from cognitive biases to panic: modeling the mechanisms of anxiety disorders eva hudlicka...
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From cognitive biases to panic:
Modeling the mechanisms of anxiety disorders
Eva HudlickaPsychometrix Associates / U.Mass - Amherst
Amherst, [email protected]
psychometrixassociates.com
Workshop on “Computational Modeling of Cognition-Emotion Interactions”
CogSci 2014, Quebec City, Canada
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Outline• Affective biases on cognition anxiety disorders
• Modeling Context: – Cognitive-Affective Symbolic Architecture– Search & rescue task
• Approach: Affective biases as architecture parameters
• Example
• Implications for psychotherapy 2
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Affective Biases• Emotion effects on cognition can improve
…or degrade performance
• e.g., Anxiety-induced threat bias– Adaptive: vigilance – Maladaptive : anxiety & panic
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Modeling Anxiety Effects:The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
• Anxiety effects on cognition:– Attentional narrowing– Bias toward detection of threatening stimuli– Bias toward interpretation of ambiguous stimuli as threats– Promotion of self-focus
the Good the Bad the Ugly
Anxiety disorders & panic attacks
Trait-anxiousover-protective
behavior
Adaptive vigilance
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Benefits of Modeling
• Enable construction of alternative mechanisms for observed effects
• Understand etiology of affective disorders
• Facilitate mechanism-based diagnosis (beyond DSM-5 descriptions)
• More customized / targeted treatment– Computer-based tools (serious games)– Modeling the ‘patient’ ?
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Context• Symbolic cognitive-affective architecture
• Models high-level decision-making
• Models both emotion generation & emotion effects
• Emotion effects modeled in terms of parameters controlling architecture processing
• Architecture controls agent behavior… within a search & rescue team task
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Task Context- Search & rescue task in Arctic terrain- Snowcat drivers (starting in lower left) trying to reach “Lost
Party” (red, upper right)- Supply stations along routes- Emergency tasks create obstacles & trigger stress
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Task Context
Snow Cat
Supply Station
Lost Party
EmergencyTask
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MAMID Architecture: Semantics & Data Flow
CuesCues
ActionsActions
Attention
Situation Assessment
ExpectationGeneration
EmotionGeneration
Goal Manager
Action Selection
Cues: State of the world(“Emergency task within range”“Resources adequate”)
Situations: Perceived state( “Able to process task” )
Expectations: Expected state (“Task successfully completed”;“Game points gained”; “Game won”)
Goals: Desired state(“Game points = high”)
Actions: to accomplish goals (“Process Emergency Task”)
Affective state & emotions:Happiness: HighAnxiety: Low
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Modeling Emotion Effects via Parameters Controlling Cognition
Traits Extraversion Neuroticism Conscientiousness Aggressiveness
EMOTIONS /TRAITS
Emotions Anxiety Anger Sadness Joy
ARCHITECTUREPARAMETERS
COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE
Attention
Action Selection
Situation Assessment
Goal Manager
ExpectationGeneration
EmotionGeneration
Processing
Structural
Module Parameters
Construct parameters
Architecture topology
Long-term memory
speed, capacity
Cue selection & delay….
Data flow among modules
Content & structure
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Modeling Threat BiasTRAITS / STATES
COGNITIVE ARCHITECTUREPARAMETERS
COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE
Attention
Action Selection
Situation Assessment
Goal Manager
ExpectationGenerator
Affect Appraiser
Emotions
Higher Anxiety / Fear
Predisposes towards
ProcessingParameters
Module & Construct parms. - Cue selection - Interpretive biases
...
Preferential processing of Threatening stimuli
Threat constructsrated more highly
Process threat cues
Processthreateninginterpretations
Traits
Neuroticism
Traits
Neuroticism
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Modelling Panic Attack• High state of anxiety induces a “perfect storm” of
biases– Extreme threat bias– Extreme self bias– Reduced attention capacity
• Limited capacity precludes processing of useful cues & derivation of alternative interpretations of situations
• No goals or actions generated
• Resulting behavioral paralysis further increases anxiety
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Internal Processing During a Panic Attack
- Snowcat driver encounters an “Emergency Task” while running low on supplies
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Internal Processing During a Panic Attack
ANXIETY
Anxiety level is high
High anxiety level causes low processing capacity
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Internal Processing During a Panic Attack: Mental Constructs in Architecture Module Buffers
Attention: High threat & emotion cues only
SA: Negative situations only
Goal Manager: No goals selected
Behavior Selection: No action selected due to (a) extreme self focus; (b) no goals
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Reduced attentioncapacity
Modelling Alternative Mechanisms of Anxiety & Panic Attacks
• Multiple, interacting causal pathways… for each type of bias• Parameter values are linear combinations of weighted factors
– (Wfactor1 * factor1) + (Wfactor2 * factor2) …
High Anxiety Intensity
Higher Sensitivity to Anxiety
Lower baselineattention capacity
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Alternative Mechanisms for Increasing Attention Capacity
Increased attentioncapacity
Lower Anxiety Intensity
Lower Sensitivity to Anxiety
Increase fundamental attention capacity
Modify emotion generation to derive lower anxiety intensity:- Replace anxiety-generating belief net cluster with a cluster from ‘Happy’ agent
- Change agent’s ‘beliefs’ – e.g., cognitive therapy- Quantify contributions of specific beliefs
- Lower anxiety intensities--> Higher capacity values --> More Cues
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Alternative Mechanisms for Increasing Attention Capacity
Increased attentioncapacity
Lower Anxiety Intensity
Lower Sensitivity to Anxiety
Increase fundamental attention capacity
Reduce sensitivity to anxiety via physiological manipulations-Psychotropic medications-Exercise-MindfulnessLower sensitivity Lower anxiety Higher capacity More cues
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Implications for Psychotherapy
• Identify pathway(s) contributing to anxiety– Specific (distorted?) beliefs?– Increased baseline sensitivity?
• Target specific pathways.. via customized treatment environments – Virtual reality– Serious games
• …possibly?… build model of patient within a particular context (e.g., serious gaming)
• (Dis)confirm mechanism-based diagnosis via modeling19
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Parting Thought