Neural Correlates Related to Anxiety in Attentional Inhibition Control: an ERP Study

Abstract

We investigated the effect of anxiety on attentional inhibitory control using event-related potentials (ERPs) and measuring the response time. Nineteen participants performed a multi-source interference task; three-digit numbers and emotional faces were used as visual stimuli. The P100 and P300 ERPcomponents and response time values were used to evaluate whether ERP parameters and behavioral responses are associated with increased anxiety. Higher anxiety was associated with a longer latency and reduced amplitude of the P300 component at F3, whereas higher anxiety was associated with a shorter latency and higher amplitude of P300 at F4. The longer P300 latency at F3 was especially related to the response time to the target number with negative-expression faces as distracters.