The Shared Etiology of Attentional Control and Anxiety: An Adolescent Twin Study

Abstract

We investigated the etiology of attentional control (AC) and four different anxiety symptom types (generalized, obsessive-compulsive, separation, and social) in an adolescent sample of over 400 twin pairs. Genetic factors contributed to 55% of the variance in AC and between 43 and 58% of the variance in anxiety. Negative phenotypic associations between AC and anxiety indicated that lower attentional ability is related to increased risk for all 4 anxiety categories. Genetic correlations between AC and anxiety phenotypes ranged from −.36 to −.47, with evidence of nonshared environmental covariance between AC and generalized and separation anxiety. Results suggest that AC is a phenotypic and genetic risk factor for anxiety in early adolescence, with somewhat differing levels of risk depending on symptomatology.

Attentional Control Explains Covariation Between Symptoms of Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Anxiety During Adolescence

“…The primary contribution of this work is evidence that the same genetic and nonshared environmental factors are associated with the presence of attentional control deficits, ADHD symptoms, and symptoms of GAD and social phobia. This finding corroborates research linking genetic influences on attentional control with anxiety symptoms (Gagne et al., ) and advances attentional control as a putative mechanism in the comorbidity of ADHD and anxiety during the adolescent years, when both types of problems are salient. Our findings also supplement those from other approaches, such as GWAS, which have found relatively little overlap in polygenic risk scores for children's behavioral problems from early/middle childhood to late childhood/adolescence (Meier et al., ).…”

“…In a sample that partially overlapped with this study's sample, additive genetic variance accounted for covariation between slightly different aspects of parent‐ and experimenter‐rated attentional control and parent reports of internalizing or externalizing symptoms in early to middle childhood (Lemery‐Chalfant et al., ). Previous work also suggested that generalized and social anxiety symptoms shared 17% to 18% of their variance, respectively, with attentional control during adolescence (Gagne, O'Sullivan, Schmidt, Spann, & Goldsmith, ). In both of these reports, genetic correlations between attentional control and internalizing problems were negative, suggesting that similar genetic factors may contribute to both impairments in attentional control and anxiety symptoms.…”

Are reinforcement sensitivity personality constructs and attentional control important predictors of restrictive disordered eating?

“…There is a substantial genetic overlap concerning AC ability and trait anxiety (Gagne et al, 2017). For example, Attentional Control Theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007) suggests that AC impairments in elevated trait anxiety predict increased cognitive interference, which is further exacerbated if the distracting stimuli are threat-related.…”

Longitudinal Research at the Interface of Affective Neuroscience, Developmental Psychopathology, Health and Behavioral Genetics: Findings from the Wisconsin Twin Project

“…Shared genetic factors also accounted for co-occurring anxiety and ADHD symptoms, even after controlling for attention. Also, shared genetic factors explained the association between adolescent attentional control and four subtypes of anxiety (e.g., general anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety and obsessive-compulsive anxiety), with some specificity and distinct etiology for anxiety subtypes (Gagne et al, 2017).…”