Mussini Elena, Di Russo Francesco
Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Rome, Italy.
Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Sciences, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
Psychophysiology. 2023 Feb;60(2):e14166. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14166. Epub 2022 Aug 17.
Elevated anxiety levels degrade task performance, likely because of cognitive function reduction in the frontoparietal brain network. This study aimed to test whether anxiety could impact the frontal cortex anticipatory brain functions and to investigate the possible beneficial effect of response-related feedback on task performance. The electroencephalographic activity was recorded while participants performed two Go/No-go tasks: one with response-related feedback on errors (feedback task) and one task without feedback (standard task). We first tested whether anxiety levels could be associated with pre-stimulus ERP components such as the prefrontal negativity (pN), linked with top-down attentional control, and the Bereitschaftspotential (BP), related to motor preparation. Then, we assessed whether feedback could affect anxious people's brain preparation, reducing the state of uncertainty and improving performance. Results showed that the pN was almost absent and the BP was lower during a standard task in the high anxiety than in the low anxiety group. In the feedback task, these components increased in the high anxious, becoming comparable to the low anxious. Behavioral results showed that false alarms in the high anxiety group were larger than in the low anxiety group during the standard task but became comparable in the feedback task. Similarly, response time in the high anxiety group was slower in the standard task than in the feedback task, and high anxious people were faster in the feedback task than in the standard one. This study contributes to clarifying neural correlates of anxiety, showing brain activity reductions related to action preparation in frontal areas. In addition, response-related feedback tasks could be used to normalize task performance in high anxious people.
焦虑水平升高会降低任务表现，这可能是由于额顶叶脑网络的认知功能下降所致。本研究旨在测试焦虑是否会影响额叶皮层的预期脑功能，并探讨与反应相关的反馈对任务表现可能产生的有益影响。在参与者执行两项Go/No-go任务时记录脑电图活动：一项有关于错误的与反应相关的反馈（反馈任务），另一项无反馈任务（标准任务）。我们首先测试焦虑水平是否与刺激前的ERP成分相关，如与自上而下的注意力控制相关的前额叶负波（pN）以及与运动准备相关的 Bereitschaftspotential（BP）。然后，我们评估反馈是否会影响焦虑人群的脑准备，减少不确定状态并提高表现。结果显示，在标准任务中，高焦虑组的pN几乎不存在且BP低于低焦虑组。在反馈任务中，这些成分在高焦虑人群中增加，变得与低焦虑人群相当。行为结果表明，在标准任务中，高焦虑组的误报率高于低焦虑组，但在反馈任务中两者相当。同样，高焦虑组在标准任务中的反应时间比反馈任务中慢，且高焦虑人群在反馈任务中比在标准任务中更快。本研究有助于阐明焦虑的神经关联，显示额叶区域与动作准备相关的脑活动减少。此外，与反应相关的反馈任务可用于使高焦虑人群的任务表现正常化。
