Search

Different psychophysiological frameworks (e.g. Polyvagal Theory (Porges 2011), Neurovisceral Integration Model (Thayer & Lane, 2000; Thayer & Lane, 2009), Attentional Network Theory (Posner & Petersen, 1990)) predict that a person's tonic heart rate variability (HRV) and the strength of their executive functions are related, however the evidence so far has been mixed (Zahn et al., 2016). One possible reason for this is lacking specificity in the question of which part of executive functioning is supposed to be associated with HRV. Stronger associations have been found for measures pertaining to orienting processes (Sørensen et al., 2019; Ramírez et al., 2015) and subsequent response inhibition (Krypotos et al., 2011). Furthermore, emotional and/or stressful contexts seem to make these associations more pronounced (Krypotos et al., 2011; Schulz et al., 2007; Zahn et al., 2016). In this study, data from both an emotional and a non-emotional go/no go paradigm (GNG; Schulz et al., 2007) as well as HRV and the possible confounding variables of sex, trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), ) and impulsiveness (BSI-15, short form of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale) are analysed. The confounding variables are known to be associated with HRV at rest and may in turn moderate executive functions. Specific interest is cast at the commission error (CErr) as a measure of behavioural inhibition and the reaction time (RT) as an indirect measure of speed of orientation and subsequent behavioural execution.

Internalising problems are common within Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); early intervention to support those with emerging signs may be warranted. One promising signal lies in how individual differences in temperament are shaped by parenting. Our longitudinal study of infants with and without an older sibling with ASD investigated how parenting associates with infant behavioural inhibition (8–14 months) and later effortful control (24 months) in relation to 3-year internalising symptoms. Mediation analyses suggest nondirective parenting (8 months) was related to fewer internalising problems through an increase in effortful control. Parenting did not moderate the stable predictive relation of behavioural inhibition on later internalising. We discuss the potential for parenting to strengthen protective factors against internalising in infants from an ASD-enriched cohort.

Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) cause great suffering in patients and their families. Phenomenology can help clarify the diagnosis and propose some new therapeutic responses using Daseinsanalyse. Separation issues understood using the phenomenological description of the melancholic type (MT) by Tellenbach may further shed light on our understanding of depression in dementia. In a 90-year-old woman presenting with advanced (Clinical Dementia Rating 3) mixed dementia and BPSD in the form of vocally disruptive behaviour (VDB), we discuss separation anxiety as the aetiopathogenic hypothesis. Depression and BPSD were assessed using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, Cornell scale, and Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale to confirm our second phenomenological diagnostic hypothesis, ie, melancholy. The Big Five Inventory scale filled in by a proxy was also used to evaluate the patient's premorbid personality. We then propose an explanatory frame of VDB and depression through the standard phenomenological assessment of its relation to time, space, self, and other. Confirming MT, we found an inhibited temperament and low openness to experience in the patient, as well as a symbiotic relationship with a close relative (the other). Separation anxiety may well explain the patient's MT expressed by VDB. Melancholic type and her symbiotic relationship led to a situation unbearable to the patient and her close relative unable to delegate care to a specialized team. Phenomenology in vocally disruptive behaviour in dementia. We have found new explanations in similar clinical cases in dementia as follows. A patient presenting with vocally disruptive behaviour has a melancholic type, a behavioural-inhibited temperament, and marital violence in the past. Phenomenology may help explain this profile with neurobiological disorders. The life trajectory, from childhood into older age, must be taken into account to understand behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.

Behavioural inhibition is a biologically based risk factor for anxiety disorders. Children with behavioural inhibition are shy, cautious and avoidant of new situations. Much research on behavioural inhibition has focused on the amygdala as an underlying neural substrate and has identified differences in amygdala function and volume; however, amygdala findings have yet to lead to meaningful interventions for prevention or treatment of anxiety disorders. The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is a prime candidate to be a neural substrate of behavioural inhibition, given current evidence of BNST function and development in human research and animal models. Children with behavioural inhibition have an increased startle response to safety cues and an increased cortisol response to social evaluative situations, both of which are mediated by the BNST. In rodents, activation of the BNST underlies contextual fear responses and responses to uncertain and sustained threat. Non-human primates with anxious temperament (the macaque equivalent of behavioural inhibition) have increased BNST activity to ambiguous social situations, and activity of the BNST in anxious temperament is significantly heritable. Importantly, the BNST is sexually dimorphic and continues to develop into adulthood, paralleling the development of anxiety disorders in humans. Together, these findings suggest that further investigation of the BNST in behavioural inhibition is necessary and may lead to new avenues for the prevention and treatment of anxiety disorders.

