Is Disgust Proneness Associated With Anxiety and Related Disorders? A Qualitative Review and Meta-Analysis of Group Comparison and Correlational Studies

Olatunji, Bunmi O.; Armstrong, Thomas J.; Elwood, Lisa S.

doi:10.1177/1745691616688879

Cited by 95 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 265 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It may be speculated that our mixed and BN group revealed more problems when recognizing an emotional stimulus of higher complexity or ambiguity. However, these findings are rather counterintuitive, as anxiety seems to be related with a disgust-proneness and thus an accelerated processing of disgust related information, whereas in depression lower biases to distinguish positive signals in ambiguous faces have been found (17,58). In sum, our findings suggest that basic abilities to correctly identify facial emotion expressions do not differ between women suffering from AN, BN and mixed mental disorders nor HCs.…”

Section: A C C E P T E Dcontrasting

confidence: 66%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Facial Emotion Recognition Abilities in Women Experiencing Eating Disorders

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

OBJECTIVE: Impairments in facial emotion recognition are an underlying factor of deficits in emotion regulation and interpersonal difficulties in mental disorders and are evident in eating disorders (EDs). METHODS: We used a computerized psychophysical paradigm to manipulate parametrically the quantity of signal in facial expressions of emotion (QUEST threshold seeking algorithm). This was used to measure emotion recognition in 308 adult women (anorexia nervosa [n = 61], bulimia nervosa [n = 58], healthy controls [n = 130], and mixed mental disorders [mixed, n = 59]). The M (SD) age was 22.84 (3.90) years. The aims were to establish recognition thresholds defining how much information a person needs to recognize a facial emotion expression and to identify deficits in EDs compared with healthy and clinical controls. The stimuli included six basic emotion expressions (fear, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise), plus a neutral expression. RESULTS: Happiness was discriminated at the lowest, fear at the highest threshold by all groups. There were no differences regarding thresholds between groups, except for the mixed and the bulimia nervosa group with respect to the expression of disgust (F(3,302) = 5.97, p = .001, = .056). Emotional clarity, ED pathology, and depressive symptoms did not predict performance (RChange .010, F(1,305) 5.74, p .079). The confusion matrix did not reveal specific biases in either group. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, within-subject effects were as expected, whereas between-subject effects were marginal and psychopathology did not influence emotion recognition. Facial emotion recognition abilities in women experiencing EDs compared with women experiencing mixed mental disorders and healthy controls were similar. Although basic facial emotion recognition processes seems to be intact, dysfunctional aspects such as misinterpretation might be important in emotion regulation problems. AbstractObjective: Impairments in facial emotion recognition are an underlying factor of deficits in emotion regulation and interpersonal difficulties in mental disorders, and are evident in eating disorders (EDs). Methods:We used a computerized psychophysical paradigm to manipulate parametrically the quantity of signal in facial expressions of emotion (QUEST threshold seeking algorithm). This was used to measure emotion recognition in 311 adult women (anorexia nervosa (AN,n=61), bulimia nervosa (BN,n=58), healthy controls (HC,n=130) and mixed mental disorders (mixed,n=59)). The mean age was 22.84 years (SD=3.90). The aim was to establish recognition thresholds defining how much information a person needs to recognize a facial emotion expression and to identify deficits in EDs compared to healthy and clinical controls. The stimuli included six basic emotion expressions (fear, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise) plus a neutral expression. Results:Happiness was discriminated at the lowest, fear at the highest threshold by all groups.There were no differences regarding thresholds between groups, except for th...

show abstract

Section: A C C E P T E Dcontrasting

confidence: 66%

“…to fear and disgust in anxiety disorders (15,17) influences subsequent processes such as the interpretation of a situation and thus is part of an overall problematic social cognitive functioning.…”

Section: A C C E P T E Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facial Emotion Recognition Abilities in Women Experiencing Eating Disorders

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Considering research linking disgust to psychopathology (Olatunji, Cisler, McKay, & Phillips, 2010; Olatunji et al, 2017), as well as research highlighting the impact of emotion on cognitive processes (Kissler & Keil, 2008; Most et al, 2005), cognitive biases may be one set of mechanisms by which disgust contributes to psychopathology. For example, biased memory for disgust-relevant stimuli, disgusting interpretations of ambiguous stimuli, and increased expectations of aversive outcomes in the presence of disgust-relevant stimuli likely reinforce psychopathological processes such as experiential avoidance (Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996) and negative beliefs (Clark, 1999) by contributing to an overestimation of threat (Cisler et al, 2011).…”

