Oklahoma State University, Department of Psychology, Stillwater, OK, United States.
Oklahoma State University, Department of Psychology, Stillwater, OK, United States.
Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2018 Dec 30;282:40-46. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2018.10.006. Epub 2018 Oct 25.
Recent research suggests atypical error-monitoring is important to understanding pathological anxiety. Because uncertainty is a transdiagnostic factor associated with anxiety and related disorders, recent research has begun to examine the influence of uncertainty in error-monitoring. Moreover, task irrelevant threat has been shown to influence cognitive performance in individuals with maladaptive anxiety. The current study aims to merge these literatures by examining the influence of task-irrelevant uncertain evaluative threat on error-monitoring using an event-related brain potential, the error-related negativity (ERN). Considering extensive literature indicating a relationship between worry and the ERN, worry was included as a continuous predictor in the analyses. Participants were randomly assigned to either a condition of negative or uncertain evaluative threat to determine their influence on error-monitoring in a Flankers task. Results for the ERN suggest that the ERN was significantly reduced only for the uncertain evaluative threat condition. The current study suggests that uncertain evaluative threat distractors result in a subsequent reduction in error-monitoring. This is consistent with literature suggesting that anxiety impairs inhibition of attentional processing of task irrelevant threatening information. This study adds to the burgeoning literature on the malleability of the ERN. Future research is needed to determine the mechanisms underlying this effect.
最近的研究表明，异常的错误监测对于理解病理性焦虑很重要。由于不确定性是与焦虑和相关障碍相关的一种跨诊断因素，最近的研究开始研究不确定性对错误监测的影响。此外，已经表明任务无关的威胁会影响具有适应不良焦虑的个体的认知表现。本研究旨在通过使用事件相关脑电位（ERN）检查任务无关的不确定评价性威胁对错误监测的影响，从而融合这些文献。考虑到大量文献表明担忧与 ERN 之间存在关系，因此在分析中将担忧作为连续预测因子进行了纳入。参与者被随机分配到负性或不确定评价性威胁条件下，以确定它们在 Flanker 任务中对错误监测的影响。ERN 的结果表明，仅在不确定评价性威胁条件下，ERN 显著降低。本研究表明，不确定的评价性威胁干扰物会导致随后错误监测的减少。这与焦虑会损害对任务无关的威胁性信息的注意力处理的抑制的文献一致。这项研究增加了关于 ERN 的可变性的新兴文献。需要进一步的研究来确定这种效应的机制。
