Gong Zhitong, Qi Senqing, Tang Sen, Huang Junjie, Li Keyu, Wang Wenqing
Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China.
Cognitive Psychology Unit, Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Psychophysiology. 2025 Sep;62(9):e70143. doi: 10.1111/psyp.70143.
The impact of state anxiety on conflict control and its neural mechanisms, particularly in relation to proactive versus reactive control, remains incompletely understood. Therefore, we conducted two experiments to investigate how state anxiety affects conflict control across different control contexts and to explore the associated temporal dynamics. The threat of shock paradigm was employed to induce state anxiety. Participants completed the Stroop task under alternating safe and threat states, while EEG data were recorded. In Experiment 1, equal proportions of congruent and incongruent trials were used to create a balanced context. Experiment 2 manipulated trial proportions to induce either proactive or reactive control contexts. Significantly higher subjective anxiety ratings and startle reflexes in the threat state confirmed the successful induction of state anxiety in both experiments. Key findings revealed that in the balanced context, state anxiety enhanced conflict resolution efficiency, manifested by shortened reaction times and decreased sustained potential (SP) amplitudes for incongruent trials under the threat state. In the reactive control context, state anxiety impaired conflict monitoring efficiency, as evidenced by reduced N450 difference waves (incongruent minus congruent trials) under the threat state. This reduction was primarily driven by enhanced N450 amplitudes in congruent trials. Furthermore, enlarged SP difference waves were observed, indicating compensatory recruitment of additional cognitive resources to counteract the impaired monitoring process. Conversely, in the proactive control context, neither behavioral nor neural indicators were affected by state anxiety. These results demonstrate that the impact of state anxiety on conflict control depends critically on the control mode engaged by the task context, offering novel insights into the complex relationship between anxiety and cognitive control.
状态焦虑对冲突控制及其神经机制的影响，尤其是与主动控制和反应控制相关的影响，目前仍未完全理解。因此，我们进行了两项实验，以研究状态焦虑如何在不同的控制情境中影响冲突控制，并探索相关的时间动态。采用电击威胁范式来诱发状态焦虑。参与者在安全和威胁状态交替的情况下完成Stroop任务，同时记录脑电图数据。在实验1中，使用相等比例的一致和不一致试验来创建一个平衡的情境。实验2操纵试验比例以诱发主动或反应控制情境。威胁状态下显著更高的主观焦虑评分和惊跳反射证实了两项实验中状态焦虑的成功诱发。主要研究结果表明，在平衡情境中，状态焦虑提高了冲突解决效率，表现为威胁状态下不一致试验的反应时间缩短和持续电位（SP）振幅降低。在反应控制情境中，状态焦虑损害了冲突监测效率，威胁状态下N450差异波（不一致试验减去一致试验）减小证明了这一点。这种减小主要是由一致试验中N450振幅增强驱动的。此外，观察到SP差异波增大，表明额外认知资源的代偿性募集以抵消受损的监测过程。相反，在主动控制情境中，行为和神经指标均未受状态焦虑影响。这些结果表明，状态焦虑对冲突控制的影响关键取决于任务情境所采用的控制模式，为焦虑与认知控制之间的复杂关系提供了新的见解。
