Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T15:53:14.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Investigating racing thoughts via ocular temporal windows: deficits in the control of automatic perceptual processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2021

Patrik Polgári Open the ORCID record for Patrik Polgári [Opens in a new window] ,
Luisa Weiner Open the ORCID record for Luisa Weiner [Opens in a new window] ,
Jean-Baptiste Causin ,
Gilles Bertschy Open the ORCID record for Gilles Bertschy [Opens in a new window]  and
Anne Giersch Open the ORCID record for Anne Giersch [Opens in a new window]
Patrik Polgári
Affiliation:
INSERM U1114, Strasbourg, France University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Luisa Weiner
Affiliation:
INSERM U1114, Strasbourg, France University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France Psychiatry Department, University Hospital of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Jean-Baptiste Causin
Affiliation:
INSERM U1114, Strasbourg, France University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France Psychiatry Department, University Hospital of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Gilles Bertschy
Affiliation:
INSERM U1114, Strasbourg, France University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France Psychiatry Department, University Hospital of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
Anne Giersch*
Affiliation:
INSERM U1114, Strasbourg, France University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France Psychiatry Department, University Hospital of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
*
Author for correspondence: Anne Giersch, E-mail: giersch@unistra.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background

Racing thoughts have been found in several states of bipolar disorder (BD), but also in healthy populations with subclinical mood alterations. The evaluation of racing thoughts relies on subjective reports, and objective measures are sparse. The current study aims at finding an objective neuropsychological equivalent of racing thoughts in a mixed group of BD patients and healthy controls by using a bistable perception paradigm.

Method

Eighty-three included participants formed three groups based on participants' levels of racing thoughts reported via the Racing and Crowded Thoughts Questionnaire. Participants reported reversals in their perception during viewing of the bistable Necker cube either spontaneously, while asked to focus on one interpretation of the cube, or while asked to accelerate perceptual reversals. The dynamics of perceptual alternations were studied both at a conscious level (with manual temporal windows reflecting perceptual reversals) and at a more automatic level (with ocular temporal windows derived from ocular fixations).

Results

The rate of windows was less modulated by attentional conditions in participants with racing thoughts, and most clearly so for ocular windows. The rate of ocular windows was especially high when participants with racing thoughts were asked to focus on one interpretation of the Necker cube and when they received these instructions for the first time.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that in subjects with racing thoughts automatic perceptual processes escape cognitive control mechanisms. Racing thoughts may involve not only conscious thought mechanisms but also more automatic processes.

Keywords

Bipolar disorderbistable perceptionracing thoughtstemporal windows
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , March 2023 , pp. 1176 - 1184
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akiskal, H. S., & Benazzi, F. (2006). Does the FDA proposed list of possible correlates of suicidality associated with antidepressants apply to an adult private practice population? Journal of Affective Disorders, 94(1), 105–110. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2006.04.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Text Revision (4th Edition). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890423349.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th Edition). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.Google Scholar
Benazzi, F. (2007). Delineation of the clinical picture of dysphoric/mixed hypomania. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 31(4), 944–951. doi: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2007.02.015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertschy, G., Weibel, S., Giersch, A., & Weiner, L. (2020). Racing and crowded thoughts in mood disorders: A data-oriented theoretical reappraisal. L'Encéphale, 46(3), 202–208. doi: 10.1016/j.encep.2020.01.007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burgess, P. W., & Shallice, T. (1997). The Hayling and Brixton tests. Bury St. Edmunds, U.K.: Tames Valley Test Company.Google Scholar
Diler, R. S., Goldstein, T. R., Hafeman, D., Merranko, J., Liao, F., Goldstein, B. I., … Birmaher, B. (2017). Distinguishing bipolar depression from unipolar depression in youth: Preliminary findings. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 27(4), 310–319. PubMed. doi: 10.1089/cap.2016.0154CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dodd, S., Kulkarni, J., Berk, L., Ng, F., Fitzgerald, P. B., de Castella, A. R., … Berk, M. (2010). A prospective study of the impact of subthreshold mixed states on the 24-month clinical outcomes of bipolar I disorder or schizoaffective disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 124(1), 22–28. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2009.10.027CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eysenck, H. J. (1952). Schizothymia-Cyclothymia as a dimension of personality. Journal of Personality, 20(3), 345–384. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1952.tb01115.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Favre, S., Aubry, J.-M., Gex-Fabry, M., Ragama-Pardos, E., McQuillan, A., & Bertschy, G. (2003). Traduction et validation française de l’échelle de manie de Young (YMRS) [translation and validation of a French version of the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS)]. L'Encephale, 29(6), 499–505.Google Scholar
Fiedorowicz, J. G., Endicott, J., Leon, A. C., Solomon, D. A., Keller, M. B., & Coryell, W. H. (2011). Subthreshold hypomanic symptoms in progression from unipolar major depression to bipolar disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 168(1), 40–48. PubMed. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.10030328CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoffman, R. E., Quinlan, D. M., Mazure, C. M., & McGlashan, T. M. (2001). Cortical instability and the mechanism of mania: A neural network simulation and perceptual test. Biological Psychiatry, 49(6), 500–509. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3223(00)01071-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, J. M., & Guilford, J. P. (1933). Fluctuation of an ambiguous figure in dementia praecox and in manic-depressive patients. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 27(4), 443–452. doi: doi.org/10.1037/h0071060CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kornmeier, J., & Bach, M. (2012). Ambiguous figures – what happens in the brain when perception changes but not the stimulus. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 51. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00051CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krug, K., Brunskill, E., Scarna, A., Goodwin, G. M., & Parker, A. J. (2008). Perceptual switch rates with ambiguous structure-from-motion figures in bipolar disorder. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 275(1645), 1839–1848. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2008.0043CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leopold, D. A., & Logothetis, N. K. (1999). Multistable phenomena: Changing views in perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3(7), 254–264. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(99)01332-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackinnon, A., & Mulligan, R. (2005). Estimation de l'intelligence prémorbide chez les francophones [The estimation of premorbid intelligence levels in French speakers]. L'Encéphale, 31(1), 31–43. doi: 10.1016/S0013-7006(05)82370-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathes, B., Strüber, D., Stadler, M. A., & Basar-Eroglu, C. (2006). Voluntary control of Necker cube reversals modulates the EEG delta- and gamma-band response. Neuroscience Letters, 402(1), 145–149. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2006.03.063CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meng, M., & Tong, F. (2004). Can attention selectively bias bistable perception? Differences between binocular rivalry and ambiguous figures. Journal of Vision, 4(7), 2–2. doi: 10.1167/4.7.2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, S., Suppes, T., Mintz, J., Hellemann, G., Frye, M. A., McElroy, S. L., … Post, R. M. (2016). Mixed depression in bipolar disorder: Prevalence rate and clinical correlates during naturalistic follow-up in the Stanley bipolar network. American Journal of Psychiatry, 173(10), 1015–1023. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.15091119CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, S. M., Gynther, B. D., Heslop, K. R., Liu, G. B., Mitchell, P. B., Ngo, T. T., … Geffen, L. B. (2003). Slow binocular rivalry in bipolar disorder. Psychological Medicine, 33(4), 683–692. Cambridge Core. doi:10.1017/S0033291703007475CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nagamine, M., Yoshino, A., Miyazaki, M., Takahashi, Y., & Nomura, S. (2009). Difference in binocular rivalry rate between patients with bipolar I and bipolar II disorders. Bipolar Disorders, 11(5), 539–546. doi: 10.1111/j.1399-5618.2009.00719.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ngo, T. T., Mitchell, P. B., Martin, N. G., & Miller, S. M. (2011). Psychiatric and genetic studies of binocular rivalry: An endophenotype for bipolar disorder? Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 23(1), 37–42. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-5215.2010.00510.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettigrew, J. D., & Miller, S. M. (1998). A ‘sticky’ interhemispheric switch in bipolar disorder? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 265(1411), 2141–2148. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1998.0551CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Philip, B. (1953). Reversals in the perception of Lissajou figures by psychotics. