Multilevel analysis of the bidirectional effects of cognition and psychopathology over time - Project Summary/Abstract Mental health disorders are associated with a myriad of negative health outcomes, including a reduced life expectancy. Recent work has begun to investigate factors that contribute to the increased mortality rate among those with psychopathology. Emerging data implicate a link between psychopathology and the aging process (e.g., premature cognitive decline). These findings are in line with the psychological scar theory, which posits that psychopathology degrades cognitive abilities over time due to behavioral and emotional alterations that can disrupt the neural correlates of cognition. At the same time, cognitive vulnerability theory suggests that a reduced cognitive capacity may be a risk factor for the emergence of psychopathology by compromising effective, yet cognitively demanding, coping strategies. It is thought that these cognitive vulnerabilities are also instantiated at the neurobiological level, but relatively little work has examined this model using neural indicators of cognition. The two competing theoretical models suggest that reduced cognitive functions may be both a risk factor and consequence of psychopathology. However, relatively few studies have examined whether there is a bidirectional relationship between psychopathology and cognition that exacerbates psychological and cognitive change in middle adulthood. Investigating these hypothesized causal pathways in midlife has the potential to identify early risk markers of cognitive decline and future psychopathology prior to the onset of neurodegeneration. The objective of this application is to investigate the bidirectional effects of psychopathological and cognitive processes over time in midlife. The proposed research will reassess 100 community adults across a spectrum of psychological severity who previously completed a large multi-method study using measures of cognitive functioning and psychopathology symptomatology. Participants will be reassessed at least 12 months after the previously collected baseline assessment and then again, every 6 months for a year (4 total assessments spanning at least 2 years). I hypothesize baseline psychopathology severity will show a negative relationship with cognitive functions over time consistent with the psychological scar theory (Aim 1). In addition, I expect baseline cognitive functions measured behaviorally and neurally to show a negative relationship with psychopathology symptoms over time consistent with the cognitive vulnerability theory (Aim 2). Finally, I anticipate bidirectional effects, such that decrements in cognitive functions will predict worsening of psychopathology symptoms, and worsening psychopathology symptoms are expected to predict declines in cognitive functions over time (Aim 3). Investigation of these aims will provide training opportunities in three critical areas: i) the conceptualization of bidirectional models of psychopathology and cognition over time, ii) the application of advanced data analysis techniques to longitudinal data, and iii) the enhancement of knowledge on best practices in research reproducibility, rigor, and transparency.
