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Negative emotion interference during a synonym matching task in pediatric bipolar disorder with and without attention
Alessandra M Passarotti1, Jacklynn M Fitzgerald, John A Sweeney
1Pediatric Brain Research and Intervention Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60608, USA. apassarotti@psych.uic.edu
Emotional words disrupt cognitive function in pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD), especially negative ones. This effect occurs with or without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and impacts accuracy more than reaction time.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) is associated with emotional dysregulation.
- Comorbid attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is common in youth with PBD.
- Cognitive impairments are frequently observed in PBD.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of emotional word processing on cognitive performance in youth with PBD.
- To compare cognitive performance between PBD patients with and without comorbid ADHD and healthy controls (HC).
- To examine the relationship between manic symptoms and cognitive performance in PBD.
Main Methods:
- A Synonym Matching task was administered to three groups: PBD without ADHD, PBD with ADHD, and HC.
- Participants matched synonyms for target words presented with negative, positive, or neutral emotional valence.
- Accuracy and reaction time were measured.
Main Results:
- Both PBD groups showed reduced accuracy for emotional words compared to neutral words, relative to HC.
- This emotional interference was more pronounced for negative words.
- The effect of emotional valence was consistent regardless of ADHD comorbidity.
- In PBD without ADHD, manic symptoms correlated with lower accuracy for negative words and longer reaction times.
Conclusions:
- Emotional valence processing significantly disrupts cognitive performance in youth with PBD, irrespective of ADHD.
- Altered emotion processing adversely affects cognitive function in PBD.
- Further research is needed to elucidate the independent effects of ADHD symptoms on emotional interference in PBD.
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