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 7(3), 115–125. doi: 10.1037/h0083582CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piguet, C., Dayer, A., Kosel, M., Desseilles, M., Vuilleumier, P., & Bertschy, G. (2010). Phenomenology of racing and crowded thoughts in mood disorders: A theoretical reappraisal. Journal of Affective Disorders, 121(3), 189–198. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2009.05.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polgári, P., Causin, J.-B., Weiner, L., Bertschy, G., & Giersch, A. (2020). Novel method to measure temporal windows based on eye movements during viewing of the Necker cube. PLoS One, 15(1), e0227506. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227506CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pöppel, E. (1997). A hierarchical model of temporal perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1(2), 56–61. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(97)01008-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pöppel, E. (2009). Pre-semantically defined temporal windows for cognitive processing. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1525), 1887–1896. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0015CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raucher-Chéné, D., Achim, A. M., Kaladjian, A., & Besche-Richard, C. (2017). Verbal fluency in bipolar disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 207, 359–366. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2016.09.039CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rush, A. J., Trivedi, M. H., Ibrahim, H. M., Carmody, T. J., Arnow, B., Klein, D. N., … Keller, M. B. (2003). The 16-item quick inventory of depressive symptomatology (QIDS), clinician rating (QIDS-C), and self-report (QIDS-SR): A psychometric evaluation in patients with chronic major depression. Biological Psychiatry, 54(5), 573–583. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3223(02)01866-8CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmack, K., Sekutowicz, M., Rössler, H., Brandl, E. J., Müller, D. J., & Sterzer, P. (2013). The influence of dopamine-related genes on perceptual stability. European Journal of Neuroscience, 38(9), 3378–3383. doi: 10.1111/ejn.12339CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spering, M., & Carrasco, M. (2015). Acting without seeing: Eye movements reveal visual processing without awareness. Trends in Neurosciences, 38(4), 247–258. doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2015.02.002CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stahl, S. M., Morrissette, D. A., Faedda, G., Fava, M., Goldberg, J. F., Keck, P. E., … McIntyre, R. S. (2017). Guidelines for the recognition and management of mixed depression. CNS Spectrums, 22(2), 203–219. Cambridge Core. doi:10.1017/S1092852917000165CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strauss, E., Sherman, E. M. S., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological tests: Administration, norms, and commentary (3rd ed. pp. xvii, 1216). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Strüber, D., & Stadler, M. (1999). Differences in top-down influences on the reversal rate of different categories of reversible figures. Perception, 28(10), 1185–1196. doi: 10.1068/p2973CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suppes, T., Mintz, J., McElroy, S. L., Altshuler, L. L., Kupka, R. W., Frye, M. A., … Post, R. M. (2005). Mixed hypomania in 908 patients with bipolar disorder evaluated prospectively in the Stanley foundation bipolar treatment network: A sex-specific phenomenon. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(10), 1089. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.62.10.1089CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tombaugh, T. N. (2004). Trail making test A and B: Normative data stratified by age and education. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 19(2), 203–214. doi: 10.1016/S0887-6177(03)00039-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Ee, R., van Dam, L. C. J., & Brouwer, G. J. (2005). Voluntary control and the dynamics of perceptual bi-stability. Vision Research, 45(1), 41–55. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.07.030CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vierck, E., Porter, R. J., Luty, S. E., Moor, S., Crowe, M. T., Carter, J. D., … Joyce, P. R. (2013). Further evidence for slow binocular rivalry rate as a trait marker for bipolar disorder. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 47(4), 371–379. doi: 10.1177/0004867412474105CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiner, L., Doignon-Camus, N., Bertschy, G., & Giersch, A. (2019b). Thought and language disturbance in bipolar disorder quantified via process-oriented verbal fluency measures. Scientific Reports, 9(1), 14282. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50818-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weiner, L., Ossola, P., Causin, J.-B., Desseilles, M., Keizer, I., Metzger, J.-Y., … Weibel, S. (2019a). Racing thoughts revisited: A key dimension of activation in bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, 255, 69–76. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2019.05.033CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, L., Weibel, S., de Sousa Gurgel, W., Keizer, I., Gex-Fabry, M., Giersch, A., & Bertschy, G. (2018). Measuring racing thoughts in healthy individuals: The Racing and Crowded Thoughts Questionnaire (RCTQ). Comprehensive Psychiatry, 82, 37–44. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.01.006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitmer, A. J., & Banich, M. T. (2016). Inhibition versus switching deficits in different forms of rumination. Psychological Science, 18, 546–553, Availabe at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01936.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Witten, I., Frank, E., Hall, M., & Pal, C. (2017). Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques - 4th Edition. Cambridge, USA: Morgan Kaufmann. https://doi.org/10.1016/C2015-0-02071-8.Google Scholar
Wittmann, M. (2011). Moments in time. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 5, 66. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2011.00066CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ye, X., Zhu, R.-L., Zhou, X.-Q., He, S., & Wang, K. (2019). Slower and less variable binocular rivalry rates in patients with bipolar disorder, OCD, major depression, and schizophrenia. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 13, 514. 10.3389/fnins.2019.00514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, R C, Biggs, J T, Ziegler, V E, & Meyer, D A. (1978). A rating scale for mania: Reliability, validity and sensitivity. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 133(5), 429–435. doi: 10.1192/bjp.133.5.429CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zeschel, E., Correll, C. U., Haussleiter, I. S., Krüger-Özgürdal, S., Leopold, K., Pfennig, A., … Juckel, G. (2013). The bipolar disorder prodrome revisited: Is there a symptomatic pattern? Journal of Affective Disorders, 151(2), 551–560. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2013.06.043CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Polgári et al. supplementary material

Polgári et al. supplementary material

Download Polgári et al. supplementary material(File)
File 31.9 KB