id_1029. NEURAL MARKERS OF THERAPEUTIC CHANGE IN COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL THERAPY FOR PROCRASTINATION: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED EEG TRIAL
Weronika Maria Browarczyk1, Ewa Wiwatowska1, Magdalena Pietruch2, Joachim Kowalski3, Marek Wypych2, Jarosław M. Michałowski1
1 Poznań Laboratory of Affective Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland
2 Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, Warsaw, Poland
3 Experimental Psychopathology Lab, Institute of Psychology PAS, Warsaw, Poland
INTRODUCTION: Procrastination involves the voluntary delay of intended actions despite anticipated negative consequences. This prevalent self-regulatory difficulty is linked to impaired academic functioning and psychological distress. Although Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment, little is known about the neural mechanisms supporting therapeutic change. Longitudinal neurophysiological studies examining how CBT affects attentional and emotional processing in procrastination are scarce.
AIM(S): Using EEG in a randomized controlled design, this study investigates neurophysiological correlates of CBT for procrastination, focusing on treatment-induced changes in attentional bias and emotional processing of negative and procrastination-related lexical stimuli.
METHOD(S): Help-seeking university students with elevated academic procrastination were assigned to a brief, group-based CBT intervention or a wait-list control. EEG data were collected before and after the intervention while participants viewed procrastination-related, negative, and neutral single-word stimuli. Our analyses focus on ERP components indexing early attentional allocation and later stages of emotional and semantic processing, including the EPN, LPP, and N400.
RESULTS: Data collection from 135 participants is complete. The intervention effectively reduced self-reported procrastination, measured by the Aitken Procrastination Inventory-Revised, compared to the control group. Neurophysiological analyses are currently underway.
CONCLUSIONS: We hypothesize that CBT will elicit measurable changes in emotion-related neurophysiological markers of attention. Specifically, we expect reduced early and late event-related responses to emotional stimuli, reflecting improved regulation of negative and procrastination-specific processing following the intervention. By identifying the neural processes underlying CBT, this study aims to provide a mechanistic understanding of therapeutic change and inform the development of more targeted interventions.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT: Supported by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant No. 2021/43/B/HS6/02024.