Grant Number:	5R01CA240452-05 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Berkman, Elliot
Organization:	University Of Oregon
Project Title:	Construal Level as a Novel Pathway for Affect Regulation and Cancer Control
Fiscal Year:	2024

7. Project Summary/Abstract Lung cancer is the leading major cause of preventable death in the United States, and cigarette smoking is a contributor to lung cancer in 80%–90% of cases. Though adult cigarette smoking rates have declined substantially during the past 50 years, they remain as high as 30% in certain groups, such as individuals living in poverty. Quitting is difficult: a given quit attempt results in cessation in fewer than 10% of cases, and most adult cigarette smokers have attempted and failed to quit, and often many times. What is urgently needed are novel interventions for cigarette smoking cessation that operate through different mechanisms from those targeted by existing interventions, which are likely to have been unsuccessful for persistent smokers. A barrier to progress is that the mechanisms of action of most treatments are not known, which makes it difficult to know which treatment will work best for whom. We turn to affective science to identify a candidate technique that could serve as the basis for a novel intervention. Research on affect regulation typically focuses on down- regulation of affective states, such as craving for cigarettes, using effortful strategies such as cognitive reappraisal. However, a new insight in affect regulation is that people can construe, or subjectively understand, events with varying levels of abstraction, and that construing health-related behaviors in high- versus low-level terms promotes health behavior in several domains. For example, smokers who want to quit are more likely to resist a cigarette when they construe the same event (e.g., “abstinence”) in more abstract, high-level terms (e.g., “becoming a better me”) versus more concrete, low-level terms (e.g., “not smoking this cigarette”). There is some evidence that high-level construal might rely on distinct mechanisms from traditional affect regulation and smoking reduction interventions, but its mechanisms of action are unknown. Directly comparing its mechanisms to those of alternative affect regulation strategies and developing tools to induce high-level construal are the next steps on the path toward developing a novel intervention. Also, establishing individual differences in the effects of high-level construal will allow future interventions to be targeted to the individuals for whom they will be maximally effective. We identified two candidate mechanisms through which high-level construal might operate: down-regulation of craving and up-regulation of goal energization (i.e., motivation to quit). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed the neural systems engaged by those processes to be distinct. So, we will use multivariate analyses of fMRI data to quantify the similarity of high-level construal to each candidate (Aim 1). This will be done in a longitudinal translational experiment with 4 conditions—high- level construal, down-regulation of craving, up-regulation of goal energization, and treatment-as-usual—in a sample of persistent smokers in poverty, who are the most likely to benefit from a novel, theory-based treatment. The sample size (N = 240) affords an examination of individual differences in the effect of high-level construal on neural activity and craving, and the degree to which they predict smoking reduction (Aim 2).




Motivational dynamics of self-control.
Authors: Werner K.M. , Berkman E.T. .
Source: Current Opinion In Psychology, 2024 Oct; 59, p. 101859.
EPub date: 2024-08-08 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 39173561
Related Citations

Randomized trial of parent-child interaction therapy improves child-welfare parents' behavior, self-regulation, and self-perceptions.
Authors: Skowron E.A. , Nekkanti A.K. , Skoranski A.M. , Scholtes C.M. , Lyons E.R. , Mills K.L. , Bard D. , Rock A. , Berkman E. , Bard E. , et al. .
Source: Journal Of Consulting And Clinical Psychology, 2024 Feb; 92(2), p. 75-92.
EPub date: 2023-12-07 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 38059943
Related Citations

Prepared and reactive inhibition in smokers and non-smokers.
Authors: Schultz K.E. , Mantell B. , Berkman E.T. , Swann N.C. .
Source: Behavioural Brain Research, 2023-02-02 00:00:00.0; 437, p. 114120.
EPub date: 2022-09-28 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 36181947
Related Citations

The social neuroscience of eating: an introduction to the special issue.
Authors: Hall P.A. , Rolls E. , Berkman E. .
Source: Social Cognitive And Affective Neuroscience, 2023-01-09 00:00:00.0; 18(1), .
PMID: 36458671
Related Citations

Striatal response to negative feedback in a stop signal task operates as a multi-value learning signal.
Authors: Smith B.J. , Lipsett M. , Cosme D. , Braun V.A. , O'Hagan A.M.B. , Berkman E.T. .
Source: Imaging Neuroscience (cambridge, Mass.), 2023; 1, .
EPub date: 2023-11-03 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 38050634
Related Citations

Efficacy of a combined food-response inhibition and attention training for weight loss.
Authors: Stice E. , Yokum S. , Nelson T.D. , Berkman E. , Veling H. , Lawrence N. .
Source: Current Opinion In Behavioral Sciences, 2022 Aug; 46, .
EPub date: 2022-06-15 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 36817801
Related Citations

Efficacy of a combined food-response inhibition and attention training for weight loss.
Authors: Stice E. , Yokum S. , Nelson T.D. , Berkman E. , Veling H. , Lawrence N. .
Source: Current Opinion In Behavioral Sciences, 2022 Aug; 46, .
EPub date: 2022-06-15 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 36817801
Related Citations

Modeling incentive salience in Pavlovian learning more parsimoniously using a multiple attribute model.
Authors: Smith B.J. , Read S.J. .
Source: Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2022 04; 22(2), p. 244-257.
EPub date: 2021-10-21 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 34676496
Related Citations

Psychological Science in the Wake of COVID-19: Social, Methodological, and Metascientific Considerations.
Authors: Rosenfeld D.L. , Balcetis E. , Bastian B. , Berkman E.T. , Bosson J.K. , Brannon T.N. , Burrow A.L. , Cameron C.D. , Chen S. , Cook J.E. , et al. .
Source: Perspectives On Psychological Science : A Journal Of The Association For Psychological Science, 2021-10-01 00:00:00.0; , p. 1745691621999374.
EPub date: 2021-10-01 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 34597198
Related Citations

Test-retest reliability of functional MRI food receipt, anticipated receipt, and picture tasks.
Authors: Yokum S. , Bohon C. , Berkman E. , Stice E. .
Source: The American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, 2021-08-02 00:00:00.0; 114(2), p. 764-779.
PMID: 33851199
Related Citations

So Useful as a Good Theory? The Practicality Crisis in (Social) Psychological Theory.
Authors: Berkman E.T. , Wilson S.M. .
Source: Perspectives On Psychological Science : A Journal Of The Association For Psychological Science, 2021-01-07 00:00:00.0; , p. 1745691620969650.
EPub date: 2021-01-07 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 33412079
Related Citations

Reducing mental health disparities by increasing the personal relevance of interventions.
Authors: Hall G.C.N. , Berkman E.T. , Zane N.W. , Leong F.T.L. , Hwang W.C. , Nezu A.M. , Nezu C.M. , Hong J.J. , Chu J.P. , Huang E.R. .
Source: The American Psychologist, 2021 01; 76(1), p. 91-103.
EPub date: 2020-03-02 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 32118456
Related Citations

Multivariate neural signatures for health neuroscience: Assessing spontaneous regulation during food choice.
Authors: Cosme D. , Zeithamova D. , Stice E. , Berkman E.T. .
Source: Social Cognitive And Affective Neuroscience, 2020-01-28 00:00:00.0; , .
EPub date: 2020-01-28 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 31993654
Related Citations

Brain Activity Associated With Regulating Food Cravings Predicts Changes in Self-Reported Food Craving and Consumption Over Time.
Authors: Giuliani N.R. , Cosme D. , Merchant J.S. , Dirks B. , Berkman E.T. .
Source: Frontiers In Human Neuroscience, 2020; 14, p. 577669.
EPub date: 2020-11-12 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 33281580
Related Citations

Neural Substrates of Food Valuation and Its Relationship With BMI and Healthy Eating in Higher BMI Individuals.
Authors: Merchant J.S. , Cosme D. , Giuliani N.R. , Dirks B. , Berkman E.T. .
Source: Frontiers In Behavioral Neuroscience, 2020; 14, p. 578676.
EPub date: 2020-12-04 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 33343310
Related Citations