Bad moods and attitudes: Neural correlates of state and trait negative affect

Trait and state negative affect contribute to the development and maintenance of psychopathology, though the mechanisms through which they exert their effects remain unclear. The present study was motivated by the hypothesis that attentional-control deficits will help to understand the biological and psychological mechanisms involved in the potentially distinct contributions that trait and state NA make in initiating and maintaining mental disorders. Brain activation associated with trait and state negative affect was measured by fMRI during performance of an emotion-word Stroop task. Trait negative affect was associated with reduced activity in areas involved in top-down, goal-directed attentional control. In contrast, state negative affect was associated with more activity in regions involved in bottom-up, stimulus-driven attentional control. Present results suggest that these two emotional facets are associated with distinct attentional control deficits, which has implications for the prevention and treatment of psychological disorders