Neurocognitive Profiles in Adolescence Predict Anxiety Trajectories during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Young Adulthood

• In Event: Neurobiological Predictors of Adolescent Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to individuals’ lives, resulting in increased stress and anxiety for many, especially young adults (Czeisler et al., 2020). However, the majority of young adults do not experience heightened anxiety (Czeisler et al., 2020), highlighting the importance of identifying underlying factors that contribute to elevated symptoms of anxiety. Most studies have focused on psychosocial factors that influence reactivity to stress in youth experiencing stressful situations (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic), but less is known about neurocognitive factors that may act as risk or resilience factors. Enhanced error monitoring and a cognitive control strategy of more instantaneous (reactive) control (as opposed to planful/proactive control) have both been independently related to anxiety. In the current study, we examine if a specific neurocognitive profile characterized by heightened error monitoring and reactive cognitive control predicts the anxiety trajectories during three months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Participants were part of a larger longitudinal study (N=291). In adolescence (age 13; n= 127), participants completed a flanker task while EEG was collected and the error-related negativity (ERN) ERP component was measured to index error monitoring. At the same age, participants’ cognitive control strategy was assessed using d’ context from the AXCPT (n = 119) – such that higher d’ context values indicate more proactive control. In young adulthood (18 years; range=16-19 years), participants reported on their anxiety during three consecutive months of the COVID-19 pandemic. These months occurred approximately one month after the implementation of and during the stay-at-home orders (T1; n = 158), after gradual reopening began (T2; n = 155), and after reopening occurred (T3; n = 143) in their state. Growth curve analyses were used to characterize the anxiety trajectories and examine if error monitoring, cognitive control strategy, or their interaction predicted those trajectories.

Results revealed that, on average, anxiety decreased across time as the stay at home orders were lifted and reopening gradually occurred and/or families adapted to the restrictions (Figure 1), indicating that participants experienced greater anxiety during the first assessment (T1) when stay-at-home orders were implemented. As expected and shown in Figure 2, error monitoring and cognitive control strategy interacted to predict anxiety trajectories – such that individuals with both enhanced error monitoring and an increased reliance on more instantaneous (reactive) control (as opposed to planful/proactive control) displayed a larger intercept (i.e., greater anxiety at T1), but a more negative slope (i.e., greater decreases across time).

Together these results suggest that, during the most anxiety-producing times of the pandemic, a neurocognitive profile of increased error monitoring and a more reactive control strategy predicted increased anxiety during the stay-at-home orders, approximately five years later. Importantly, this difference was not evident during the last assessment when stay-at-home orders were no longer in place. We will discuss the potential and limitations of neurocognitive profiles as risk factors of psychopathology and how their impact on psychopathology might be especially evident during stressful situations such as the initial, acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authors

• Santiago Morales, University of Southern California
  Presenting Author

• Selin Zeytinoglu, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• George A Buzzell, Florida International University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emilio Alejandro Valadez, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sonya V. Troller-Renfree, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maureen Bowers, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nicole Elise Lorenzo, American University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn A Degnan, Catholic University of America
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alisa N. Almas, Human Early Learning Partnership
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel S. Pine, National Institutes of Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nathan A Fox, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author