Fractionating the role of executive control in control over worry: A preliminary investigation

• Published in: Behaviour research and therapy 2014-03, Vol.54, p.1-6
• Main Authors: Hallion, Lauren S., Ruscio, Ayelet Meron, Jha, Amishi P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Affectivity. Emotion; Anxiety; Anxiety - prevention & control; Anxiety - psychology; Anxiety disorders; Assessment; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive control; Depletion; Emotional disorders; Executive control; Executive Function - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Inhibition; Inhibition (Psychology); Male; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Personality. Affectivity; Psychological Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Thinking - physiology; Working memory; Worry; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0005-7967; 1873-622X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2013.12.002

Uncontrollable anxious thought characterizes a number of emotional disorders. Little is known, however, about the cognitive mechanisms that underlie the ability to control these thoughts. The present study investigated the extent to which two well-characterized executive control processes—working memory and inhibition—are engaged when an individual attempts to control worry. Participants completed a concurrent assessment of these processes while attempting to control personally-relevant worried and neutral thoughts. To examine the specificity of these effects to attempts to control worry, versus a residual “depletion” effect of having previously engaged in worry, a subset of participants completed the assessment without instructions to control their worried or neutral thoughts. Attempts to control worry engaged working memory and inhibition to a greater extent than did attempts to control neutral thought. This increased engagement was not explained solely by anxious affect, nor was it significantly associated with trait worry. Engagement did not differ by group, suggesting that executive control depletion by worry cannot be dismissed as an alternative explanation of these findings. These results highlight working memory and inhibition as potentially valuable constructs for deepening our understanding of the nature and treatment of worry and its control. •We assessed executive control during attempts to control worry and neutral thought.•Working memory and inhibition were impaired by attempts to control worry.•Effects were not explained by state anxiety.•Executive control use was marginally associated with trait worry.