Many studies have implicated the basal ganglia in the suppression of action impulses (‘stopping’). Here, we discuss recent neurophysiological evidence that distinct hypothesized processes involved in action preparation and cancellation can be mapped onto distinct basal ganglia cell types and pathways. We examine how movement-related activity in the striatum is related to a ‘Go’ process and how going may be modulated by brief epochs of beta oscillations. We then describe how, rather than a unitary ‘Stop’ process, there appear to be separate, complementary ‘Pause’ and ‘Cancel’ mechanisms. We discuss the implications of these stopping subprocesses for the interpretation of the stop-signal reaction time—in particular, some activity that seems too slow to causally contribute to stopping when assuming a single Stop processes may actually be fast enough under a Pause-then-Cancel model. Finally, we suggest that combining complementary neural mechanisms that emphasize speed or accuracy respectively may serve more generally to optimize speed–accuracy trade-offs. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Movement suppression: brain mechanisms for stopping and stillness’.

Children who exhibit elevated levels of the temperament trait behavioural inhibition (BI) across time may be at greatest risk for anxiety. However, little research has investigated the influence of other temperamental traits, particularly positive emotionality (PE), on the continuity of BI in childhood, nor whether parental overprotection influences associations between early and later child BI. To explore whether PE and overprotection shape associations between early and later BI, this longitudinal study of three-year-olds (N = 446) followed up at age 6 included tasks tapping child temperament, and parental overprotection was assessed via interview ratings and parent-report. Lower levels of child PE and higher levels of caregiver overprotection at baseline predicted stronger associations between laboratory-assessed BI at ages 3 and 6. Findings elucidate influences shaping the developmental continuity of BI.

Item does not contain fulltext Previous research has found an association between a smaller cerebellar volume and higher levels of neuroticism. The steroid hormone testosterone reduces stress responses and the susceptibility to negative mood. Together with in vitro studies showing a positive effect of testosterone on cerebellar gray matter volumes, we set out to explore the role of testosterone in the relation between cerebellar gray matter and neuroticism. Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired, and indices of neurotic personality traits were assessed by administering the depression and anxiety scale of the revised NEO personality inventory and Grays's behavioural avoidance in one hundred and forty-nine healthy volunteers between 10 and 27 years of age. Results demonstrated an inverse relation between total brain corrected cerebellar volumes and neurotic personality traits in adolescents and young adults. In males, higher endogenous testosterone levels were associated with lower scores on neurotic personality traits and larger cerebellar gray matter volumes. No such relations were observed in the female participants which may be due to general differences in endogenous testosterone levels. Analysis showed that testosterone significantly mediated the relation between male cerebellar gray matter and measures of neuroticism. Our findings on the interrelations between endogenous testosterone, neuroticism and cerebellar morphology provide a cerebellum-oriented framework for the susceptibility to experience negative emotions and mood in adolescence and early adulthood. 10 p.

There is evidence to suggest that impulsivity is predicted by socioeconomic background, with people from more deprived backgrounds tending to be more impulsive, and by current mood, with poorer mood associated with greater impulsivity. However, impulsivity is not a unitary construct, and previous research in this area has focused on measures of ‘waiting’ impulsivity rather than behavioural disinhibition. We administered a standard measure of behavioural disinhibition, the stop-signal task, to 58 adult participants from a community sample. We had measured socioeconomic background using participant postcode at age 16, and assigned participants to receive either a neutral or a negative mood induction. We found no effects of mood on behavioural disinhibition, but we found a significant effect of socioeconomic background. Participants who had lived in more deprived postcodes at age 16 showed longer stop-signal reaction times, and hence greater behavioural disinhibition. The pattern was independent of participant age and overall reaction time. Though caution is required inferring causality from correlation, it is possible that that experiencing socioeconomic deprivation in childhood and adolescence may lead to greater behavioural disinhibition in adulthood.

