Working memory capacity in social anxiety disorder: Revisiting prior conclusions.

Waechter, Stephanie; Moscovitch, David A.; Vidovic, Vanja; Bielak, Tatiana; Rowa, Karen; McCabe, Randi E.

doi:10.1037/abn0000341

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Further confirmation comes from other studies of WM capacity using neutral/threat stimuli. Patients with SAD exhibited conflicting results across several studies, with better performance under threat (19), or no difference from healthy individuals in WM capacity (40). Our results replicated previous findings in the neutral experiments both in our raw (Figure 1) and covariance-free WM variables across anxiety spectrum disorders (Figure 3).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Investigating Principal Working Memory Features in Generalized, Panic, and Social Anxiety Spectrum Disorders

Abushalbaq

Khdour²,

Hamza³

et al. 2021

Front. Psychiatry

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Anxiety spectrum disorders are characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worrying about potential negative events in the short- and long-term future. Various reports linked anxiety spectrum disorders with working memory (WM) deficits despite conflicting results stemming from different study approaches. It remains unclear, however, how different anxiety spectrum disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), and panic disorder (PD), differ in WM function. In this study, we utilized verbal, numerical, and sequential evaluations of WM to cover most possible facets of the WM data space. We used principal component analysis to extract the uncorrelated/whitened components of WM based on these measures. We evaluated medication-free patients with GAD, SAD, and PD patients as well as matched healthy individuals using a battery that measures WM duration and load. We found that patients with GAD and SAD, but not PD, exhibited poor performance only in the WM principal component that represents maintenance. There were no other significant differences between the four groups. Further, different WM components significantly predicted the severity of anxiety symptoms in the groups. We explored the clinical utility of WM components for differentiating patients with anxiety spectrum disorders from healthy individuals. By only using the WM components that represent maintenance and encoding, we managed to differentiate patients from controls in 84% of cases. For the first time, we present multiple novel approaches to examine cognitive function and design cognitive screening, and potentially diagnostics, for psychiatric disorders.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Investigating Principal Working Memory Features in Generalized, Panic, and Social Anxiety Spectrum Disorders

Abushalbaq

Khdour²,

Hamza³

et al. 2021

Front. Psychiatry

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“…Mild anxiety in adolescents appears to be related to better working memory performance, compared to those with severe anxiety and healthy adolescents (Jarros et al, ). On the other hand, poorer working memory performance is related to higher anxiety levels in those with clinical anxiety disorders (Waechter et al, ). Working memory deficits have been associated with clinical anxiety disorders: poor updating and generalized anxiety disorder (Zainal & Newman, ), general working memory performance and somatic symptoms (de Vroege, Timmermans, Kop, & van der Feltz‐Cornelis, ), social anxiety (Moriya, ), and post‐traumatic stress disorder (Nejati, Salehinejad, & Sabayee, ).…”

Section: Anxiety Disorders and Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of working memory training on emotion regulation: Transdiagnostic review

Barkus

2020

PsyCh Journal

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Working memory training is widely used transdiagnostically to improve cognition. However, more recently, studies using working memory training packages have targeted emotion-regulation outcomes to determine whether far transfer effects can be achieved.A narrative review is conducted of studies that have used standardized computerized working memory training packages across healthy volunteers, affect, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disordered populations with emotion-regulation outcomes.Working memory training has been used in children, adolescents, and adults to improve emotion regulation. Many studies have reported gains in mood as well as emotion-regulation strategies following working memory training, regardless of clinical indication and whether near transfer gains were achieved in cognitive domains. Significant emotion-regulation outcomes include: state and trait anxiety, rumination, brooding, positive appraisal, decreasing maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies, and decreasing intrusive thoughts. It is speculated that these far transfer outcomes from working memory training are possible due to the cognitive and neural overlap between cognitive and affective working memory, and emotion regulation. Working memory training could improve cognitive efficiency, which, in turn, increases the availability of cognitive resources during times when emotion regulation is taxed. Future studies need to consider the role of participant expectancy in predicting outcome measure performance, and including subjective and objective outcomes is paramount to study design. Furthermore, sample sizes require additional attention, given that the current review highlights that individual differences in non-clinical and clinical populations influence the outcomes from working memory training. Working memory training offers a possibility for improving emotion regulation transdiagnostically.

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“…Second, this study contrasted different clinical and non-clinical samples recruited from different populations. Although this is a common procedure in such designs [19,21,42], the results of this study are preliminary in nature and need careful replication. Finally, we did not conduct a standardised diagnostic interview in our control group and therefore, we were not able to determine if the participants were suffering from subclinical symptoms of a mental disorder.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…To date, only few studies investigated WM performance in clinical patients showing elevated worry levels [19,20]. Whereas some studies indicate WM impairments in line with the predictions of ACT in patients with different anxiety disorders [21], other studies indicated that WM performance might not be generally disrupted in GAD patients compared to healthy controls but rather more specific aspects of WM may be impaired in anxiety disorders [19,20]. To conclude, whereas worry seems to be associated with WM performance impairments, clinical status (e.g., GAD, another anxiety disorders) does not seem to be consistently linked with WM impairments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do worry and clinical status impact working memory performance? An experimental investigation

et al. 2020

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Background Previous research has suggested that worry is negatively associated with working memory performance. However, it is unclear whether these findings would replicate across different worry levels and in individuals with anxiety and depressive disorders (i.e. clinical statuses). Method One-hundred-thirty-eight participants performed a two-block working memory task (150 trials per block). Based on participants` current clinical status, four groups were considered (generalised anxiety disorder group: n = 36; clinical group with another anxiety or mood disorders: n = 33; subclinical group: n = 27; control group: n = 42). Trait worry levels were collected from all of the participants. Working memory performance was measured as accuracy and reaction time. Results During the first block, higher worry scores were significantly associated with longer reaction times. Moreover, the generalised anxiety disorder group, clinical group, and subclinical groups demonstrated significantly longer reaction times compared to the control group in Block 1, when age was controlled for. From Block 1 to Block 2, all of the participants demonstrated a significant decrease in accuracy and reaction time, regardless of worry level or clinical status. Conclusion The results indicate that higher worry levels negatively impact WM processing efficiency. Moreover, when age was controlled for, we found participants` clinical status to be linked with WM impairments. The results highlight the relevance of investigating the impact of different worry levels on cognitive processes across clinical and non-clinical populations.

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Working memory capacity in social anxiety disorder: Revisiting prior conclusions.

Cited by 11 publications

References 23 publications

Investigating Principal Working Memory Features in Generalized, Panic, and Social Anxiety Spectrum Disorders

Investigating Principal Working Memory Features in Generalized, Panic, and Social Anxiety Spectrum Disorders

Effects of working memory training on emotion regulation: Transdiagnostic review

How do worry and clinical status impact working memory performance? An experimental investigation

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