Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA.
Psychophysiology. 2012 Feb;49(2):239-47. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01298.x. Epub 2011 Oct 11.
The current study examined whether punishment has direct and lasting effects on error-related brain activity, and whether this effect is larger with increasing trait anxiety. Participants were told that errors on a flanker task would be punished in some blocks but not others. Punishment was applied following 50% of errors in punished blocks during the first half of the experiment (i.e., acquisition), but never in the second half (i.e., extinction). The ERN was enhanced in the punished blocks in both experimental phases--this enhancement remained stable throughout the extinction phase. More anxious individuals were characterized by larger punishment-related modulations in the ERN. The study reveals evidence for lasting, punishment-based modulations of the ERN that increase with anxiety. These data suggest avenues for research to examine more specific learning-related mechanisms that link anxiety to overactive error monitoring.
本研究旨在探讨惩罚是否会对错误相关的大脑活动产生直接且持久的影响，以及这种影响是否会随着特质焦虑的增加而增大。参与者被告知，在某些块中，侧抑制任务的错误将受到惩罚，但在另一些块中则不会。在实验的前半部分（即获得阶段），当惩罚块中出现 50%的错误时，会进行惩罚，但在后半部分（即消退阶段）则不会。在两个实验阶段，ERN 在受惩罚的块中均增强——这种增强在整个消退阶段都保持稳定。焦虑程度较高的个体的 ERN 中与惩罚相关的调节更大。该研究为 ERN 中基于惩罚的持久调节提供了证据，且这种调节会随着焦虑程度的增加而增加。这些数据为研究提供了途径，以检验将焦虑与过度活跃的错误监测联系起来的更具体的与学习相关的机制。
