“…In a nationally representative sample of 2,605 American adults, decrements in set shifting, updating, and inhibition conferred robust risk of developing generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) across the 9-year follow-up period (e.g., Odds Ratios for Updating > 6.00; Zainal & Newman, 2018). Likewise, a recent meta-analysis uncovered evidence of cognitive impairment—including lower IQ (−0.19 SD) and academic performance—in first-degree relatives of individuals with MDD (N = 8,468) (MacKenzie, Uher, & Pavlova, in press ), suggesting a causal role. Conversely, there is emerging evidence that interventions targeting cognitive control can ameliorate anxiety symptoms, reinforcing the conclusion that executive control deficits causally contribute to the development of pathological anxiety (e.g., Cohen, Daches, Mor, & Henik, 2014; Cohen, Mor, & Henik, 2015).…”