several measures are available that assess inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and executive functioning deficits. Treatments for adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and skill-based academic interventions focus on improving compensatory strategies to ameliorate functional impairment; however, no measure exists that examines the compensatory behaviors adults utilize to compensate for the functional deficits associated with inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. The current study aimed to determine the psychometric properties of the Compensatory ADHD Behaviors Scale (CABS). Five-hundred participants ( M = 36.83, SD = 11.57) completed measures of ADHD symptomatology, executive functioning, functional impairment, mood disorder symptoms, and the CABS. Analyses revealed that scales assessing both use and effectiveness of compensatory behaviors subscales had similar factor structures, reflecting present- and future-oriented behaviors. The present-, but not future-oriented, behaviors significantly related to ADHD symptomatology, executive dysfunction, and functional impairment; effectiveness of present-oriented compensatory behaviors demonstrated incremental validity in predicting impairment. Compensatory strategies may be a useful variable to measure when examining functional impairment associated with inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. The current study provides preliminary evidence of the ability of CABS to validly measure various strategies associated with (clinical and subclinical) ADHD symptomatology, executive functioning, and overall impairment.

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Neuroscientific and psychological research posits that there are two transdiagnostic facets of anxiety: anxious arousal and anxious apprehension. Though these two facets of anxiety are distinct, they are often subsumed into one domain (e.g., trait anxiety). The primary goal of the current study was to delineate the relationship between anxious arousal and cortical thickness versus the relationship between anxious apprehension and cortical thickness in a sample of typically functioning youth. The secondary aim was to determine where in the brain cortical thickness significantly correlated with both components of anxiety. Results indicated that the right anterior insula has a stronger relationship to anxious arousal, whereas the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left anterior insula were found to correlate with both anxious arousal and apprehension. We also observed volumetric differences in the amygdala and hippocampus between anxious arousal and anxious apprehension. Whereas anxious arousal, but not apprehension, predicted left amygdala volume, anxious apprehension, but not arousal, predicted right hippocampal volume. These findings demonstrated that there are both differences and similarities in the neural regions that contribute to independent facets of anxiety. Results are discussed in terms of previous findings from the affective and developmental cognitive neurosciences.

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