Stress response and experiential avoidance among firefighters: Preliminary insights from network analyses.

Firefighters are at increased risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to exposure to potentially traumatic events during their careers. However, little is known about the prevalence of PTSD among this population, particularly when taking moderating variables into account. Using Gaussian Graphical Models and Directed Acyclic Graphs, we conducted network analyses to examine the interactions between clusters of PTSD symptoms, perceived stress, hardiness, and experiential avoidance among 187 firefighters. The data and code are published with the paper. Experiential avoidance, as part of psychological inflexibility, was found to be the only variable that interacted with PTSD symptomatology. Strong positive associations were observed between experiential avoidance and the "negative mood and cognitions" subscale of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Through this association, other PTSD symptoms were activated, particularly avoidance and arousal. Our findings suggest that experiential avoidance and negative mood and cognition symptoms are particularly important in the expression of PTSD symptomatology in firefighters. In addition, experiential avoidance may be used as a coping strategy to reduce perceived stress during potentially traumatic events. Therefore, experiential avoidance may be a prime target for future interventions and training focused on flexible self-regulation strategies in this population.

Cognitive flexibility and attentional patterns among trauma survivors: preliminary evidence from an eye-tracking study.

Background: Executive functioning has been linked to both the development of post-traumatic symptoms and the efficiency of therapy. Specifically, flexibility processes seem to play a major role in the use of efficient coping strategies after a traumatic event. However, only a few studies have focused on the links between flexibility, resilience, and concrete behaviours displayed by individuals. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of emotional content on the efficiency of cognitive flexibility among trauma-exposed individuals. Method: Twenty-eight trauma-exposed (TE) and 27 non-trauma-exposed (NTE) individuals performed an overlap task in which neutral, positive, and negative pictures appeared in the centre of the screen. Participants were required to disengage their attentional focus from this picture to identify a peripheral target. Analyses included eye movements during the presentation of the scenes and the response times associated with target localization. Results: TE individuals initially presented a rapid overt disengagement from both neutral and negative emotional information. In other words, TE participants moved their gaze away from the central picture towards the target more rapidly than NTE participants. However, TE participants then displayed longer reaction times to identify the target in comparison with NTE participants. Discussion: This study presents preliminary evidence that cognitive flexibility may be relevant when considering the impact of trauma. The developed task could provide a novel way to assess this flexibility within an emotional context. HIGHLIGHTS: • This study developed an original assessment of cognitive flexibility processes in an emotional context.• Cognitive flexibility was assessed using an overlap task and eye-tracking technology.• Cognitive flexibility may be relevant when considering the impact of a trauma.

Antecedentes: El funcionamiento ejecutivo se ha relacionado tanto con el desarrollo de síntomas postraumáticos como con la eficiencia de la terapia. Específicamente, los procesos de flexibilidad parecen jugar un papel importante en el uso de estrategias de afrontamiento después de un evento traumático. Sin embargo, solo unos pocos estudios se han centrado en los vínculos entre la flexibilidad, la resiliencia y los comportamientos concretos que muestran los individuos.Objetivo: El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar la influencia del contenido emocional en la eficiencia de la flexibilidad cognitiva entre individuos expuestos a traumas.Método: 28 personas expuestas a trauma (ET) y 27 no expuestas a trauma (NET) realizaron una tarea superpuesta en la que aparecían imágenes neutras, positivas y negativas en el centro de la pantalla. Se pidió a los participantes que desvincularan su foco de atención de esta imagen para identificar un objetivo periférico. Los análisis incluyeron movimientos oculares durante la presentación de las escenas y los tiempos de respuesta asociados con la localización del objetivo.Resultados: Los individuos con ET inicialmente presentaron una desconexión abierta y rápida de la información emocional tanto neutral como negativa. En otras palabras, los participantes con ET alejaron su mirada de la imagen central hacia el objetivo más rápido que los participantes NET. Sin embargo, los participantes con ET mostraron tiempos de reacción más largos para identificar el objetivo en comparación con los participantes NET.Discusión: Los individuos con ET inicialmente presentaron una desconexión abierta y rápida de la información emocional tanto neutral como negativa. En otras palabras, los participantes con ET alejaron su mirada de la imagen central hacia el objetivo más rápido que los participantes NET. Sin embargo, los participantes con ET mostraron tiempos de reacción más largos para identificar el objetivo en comparación con los participantes NET.

