Elevated Affective Lability and Poor Response Inhibition: An Investigation based on Emotional and Non-Emotional Go/No-Go Tasks

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to test the association between affective lability and the magnitude of response inhibition deficits using four different versions of go/no-go tasks that were composed of (a) affective faces, (b) affective words, (c) neutral faces, or (d) neutral words, with an undergraduate sample that displayed a wide range of emotional instability and impulsivity (N = 45). We hypothesized that heightened affective lability would be significantly associated with deficits in response inhibition, particularly in the context of emotional go/no-go tasks that presented salient and potent emotional materials. Overall findings showed that the magnitude of difficulty in inhibiting potent but irrelevant stimuli on emotional go/no-go tasks was significantly associated with heightened affective lability (characterized by unstable shifts between elated and depressed moods) after taking into consideration the contribution of negative affect and impulsiveness. In contrast, non-emotional go/no-go performance did not significantly predict affective lability. Further, depression-elation mood shifts were significantly associated with greater difficulty in inhibiting irrelevant positive rather than negative emotional information. This line of research may help improve our understanding on the nature of poor inhibitory control associated with conditions characterized by emotional dysregulation.

General and food‐specific inhibitory deficits in binge eating disorder

“…For instance, task performance in the go/no-go task among emotionally unstable persons is only affected in a task variant with emotional stimuli, but not with neutral stimuli. 35 On the one hand it is conceivable that processing of the relevant stimuli has a temporary detrimental effect on inhibitory networks, resulting in relatively global effects. Alternatively, only rash-impulsive responses on relevant stimuli could be more difficult to inhibit.…”

The role of cognitive control and emotion regulation in predicting mental health problems in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

“…Within the framework of RIM, impaired cognition may reduce reflective control of behaviour, resulting in more impulsive and maladaptive emotional reactions, which may be why children with impaired cognitive processing are more likely to exhibit mental health problems. This view is also supported by studies demonstrating that impulsive actions manifest as a result of failure to inhibit those impulses (Berkowitz, 2008; Lee et al, 2012). Similarly, a link between working memory difficulties and conduct problems has been reported in neurotypical (McQuade et al, 2013) and clinical groups (Schoemaker et al, 2013; Schuiringa et al, 2017), suggesting that difficulty holding and processing information may result in more impulsive reactions lacking precautions in social context (McQuade et al, 2013).…”

“…The process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 1998;Gross & John, 2003) asserts that emotions can be modified at five distinct This view is also supported by studies demonstrating that impulsive actions manifest as a result of failure to inhibit those impulses (Berkowitz, 2008;Lee et al, 2012). Similarly, a link between working memory difficulties and conduct problems has been reported in neurotypical (McQuade et al, 2013) and clinical groups (Schoemaker et al, 2013;Schuiringa et al, 2017) (Eiraldi et al, 2016;Gould et al, 2018;Scarpa & Reyes, 2011;Weiss et al, 2018;Weston et al, 2016).…”

Psychometric Properties of an Arabic Translation of the short form of the Affective Lability Scale (ALS-18) in a non-clinical sample of Arabic-speaking adults.

“…Beyond the general population, the prevalence of AL is found among individuals with diverse mental health disorders such as personality disorders, psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders or obsessive-compulsive disorders [ 1,5 ]. In such clinical populations, AL predicts multiple debilitating outcomes, such as disease progression, increased clinical burden and impaired social functioning [ 6 ], cognitive de cits [ 7 ] as well as suicidal ideation and attempts [ 8 ] Considering that AL is closely linked to the development of mental disorders, a psychometrically sound measure is required to accurately assess the construct in both clinical practice and scienti c research.…”