# Sleep-dependent negative overgeneralization in peri-pubertal anxiety

> **NIH NIH R01** · FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $44,118

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the most well-established treatment for anxiety disorders, yet up to one-
half of peri-pubertal youth show insufficient response, leaving these youth at high risk for continued anxiety,
depression, substance use, and suicide. This proposed Diversity Supplement aims to supplement parent grant
data on negative overgeneralization with data collected from clinical services CBT, offered to participating
youth, to (a) examine negative overgeneralization as a predictor of CBT outcomes and (b) support the
research training and career development of the candidate, Carlos Yeguez. Negative overgeneralization is a
phenotype of anxiety that refers to the tendency to generalize aversive responses from one context (house fire)
to other contexts (camp-fire) that share features. In our conceptual model, participants who exhibit high
negative overgeneralization present a broad, diffuse target that hinders CBT outcomes. Specifically, in these
participants information learned in the context of exposure to one anxiety-provoking stimulus will not readily
transfer to distally-related stimuli, requiring more intensive and longer exposure to achieve optimal outcomes.
Peri-puberty provides the optimal window for preliminarily testing aspects of our conceptual model because
gradients of negative overgeneralization become more pronounced during this developmental window. In
accordance with the NIMH strategic plan, we examine negative overgeneralization as a multi-modality derived
phenotype associated with CBT outcome using neuroimaging, behavior task, and self-report data from the
parent grant. Further, we characterize the phenotype of negative overgeneralization using a declarative
memory paradigm. Declarative memory paradigms are sensitive to neurodevelopmental differences in youth
with anxiety disorders and enhance ecological validity because they approximate complex experiences of life
and use of exposures in CBT. Further, our paradigm allows us to measure neurocomputational processes
underlying negative overgeneralization based on theory and data from our team documenting its relationship
with anxiety severity in peri-pubertal youth. In this proposed supplement, we will recruit a subset of N=50 peri-
pubertal youths ages 10-13 years with anxiety disorders drawn from the parent grant. After completing the
parent grant protocol, participants will then complete CBT for anxiety disorders offered through our team’s
clinic and supplemental data collection on anxiety outcomes and self-report measures of negative
overgeneralization. In Aim 1 we examine a behavioral measure of negative overgeneralization as a predictor of
CBT outcome. In Aim 2 we examine a neural measure of negative overgeneralization as a predictor of CBT
outcome. In Aim 3 we examine whether self-reported negative overgeneralization is associated with behavioral
and neural measures of negative overgeneralization at baseline, and whether our behavioral, neur...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10357320
- **Project number:** 3R01MH116005-04S1
- **Recipient organization:** FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DANA L MCMAKIN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $44,118
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-06-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10357320

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10357320, Sleep-dependent negative overgeneralization in peri-pubertal anxiety (3R01MH116005-04S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10357320. Licensed CC0.

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