Validation of an emotional stop-signal task to probe individual differences in emotional response inhibition: Relationships with positive and negative urgency

Kenneth J D Allen; Sheri L Johnson; Taylor A Burke; M McLean Sammon; Christina Wu; Max A Kramer; Jinhan Wu; Heather T Schatten; Michael F Armey; Jill M Hooley

doi:10.1177/23982128211058269

Validation of an emotional stop-signal task to probe individual differences in emotional response inhibition: Relationships with positive and negative urgency

Brain Neurosci Adv. 2021 Nov 18:5:23982128211058269. doi: 10.1177/23982128211058269. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Kenneth J D Allen^{1

2}, Sheri L Johnson¹, Taylor A Burke^{3

4}, M McLean Sammon^{2

5}, Christina Wu^{2

4

6}, Max A Kramer^{2

7}, Jinhan Wu², Heather T Schatten^{8

9}, Michael F Armey^{8

9}, Jill M Hooley¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
² Department of Psychology, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Oberlin, OH, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA.
⁷ Division of the Social Sciences, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁸ Psychosocial Research Program, Butler Hospital, Providence, RI, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry & Human Behavior, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Abstract

Performance on an emotional stop-signal task designed to assess emotional response inhibition has been associated with Negative Urgency and psychopathology, particularly self-injurious behaviors. Indeed, difficulty inhibiting prepotent negative responses to aversive stimuli on the emotional stop-signal task (i.e. poor negative emotional response inhibition) partially explains the association between Negative Urgency and non-suicidal self-injury. Here, we combine existing data sets from clinical (hospitalised psychiatric inpatients) and non-clinical (community/student participants) samples aged 18-65 years (N = 450) to examine the psychometric properties of this behavioural task and evaluate hypotheses that emotional stop-signal task metrics relate to distinct impulsive traits among participants who also completed the UPPS-P (n = 223). We specifically predicted associations between worse negative emotional response inhibition (i.e. commission errors during stop-signal trials representing negative reactions to unpleasant images) and Negative Urgency, whereas commission errors to positive stimuli - reflecting worse positive emotional response inhibition - would relate to Positive Urgency. Results support the emotional stop-signal task's convergent and discriminant validity: as hypothesised, poor negative emotional response inhibition was specifically associated with Negative Urgency and no other impulsive traits on the UPPS-P. However, we did not find the hypothesised association between positive emotional response inhibition and Positive Urgency. Correlations between emotional stop-signal task performance and self-report measures were the modest, similar to other behavioural tasks. Participants who completed the emotional stop-signal task twice (n = 61) additionally provide preliminary evidence for test-retest reliability. Together, findings suggest adequate reliability and validity of the emotional stop-signal task to derive candidate behavioural markers of neurocognitive functioning associated with Negative Urgency and psychopathology.

Keywords: Affective control; behavioural research; cognitive control; emotional regulation; executive function; neuropsychological tests; reactive inhibition; self-control; stop-signal task; urgency.

Abstract

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