This study has three primary aims: to investigate whether child (clinical anxiety symptoms, behavioural inhibition), parent (conflict over parenting, overprotection and anxiety) and family (adaptability and cohesion) characteristics predict child clinical anxiety symptoms over time; to identify whether a stressful life experience (paediatric tonsillectomy) is associated with elevated anxiety over time; and to determine whether clinical anxiety symptoms predict postoperative pain in children. Participants were 100 children aged 1 to 10 years (M = 4 years 9 months; SD = 2 years 5 months) undergoing elective tonsillectomy. Baseline data were obtained prior to surgery and measures of pain, state anxiety and clinical anxiety were obtained one-day, two weeks and three months postoperative. Preoperative clinical anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with child behavioural inhibition, overprotective parenting and conflict over parenting, controlling for state anxiety. An increase in child clinical anxiety symptoms over three months was significantly predicted by child behavioural inhibition and conflict over parenting, controlling for preoperative state anxiety. Child behavioural inhibition, parental emotional difficulties, parental conflict and overprotection significantly differentiated between children high and low in preoperative clinical anxiety symptoms. There was no evidence for the influence of family adaptability or cohesion on anxiety. No significant change in postoperative clinical anxiety symptoms was obtained after three months for the total sample or children low in preoperative anxiety; however, children high in preoperative anxiety had significantly elevated clinical anxiety difficulties over time. Finally, child pain ratings were significantly higher and slower to decline over two weeks for children high in preoperative clinical anxiety symptoms compared with children low in preoperative clinical anxiety symptoms. These findings have implications for enhancing both child anxiety preventive programs and paediatric operative contexts. Future research is required to implement and examine such preventive programs in context.

Conditioned inhibition (CI) is demonstrated in classical conditioning when a stimulus is used to signal the omission of an otherwise expected outcome. This basic learning ability is involved in a wide range of normal behaviour - and thus its disruption could produce a correspondingly wide range of behavioural deficits. The present study employed a computer-based task to measure conditioned excitation and inhibition in the same discrimination procedure. Conditioned inhibition by summation test was clearly demonstrated. Additionally summary measures of excitatory and inhibitory learning (difference scores) were calculated in order to explore how performance related to individual differences in a large sample of normal participants (n=176 following exclusion of those not meeting the basic learning criterion). The individual difference measures selected derive from two biologically-based personality theories, Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory (1982) and Eysenck’s psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism theory (1991). Following the behavioural tasks, participants completed the behavioural inhibition system/behavioural activation system scales (BIS/BAS) and the Eysenck personality questionnaire revised short scale (EPQ-RS). Analyses of the relationship between scores on each of the scales and summary measures of excitatory and inhibitory learning suggested that those with higher BAS (specifically the drive sub-scale) and higher EPQ-RS neuroticism showed reduced levels of excitatory conditioning. Inhibitory conditioning was similarly attenuated in those with higher EPQ-RS neuroticism, as well as in those with higher BIS scores. Thus the findings are consistent with higher levels of neuroticism being accompanied by generally impaired associative learning, both inhibitory and excitatory. There was also evidence for some dissociation in the effects of behavioural activation and behavioural inhibition on excitatory and inhibitory learning respectively.

Behavioural and hormonal seasonal changes are well documented in various vertebrate species living in their natural environment but circannual variations that may occur in laboratory animals reared in standard conditions are poorly investigated. This study shows that, in laboratory mice, the effects of stress on behavioural inhibition, investigatory behaviour and blood concentration of corticosterone are seasonally dependent. No consistency was observed between the reactivity of biological structures controlling the hormonal response to stress and the behavioural activities investigated at every period of the year. During the spring time, stress, which elicited a decrease of investigatory behaviour (estimated by the walking time in an open field), increased behavioural inhibition (estimated by the percentage of walking in the central area of the open field) as well as the blood corticosterone concentration in laboratory mice. In autumn, stress had no significant effect on behaviour despite the great hormonal concentration increase. The results reveal that, at certain period of the year, a stressful procedure is unable to affect behavioural parameters in laboratory mice which were maintained in constant 12-h dark/12-h light cycle. The report constitutes a novel piece of information suggesting a potential role of the endogenous biological clock in the modulation of stress response in mammals.

O conceito de inibição comportamental é definido como uma apreensão ou reserva consistente na forma de responder a estímulos sociais ou não-sociais novos e não familiares. Dada a inequívoca importância da avaliação da inibição comportamental na infância e de uma melhor compreensão do seu papel no desenvolvimento da psicopatologia, Reznick e colaboradores desenvolveram a escala Retrospective Self-Report Inhibition (RSRI), formada por 30 itens que procuram avaliar, retrospectivamente, o grau de inibição comportamental do individuo durante a infância (entre o 1º e 6º ano de escolaridade). O objectivo deste artigo é confirmar as qualidades psicométricas da RSRI aplicada a uma amostra da população portuguesa e investigar a utilidade deste instrumento enquanto medida da inibição comportamental expressa na infância. O primeiro estudo, realizado com uma amostra de adolescentes (n=296), entre os 12 e os 18 anos, revelou que a RSRI possui uma boa consistência interna e uma estrutura factorial idêntica à versão original, mantendo-se a evidência de dois factores: medos/doenças, respeitante a situações relacionadas com medos, em geral, e queixas somáticas; e escola/situações sociais, que integra os itens relacionados com medos em contexto escolar e em diversas situações sociais. No segundo estudo, recorrendo a grupos clínicos e de controlo (Grupo de jovens com Perturbação de Ansiedade Social (n=76), Outras Perturbações Ansiosas (n=28) e Sem qualquer Psicopatologia (n=76) procurou-se analisar a capacidade discriminativa da escala e suas dimensões. Os resultados evidenciaram a utilidade bidimensional do constructo de inibição comportamental, tal como é avaliado pela RSRI, mostrando a dimensão de medos sociais mais poder discriminativo do que a dimensão de medos não-sociais. São apontadas sugestões para futuros estudos que reforcem a robustez dos dados encontrados e contribuam para a utilidade desta escala na investigação clínica em adolescentes portugueses. Behavioural inhibition is defined as a consistent restraint in response to unfamiliar social or nonsocial stimuli. Due to the unequivocal importance of behavioural inhibition assessment during childhood and to a better understanding of its role in the development of psychopathology, Reznick and colleagues developed the Retrospective Self-Report of Inhibition (RSRI) scale composed by 30 items that aimed to retrospectively assess behavioural inhibition during childhood (between the 1st and 6th school years).The aim of this manuscript is to confirm the RSRI psychometric properties in a Portuguese population and to investigate this instrument utility as a measure of behavioural inhibition during childhood. The first study, conducted with an adolescent sample (n=296) with ages ranging between 12 and 18 years old, revealed that the RSRI shows a good internal consistency and a factorial structure similar to the original version. Evidence for the existence of two factors was maintained: fear/illness related to fears in general and somatic complaints; and a social/school factor that includes items related to fears in the school context and in several social situations. In the second study, conducted with a clinical and a control group (adolescents with a social anxiety disorder diagnosis (n=76), other anxiety disorders (n=28) and without psychopathology (n=76) the scale and its dimensions were analysed regarding their discriminative power. Results show the bidirectional utility of the construct of behavioural inhibition, as assessed by the RSRI, showing that the social fears dimension presents a higher discriminative power when compared with the non-social fears dimension. Suggestions for future research include studies that reinforce these data and contribute to support the utility of this instrument for clinical research with Portuguese adolescents.

Background The literature on social dilemmas and punishment focuses on the behaviour of the punisher. However, to fully explain the effect of punishment on cooperation, it is important to understand the psychological mechanisms influencing the behaviour of those who expect to be punished. This paper examines whether the expectation of punishment, rather than the implementation of punishment is sufficient to prevent individuals from free riding. Individual differences in the punishment sensitivity have been linked to both threat responses (flight, fight, fear system, or the FFFS) and to the response to the uncertainty of punishment (BIS-anxiety).The paper, therefore, examines if individual differences in BIS-anxiety and FFFS can explain some of the variability in free riding in the face of implemented and non-implemented punishment. Methods Participants took part in a series of one-shot Public Goods Games (PGGs) facing two punishment conditions (implemented and non-implemented) and two standard non-punishment PGGs. The punishment was implemented as a centralized authority punishment (i.e., if one participant contributed less than their group members, they were automatically fined). Individual contribution levels and presence/absence of zero contributions indexed free riding. Individual differences in behavioural inhibition were assessed. Results Individuals contributed more under the threat of punishment (both implemented and non-implemented). However, individuals contributed less when the punishment was not implemented compared to when it was. Those scoring high in BIS-anxiety contributed more when the punishment expectations were not implemented. This effect was not observed for FFFS. Conclusion Supporting previous research, punishment had a powerful effect in increasing contribution levels in the PGGs. However, when expected punishment was not implemented, individual differences in punishment sensitivity, specifically in BIS-anxiety, were related to fewer contributions (increased free riding) as compared to the situation when punishment was not implemented. This has implications for our understanding of why some people cannot resist the temptation to free ride, even when facing possible punishment for their actions. Our findings suggest that the diminished functioning of mechanisms, associated with trait behavioural inhibition, can partly explain such behaviours.