Externalizing proneness and brain response during pre-cuing and viewing of emotional pictures

Abstract

Externalizing proneness, or trait disinhibition, is a concept relevant to multiple high-impact disorders involving impulsiveaggressive behavior. Its mechanisms remain disputed: major models posit hyperresponsive reward circuitry or heightened threat-system reactivity as sources of disinhibitory tendencies. This study evaluated alternative possibilities by examining relations between trait disinhibition and brain reactivity during preparation for and processing of visual affective stimuli. Forty females participated in a functional neuroimaging procedure with stimuli presented in blocks containing either pleasurable or aversive pictures interspersed with neutral, with each picture preceded by a preparation signal. Preparing to view elicited activation in regions including nucleus accumbens, whereas visual regions and bilateral amygdala were activated during viewing of emotional pictures. High disinhibition predicted reduced nucleus accumbens activation during preparation within pleasant/neutral picture blocks, along with enhanced amygdala reactivity during viewing of pleasant and aversive pictures. Follow-up analyses revealed that the augmented amygdala response was related to reduced preparatory activation. Findings indicate that participants high in disinhibition are less able to process implicit cues and mentally prepare for upcoming stimuli, leading to limbic hyperreactivity during processing of actual stimuli. This outcome is helpful for integrating findings from studies suggesting reward-system hyperreactivity and others suggesting threat-system hyperreactivity as mechanisms for externalizing proneness.

Breaking the link: Distraction from emotional cues reduces the association between trait disinhibition and reactive physical aggression

“…Although state affect was not assessed in the current study, the present findings provide indirect, laboratory-based support of this putative mechanism and offer insight into methods that might attenuate it. Consistent with prior work (Foell et al, 2016), it is reasonable to presume that trait disinhibition facilitated heightened negative affect in response to high provocation. Given this, the fact that the distraction manipulation attenuated the positive association between trait disinhibition and aggression under high provocation carries important significance.…”

“…A wealth of literature indicates that individuals who are high in trait disinhibition display heightened reactivity to negative stimuli (Cyders & Smith, 2008;Foell et al, 2016;Patrick et al, 2013;Sher & Trull, 1994;Taylor et al, 1999). A wealth of literature indicates that individuals who are high in trait disinhibition display heightened reactivity to negative stimuli (Cyders & Smith, 2008;Foell et al, 2016;Patrick et al, 2013;Sher & Trull, 1994;Taylor et al, 1999).…”

“…1.1 | A proximal mechanism: Attention to negative affectivity Negative affectivity may be a key factor in the association between trait disinhibition and aggression. A wealth of literature indicates that individuals who are high in trait disinhibition display heightened reactivity to negative stimuli (Cyders & Smith, 2008;Foell et al, 2016;Patrick et al, 2013;Sher & Trull, 1994;Taylor et al, 1999). Moreover, common markers of trait disinhibition, including deficient inhibition of prepotent responses, have been associated with maladaptive expression of negative affect (Bridgett, Oddi, Laake, Murdock, & Bachmann, 2013;Carlson & Wang, 2007).…”

A Model-Based Strategy for Interfacing Traits of the DSM-5 AMPD With Neurobiology

“…A core advantage is that trait dimensions structured in this way can be expected to covary more strongly and reliably with other measures from the neurobiological modality (for direct evidence of this, see Patrick et al, 2013b;Venables et al, 2018;Yancey et al, 2016). With regard to the current study, for example, the configuration of traits shown to interface effectively with the P3 brain response factor would be expected to correlate more robustly and consistently with other brain-based measures of externalizing proneness-including neuroimaging measures (e.g., Castellanos-Ryan et al, 2014;Foell et al, 2016) as well as other ERP measures (e.g., Hall, Bernat, & Patrick, 2007)-while also relating robustly to disinhibitory clinical conditions (see Figure 2). Improvements in the ability to identify replicable associations between psychological and neural-response measures are greatly needed to permit progress in understanding the role of neurobiological systems/ processes in mental illness.…”

Evidence of a prominent genetic basis for associations between psychoneurometric traits and common mental disorders

“…Besides relating more strongly to electrocortical and visceral-somatic indices of psychopathology-relevant processes, psychoneurometric assessments can be expected to predict more robustly to brain activations occurring during cognitive and emotional tasks in neuroimaging contexts (e.g., Foell et al, in press; Vizueta et al, 2012), and potentially to affiliated neuroanatomical and neurochemical variables. At the same time, use of scale-report measures together with physiological measures as indicators ensures that these trait assessments remain tied to clinical problems that are most commonly assessed in the psychological domain (Patrick et al, 2013; Yancey et al, 2016).…”