title: Chronic worry and the temporal dynamics of emotional processing.
abstract: Worriers avoid upsetting thoughts yet also demonstrate vigilance for aversive emotional information. Potentially, these processes coexist but are separated in time. Individuals scoring high on a measure of chronic uncontrollable worry were compared to low scorers during valence categorization of emotional stimuli with interleaved Stroop color word trials to monitor extended effects of emotional processing. High worriers were especially fast and accurate in judging the valence of emotional words compared to low worriers. Worriers also had smaller pupil diameters following personally relevant negative emotional stimuli compared to low worriers. Correlations with self-report scales indicated associations between the worrier pupil response profile and symptoms of chronic worry and depression. The combined behavioral and physiological data support theories of emotional vigilance followed by avoidance in worriers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, USA. oathes@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Desmond J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Oathes
authors.forename: Greg J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Siegle
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Ray
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001143:Arousal; D003071:Cognition; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012025:Reflex, Pupillary; D057566:Self Report; D057190:Stroop Test; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult