Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Transl Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 11;12(1):271. doi: 10.1038/s41398-022-02030-9.
Disruptions of self-regulation are a hallmark of numerous psychiatric disorders. Here, we examine the relationship between transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology and changes in self-regulation in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used a data-driven approach on a large number of cognitive tasks and self-reported surveys in training datasets. Then, we derived measures of self-regulation and psychiatric functioning in an independent population sample (N = 102) tested both before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the restrictions in place represented a threat to mental health and forced people to flexibly adjust to modifications of daily routines. We found independent relationships between transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology and longitudinal alterations in specific domains of self-regulation defined using a diffusion decision model. Compared to the period preceding the onset of the pandemic, a symptom dimension related to anxiety and depression was characterized by a more cautious behavior, indexed by the need to accumulate more evidence before making a decision. Instead, social withdrawal related to faster non-decision processes. Self-reported measures of self-regulation predicted variance in psychiatric symptoms both concurrently and prospectively, revealing the psychological dimensions relevant for separate transdiagnostic dimensions of psychiatry, but tasks did not. Taken together, our results are suggestive of potential cognitive vulnerabilities in the domain of self-regulation in people with underlying psychiatric difficulties in face of real-life stressors. More generally, they also suggest that the study of cognition needs to take into account the dynamic nature of real-world events as well as within-subject variability over time.
自我调节的中断是许多精神疾病的标志。在这里，我们研究了 COVID-19 大流行早期阶段精神病理学的跨诊断维度与自我调节变化之间的关系。我们在训练数据集中使用了大量认知任务和自我报告调查的数据分析方法。然后，我们在一个独立的人群样本（N=102）中得出了自我调节和精神功能的测量结果，该样本在 COVID-19 大流行之前和之后都进行了测试，当时实施的限制措施对心理健康构成了威胁，并迫使人们灵活地适应日常生活的变化。我们发现，使用扩散决策模型定义的自我调节的特定领域的跨诊断维度与纵向变化之间存在独立关系。与大流行前的时期相比，与焦虑和抑郁相关的症状维度表现出更谨慎的行为，这表现为在做出决策之前需要积累更多的证据。相反，与社会隔离相关的是更快的非决策过程。自我报告的自我调节测量结果同时和前瞻性地预测了精神症状的变化，揭示了与独立的精神病学跨诊断维度相关的心理维度，但任务并没有。总的来说，我们的结果表明，在面对现实生活中的压力源时，具有潜在精神疾病困难的人在自我调节领域可能存在认知脆弱性。更广泛地说，它们还表明，认知研究需要考虑现实世界事件的动态性质以及随时间的个体内可变性。
