title: Opposite effects of anxiety and depressive symptoms on executive function: the case of selecting among competing options.
abstract: People constantly face the need to choose one option from among many, such as when selecting words to express a thought. Selecting between many options can be difficult for anyone, and can feel overwhelming for individuals with elevated anxiety. The current study demonstrates that anxiety is associated with impaired selection across three different verbal tasks, and tests the specificity of this finding to anxiety. Anxiety and depression frequently co-occur; thus, it might be assumed that they would demonstrate similar associations with selection, although they also have distinct profiles of symptoms, neuroanatomy and neurochemistry. Here, we report for the first time that anxiety and depressive symptoms counter-intuitively have opposite effects on selection among competing options. Specifically, whereas anxiety symptoms are associated with impairments in verbal selection, depressive symptoms are associated with better selection performance. Implications for understanding the mechanisms of anxiety, depression and selection are discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology and Neuroscience , University of Colorado Boulder , Boulder , CO , USA.
authors.forename: Hannah R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: Roselinde H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Whisman
authors.forename: Amy E J
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Ryan M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Guild
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Munakata
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Executive function; Selection