French Adaptation of the Brief Irritability Test: Factor Structure, Psychometric Properties, and Relationship with Depressive Symptoms.

The Brief Irritability Test (BITe, Holtzman et al., 2014) is a brief, reliable, and valid self-report measure of irritability. Despite the growing interest to understand the underlying causes and consequences of irritability, this questionnaire has not been developed and validated for a French-speaking population yet. In the present study, 413 participants completed our French adaptation of the BITe (i.e., TCI; Test Court d'Irritabilité) and measures of associated constructs (depression, anger, hostility, and aggression) and well-being (life satisfaction and social support). Descriptive, psychometric (i.e., Cronbach alpha and Spearman correlation coefficients), and factor analyses were conducted. An exploratory factor analysis in sample 1 (n = 209), yielded one single factor. The confirmatory factor analysis in sample 2 (n = 204) showed a reasonable fit of this single factor model explaining 55.5% of the variance and presenting a strong internal consistency (α = .80). Compared to the original English questionnaire, the TCI shares similar unidimensional factor organization and correlations with other constructs, although a gender bias was identified, with women scoring higher than men. Irritability was higher among respondents in the age range 17-25, compared to older adults. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that TCI scores significantly predict depressive symptoms when demographics were controlled for. In summary, the TCI presents good psychometric properties and could constitute a valuable tool to evaluate irritability in clinical and research contexts.

Covert Attention to Gestures Is Sufficient for Information Uptake.

Numerous studies have explored the benefit of iconic gestures in speech comprehension. However, only few studies have investigated how visual attention was allocated to these gestures in the context of clear versus degraded speech and the way information is extracted for enhancing comprehension. This study aimed to explore the effect of iconic gestures on comprehension and whether fixating the gesture is required for information extraction. Four types of gestures (i.e., semantically and syntactically incongruent iconic gestures, meaningless configurations, and congruent iconic gestures) were presented in a sentence context in three different listening conditions (i.e., clear, partly degraded or fully degraded speech). Using eye tracking technology, participants' gaze was recorded, while they watched video clips after which they were invited to answer simple comprehension questions. Results first showed that different types of gestures differently attract attention and that the more speech was degraded, the less participants would pay attention to gestures. Furthermore, semantically incongruent gestures appeared to particularly impair comprehension although not being fixated while congruent gestures appeared to improve comprehension despite also not being fixated. These results suggest that covert attention is sufficient to convey information that will be processed by the listener.

Late-Life Depression, Cognitive Impairment, and Relationship with Alzheimer's Disease.

This narrative review aimed to explore the existing knowledge in order to examine the multiple forms of late-life depression (LLD) within a non-neurodegenerative or a neurodegenerative context, in particular Alzheimer's disease (AD). This review will first provide information about different pathogenic hypotheses proposed to describe LLD when it is not linked to a neurodegenerative context. Within the presentation of these syndromes, the literature reports thymic and cognitive specific features and highlights a common preponderance of cognitive impairment, and particularly executive. This review will also report data from research works that have addressed the role of depressive symptoms (DSs) in incidence of AD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) conversion to AD. These findings support the claim that the relationship between DS (or LLD) and the cognitive decline encountered in AD can be of 2 types: (1) risk factor or (2) prodrome. They also support the hypothesis that the effect of DS on the incidence of AD can be identified between specific characteristics of these symptoms such as a very first apparition late in life, an increasing severity of DS, and a poor response to medical treatment. Finally, longitudinal and cross-sectional research will be presented, aiming to identify the predictive value of DS (or LLD) on AD incidence and/or conversion of MCI (and specifically amnestic MCI). This final section shows that specific features of LLD, such as being of early- or late-onset, can be considered as indices of AD incidence.

The Role of Iconic Gestures in Speech Comprehension: An Overview of Various Methodologies.

Iconic gesture-speech integration is a relatively recent field of investigation with numerous researchers studying its various aspects. The results obtained are just as diverse. The definition of iconic gestures is often overlooked in the interpretations of results. Furthermore, while most behavioral studies have demonstrated an advantage of bimodal presentation, brain activity studies show a diversity of results regarding the brain regions involved in the processing of this integration. Clinical studies also yield mixed results, some suggesting parallel processing channels, others a unique and integrated channel. This review aims to draw attention to the methodological variations in research on iconic gesture-speech integration and how they impact conclusions regarding the underlying phenomena. It will also attempt to draw together the findings from other relevant research and suggest potential areas for further investigation in order to better understand processes at play during speech integration process.

