Neurophysiological Responses to Interpersonal Emotional Images Prospectively Predict the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic–Related Stress on Internalizing Symptoms

Emotional processing prospectively modulates the impact of anxiety on COVID-19 pandemic-related post-traumatic stress symptoms: an ERP study

“…Hence, a greater LPP amplitude to unpleasant images may denote a higher motivation to allocate attention to unpleasant stimuli and a difficulty in downregulating its affective content ( Kujawa et al, 2016 ). This finding is partly in line with a recent study reporting that a greater LPP amplitude to threatening stimuli at baseline predicted an enhanced association between perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and traumatic intrusions ( Dickey et al, 2021 ). Specifically, under elevated exposure to pandemic-related stressors, individuals with higher LPP amplitude to threatening stimuli were more likely to experience PTSS.…”

“…Particularly, depressive and anxiety symptoms, repeatedly reported in individuals suffering from PTSD ( Armour et al, 2014 ; Brady et al, 2000 ), were suggested to prospectively increase the risk to develop PTSD following a traumatic event ( Blanchard et al, 1994 ; Brady et al, 2000 ; Edmonsdson et al, 2014 ; Gulliver et al, 2021 ). Although the underlying mechanism for this vulnerability is still unclear, it can be hypothesized that differential patterns of attentional processing of emotional (pleasant and unpleasant) content may represent a measure modulating the link between pre-trauma anxiety and depressive symptoms and PTSS onset ( Dickey et al, 2021 ; Lieberman et al, 2017 ).…”

“…For example, larger LPP amplitude to unpleasant images prior to the exposure to a natural disaster predicted the severity of stress-related oppositional and aggressive behaviour, while reduced LPP to pleasant images predicted the severity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in children ( Kujawa et al, 2016 ). Moreover, a recent longitudinal study that investigated the prospective predictors of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that reduced LPP amplitude to pleasant stimuli predicted increases in anxiety and depressive symptoms, while enhanced LPP amplitude to unpleasant stimuli predicted increases in traumatic intrusions ( Dickey et al, 2021 ). Further, smaller LPP amplitude to unpleasant stimuli in individuals with PTSD predicted a steeper decline in symptoms over a one-year time frame ( Fitzgerarld et al, 2018 ).…”

Risk for youth anxiety during the COVID‐19 pandemic: The interactive impact of financial stress and prepandemic electrocortical reactivity to negative self‐referential stimuli

“…For example, stress exposure has been shown to confer risk for depressive symptoms in youth (Levinson et al., 2019 ) and undergraduate women (Sandre et al., 2019 ), demonstrating an attenuated LPP to positive stimuli. Additionally, a recent study of college undergraduates found that interpersonal stress during the COVID‐19 pandemic was associated with pandemic‐related increases in depression symptoms for young adults who exhibited blunted LPP to positive interpersonal stimuli prior to the pandemic onset (Dickey et al., 2021b ). In the same study, greater interpersonal stress also predicted increases in traumatic intrusion symptoms for undergraduates exhibiting an enhanced LPP to threatening interpersonal stimuli, suggesting that individuals exhibiting diminished attention to positive stimuli or greater attention to negative stimuli prepandemic were at greatest risk for increases in internalizing symptoms if exposed to increased stress during the pandemic.…”

Performance Monitoring and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Clarifying Pathways to Internalizing Psychopathology

“…Not surprisingly, the pandemic is associated with high rates of internalizing disorders ( 2 ), but its impacts on psychopathology are complex. For example, we observed variability in symptom change early in the pandemic, such that depressive symptoms increased from pre-pandemic levels in young adults, but symptoms of social anxiety decreased ( 3 ). This suggests that the reduced social demands that accompanied restrictions to mitigate spread may have been protective for some people early on.…”