Anxiety and spatial attention moderate the electrocortical response to aversive pictures

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.06.026

Neuropsychologia

Volume 47, Issue 13, November 2009, Pages 2975-2980

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.06.026 Get rights and content

Abstract

Aversive stimuli capture attention and elicit increased neural activity, as indexed by behavioral, electrocortical and hemodynamic measures; moreover, individual differences in anxiety relate to a further increased sensitivity to threatening stimuli. Evidence has been mixed, however, as to whether aversive pictures elicit increased neural response when presented in unattended spatial locations. In the current study, ERP and behavioral data were recorded from 49 participants as aversive and neutral pictures were simultaneously presented in spatially attended and unattended locations; on each trial, participants made same/different judgments about pictures presented in attended locations. Aversive images presented in unattended locations resulted in increased error rate and reaction time. The late positive potential (LPP) component of the ERP was only larger when aversive images were presented in attended locations, and this increase was positively correlated with self-reported state anxiety. Findings are discussed in regard to the sensitivity of ERP and behavioral responses to aversive distracters, and in terms of increased neural processing of threatening stimuli in anxiety.

Section snippets

Participants

Fifty-four undergraduate students participated in the study. Three participants were excluded from analyses because their behavioral responses were not recorded; one participant was excluded because of excessive errors on the task (i.e., greater than 50%), and one participant was excluded due to poor quality EEG recording. Data from 49 participants (16 male, 33 female) were included in the final analysis of EEG data. Self-report responses on the state version of the State Trait Anxiety

Parietal positivity (LPP)

Fig. 2 depicts the spatial distribution of voltage (scalp topographies) associated with aversive compared to neutral pictures presented in attended (Fig. 2, left) and unattended (Fig. 2, right) locations. Consistent with past research, the LPP appeared largest at centro-parietal sites following the presentation of aversive versus neutral pictures (Codispoti et al., 2007, Cuthbert et al., 2000, Foti et al., 2009, Hajcak et al., 2007, Hajcak et al., 2009, Hajcak et al., 2006, Hajcak and Olvet,

Discussion

In the present study, aversive compared to neutral pictures elicited a larger parietal positivity, but only for pictures presented in attended spatial locations. That is, aversive distracters did not elicit a larger electrocortical response than neutral distracters. Moreover, higher state anxiety was specifically associated with a larger electrocortical positivity following the presentation of aversive compared to neutral pictures in attended locations.

Evidence as to whether spatially

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Anxiety and spatial attention moderate the electrocortical response to aversive pictures

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Parietal positivity (LPP)

Discussion

Brain and Cognition

NeuroImage

Biological Psychology

Brain and Cognition

Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology

Clinical Neurophysiology

Biological Psychology

Psychiatry Research

Neuropsychologia

Cognitive Brain Research

Trends in Cognitive Science

Behaviour Research and Therapy

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

Neuropsychologia

Neuron

Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study

Psychological Bulletin

Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective

State anxiety modulation of the amygdala response to unattended threat-related stimuli

Journal of Neuroscience

Neural processing of fearful faces: Effects of anxiety are gated by perceptual capacity limitations

Cerebral Cortex

Attentional bias for threatening facial expressions in anxiety: Manipulation of stimulus duration

Cognition & Emotion

Repetition and event-related potentials: Distinguishing early and late processes in affective picture perception

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Anxiety-related attentional biases and their regulation by attentional control

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Amygdala automaticity in emotional processing

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

See no evil: Directing visual attention within unpleasant images modulates the electrocortical response

Psychophysiology

Differential attentional guidance by unattended faces expressing positive and negative emotion

Perception & Psychophysics

The role of spatial attention in the processing of facial expression: An ERP study of rapid brain responses to six basic emotions

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

Anxiety and cognition: A unified theory