Eye-tracking exploration of inhibitory control in post-traumatic stress disorder: an emotional antisaccade paradigm.

Background: Cognitive-behavioural studies among individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have highlighted attentional biases towards threats as a key factor in the maintenance of the disorder. Anxiety-related studies have hypothesized that attentional biases were due to attentional control difficulties in inhibition and flexibility of threatening information. Objective: Because it remains unclear how this theory could be applied to PTSD, this study aims to evaluate the inhibitory control and flexibility abilities of negative and threatening information in this population, using eye-tracking technology. Method: Fifteen adults with a history of physical assault and a current diagnosis of PTSD, and 15 healthy control participants, completed an original mixed antisaccade task. Results: We found enhanced overt attentional allocation towards every item of emotional information among PTSD participants, such as indexed by the latencies of the first saccade in prosaccade trials, followed by disengagement difficulties, such as indexed by increased reaction time to identify the target. Conclusion: Our results could represent empirical evidence of the general enhancement of attentional vigilance in people with PTSD in comparison with healthy controls, as well as specific inhibitory deficits. The results are interpreted through a fear-generalization hypothesis.

Antecedentes: Los estudios cognitivo-conductuales entre personas que padecen Trastorno de Estrés Postraumático (TEPT) han destacado los sesgos atencionales (AB, por su sigla en inglés) por amenaza como factor clave para el mantenimiento del trastorno. La literatura relacionada con ansiedad ha planteado la hipótesis de que los AB se debían a la dificultad del control atencional en la inhibición y flexibilidad de la información amenazante (Eysenck, 2008).Objetivo: Debido a que no está claro cómo se podría aplicar esta teoría al TEPT, este estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar el control inhibitorio y las capacidades de flexibilidad de la información negativa y amenazante en esta población, utilizando tecnología de seguimiento-ocular.Método: 15 adultos agredidos físicamente con un diagnóstico actual de TEPT y 15 participantes de Controles Sanos (CS) completaron una tarea original de antisacada mixta.Resultados: Encontramos una asignación atencional directa-abierta aumentada hacia información emocional entre los participantes con TEPT, tales como las latencias indexadas de la primera sacada en los ensayos de prosacada, seguida por las dificultades de desenganche, indexada por un tiempo de reacción mayor para identificar el objetivo diana.Conclusión: Nuestros resultados podrían representar una evidencia empírica de un aumento general de la vigilancia atencional en el TEPT en comparación con los CS, así como de déficits inhibitorios específicos. Los resultados se interpretan a través de una hipótesis de generalización del miedo.

Affective Ratings of Pictures Related to Interpersonal Situations.

Many studies require standardized and replicable protocols composed of emotional stimuli. To this aim, several databases of emotional pictures are available. However, there are only few images directly depicting interpersonal violence, which is a specific emotion evocative stimulus for research on aggressive behavior or post-traumatic stress disorder. The objective of the current study is to provide a new set of standardized stimuli containing images depicting interpersonal situations (both positive and negative). This will allow a sensitive assessment of a wide range of cognitions linked to social interaction (empathy, perspective taking, traumatic experiences, etc.). To this aim, 240 participants rated the valence and arousal of 79 pictures collected from online sources in 2018. Results showed (1) a distinctive pattern of valence and arousal regarding the picture content and (2) specific associations between those two dimensions. Taken together, these results suggest a good reliability of the selected images. In conclusion, our study provides an open access set of recent pictures depicting interpersonal situations along with normative valence and arousal ratings, that are available for download from: https://osf.io/ak4m7/?view_only=None.

Thinking About One's Feelings: Association Between Alexithymia and Cognitive Styles in a Nonclinical Population.

Alexithymia is described as a disturbance in the cognitive and affective processing of emotions. Little is known about the cognitive styles associated with this personality trait. In this article, we examine to what extent alexithymia is linked with poorer rational cognitive style. A total of 685 participants from a nonclinical sample completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 along with self-reported and behavioral measures of cognitive styles. Results suggest that people with a high level of self-reported alexithymia show lower rational abilities. The findings of this study extend previous work on cognitive processes underlying emotional self-regulation impairments in alexithymia, suggesting that these difficulties may be linked to a poorer use of rational process.