What Accounts for the Factors of Psychopathology? An Investigation of the Neurocognitive Correlates of Internalising, Externalising, and the p-Factor

Abstract

Neurocognitive deficits have been consistently associated with a wide range of psychopathology and are proposed to not only be a consequence of the development of psychopathology but also directly involved in its aetiology. However, there is no clear understanding of what neurocognitive processes are particularly important to mental health. In this paper, we explored the association between neurocognitive abilities and the factors derived from structural models of psychopathology. Four hundred participants from a representative community sample completed measures of symptomology and substance use, as well as 8 neurocognitive tasks. We found a correlated-factors model, with internalising and externalising as the higher-order factors, and a single-factor model with only the p-factor, to be good fits for the data. Tasks that measured the speed of processing were significantly associated with internalising, externalising, and the p-factor, and accounted for significant amounts of unique variance in the factors after accounting for the common variance of the other tasks. Tasks that measured working memory, shifting, and inhibition were not significantly associated with psychopathology factors. Our findings suggest that neurocognitive abilities may not be differentially associated with psychopathology factors, but that speed of processing is a common correlate of the factors. We emphasise the importance of examining neurocognitive abilities and psychopathology on the individual level.

Neurocognitive Artificial Neural Network Models Are Superior to Linear Models at Accounting for Dimensional Psychopathology

“…In a large-scale study [ 23 ], 425 people from a representative community sample from the USA were recruited through Prolific [ 35 ]. Participants completed a demographics and clinical characteristics survey [ 36 ], a substance use measure [ 37 ], and eight neurocognitive tasks.…”

“…The mean age of the sample was 44.47 (SD = 16.35), 51.5% were female, and 28.5% reported having a previous or current mental health diagnosis. The detailed demographic and clinical characteristics of the sample can be found in Haywood, Baughman, Mullan and Heslop [ 23 ].…”

“…After providing consent, participants completed the demographic and clinical characteristics questions, and then completed measures on substance use, mental health symptomology, and then each of the eight neurocognitive tasks see [ 23 ] for further information. This research was approved by the Curtin Human Research Ethics Committee (HRE2021-0105).…”

“…Previously, we suggested that by using these dimensional statistical models it may be possible to find clear specific associations between different neurocognitive abilities and the factors of psychopathology that discriminate the factors [ 22 ]. However, more recently, only a common deficit in speed of processing was found to be related to higher scores of internalising, externalising and p , providing evidence that there may not be discrete neurocognitive associations among the factors [ 23 ].…”

Predicting Relapse in Substance Use: Prospective Modeling Based on Intensive Longitudinal Data on Mental Health, Cognition, and Craving

“…Self-control has typically been considered a stable construct across time (trait). Still, there is increasing awareness of its temporal variability [ 10 ], and how fluctuations in self-control functions are related to the degree of craving, mental distress, and substance use behaviors in general [ 11 , 12 ]. There is also a well-established association between internalizing mental health symptoms and substance use.…”