Section: Cognitive Biases and Disgust: What Have We Learned?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the experience of disgust is normative, for some individuals this experience can interfere in everyday life. Individuals with high disgust proneness, who experience disgust more frequently and perceive disgust as more harmful, are more likely to experience anxiety-related psychopathology; this relationship is robust and remains significant even when accounting for negative affect (Olatunji, Armstrong, & Elwood, 2017). While most commonly linked to anxiety-related disorders such as spider phobia, blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, health anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), disgust proneness has also been associated with borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia (Schienle et al, 2003), eating disorders (Davey, Buckland, Tantow, & Dallos, 1998; Troop, Treasure, & Serpell, 2002), and sexual dysfunction (de Jong, van Overveld, & Borg, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive mechanisms of disgust in the development and maintenance of psychopathology: A qualitative review and synthesis

Knowles

Cox

Armstrong

et al. 2019

Clinical Psychology Review

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A growing body of research has implicated disgust in various psychopathologies, especially anxiety-related disorders. Although the observed role of disgust in many disorders is robust, the mechanisms that may explain this role are unclear. Cutting-edge research in cognitive science has the potential to elucidate such mechanisms and consequently improve our understanding of how disgust contributes to the etiology and maintenance of psychopathology. In this qualitative review, we systematically assess cognitive bias mechanisms that have been linked to disgust and its disorders. This review suggests that disgust-related biases may be observed in memory, interpretation, judgment of expectancies, and attention, as well as at implicit levels. Of these cognitive domains, the most robust bias appears to be observed at the level of attention. However, reliable moderators of attentional biases for disgust have not yet been identified, and this bias has not been systematically linked to other levels of analysis. Despite these limitations, the available research indicates that attentional avoidance rather than orienting or maintenance may be the most characteristic of disgust. Attentional avoidance of disgust may have important implications for etiological and treatment models of disorders characterized by excessive disgust reactions. The implications for advancing such models are discussed in the context of a combined cognitive bias hypothesis.

show abstract

“…Our results show promising evidence for physiological regulation of disgust when memory suppression via inhibitory control is effective. The emotion of disgust has a determinant role in the development and maintenance of numerous psychiatric condition like anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders (Olatunji, Armstrong, & Elwood, 2017;Cisler, Olatunji, & Lohr, 2009). While this emotion does not always dominate the symptoms or induce the most salient ones, its experience can favor cognitive bias toward stimuli or situation and participates to the maintenance or increase of more dramatic manifestation like fear and state anxiety.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Legrand

Vandevelde

Pierre

et al. 2018

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The subjective construction surrounding the perception of negative experiences is partly built upon bodily afferent information, comprising heart, gut or respiratory signals. While this bottom-up influence has been extensively described, the opposite pathway, the putative influence of cognitive processes over autonomic response, is still debatable. Emotion regulation and the ability to control maladjusted physiological response associated with thoughts and memories is a recurrent concern for most psychiatric disorders and mental health as a whole. Memory suppression (i.e. exerting inhibitory control toward unwanted memories) has been proposed as a possible solution to perform such regulation. This method, however, also holds debates as it could putatively worsen distressing reactions when unsuccessful, or simply be ineffective on the physiological roots of emotions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that memory suppression can influence the physiological marker of emotions in two studies using the "Think/No-Think" paradigm. We measured in healthy participants the aftereffect of suppressing negative memories on their cardiac reaction toward the excluded memories. Results of Study 1 revealed that an efficient control of memories was associated with a long-term inhibition of the cardiac deceleration normally induced by disgusting stimuli. Attempts to suppressing sad memories, on the opposite, aggravated cardiac response, an effect that was largely related to the inability to forget this specific material. Study 2 recorded concurrent electroencephalographic (EEG) response during the TNT task to track the oscillatory dynamics supporting the inhibitory control of memories and estimate their role in the inhibition of the later cardiac response. We found that the decrease of the 5-9 Hz frequency band, a prominent electrophysiological marker of memory suppression, was indeed related to the subsequent inhibition of the cardiac response toward disgusting stimuli. These results show that the modulation of cognitive representations can have long-term effects on the cardiac system. They further support the notion that cognitive control over unwanted emotional memories, when successful, can reduce the autonomic aversive processes to achieve emotional regulation. Our findings open new avenues for possible interventions focused on training this suppression mechanism to reduce the impact of distressing intrusive memories on mental health.

show abstract

Is Disgust Proneness Associated With Anxiety and Related Disorders? A Qualitative Review and Meta-Analysis of Group Comparison and Correlational Studies

Cited by 95 publications

References 265 publications

Facial Emotion Recognition Abilities in Women Experiencing Eating Disorders

Facial Emotion Recognition Abilities in Women Experiencing Eating Disorders

Cognitive mechanisms of disgust in the development and maintenance of psychopathology: A qualitative review and synthesis

Does the heart forget? Modulation of cardiac activity induced by inhibitory control over emotional memories

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About