Explaining reversal learning deficits in anxiety with electrophysiological evidence.

Reversal learning is a crucial aspect of behavioral flexibility that plays a significant role in environmental adaptation and development. While previous studies have established a link between anxiety and impaired reversal learning ability, the underlying mechanisms behind this association remain unclear. This study employed a probabilistic reversal learning task with electroencephalographic recording to investigate these mechanisms. Participants were divided into two groups based on their scores on Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory: high trait-anxiety (HTA) and low trait-anxiety (LTA), consisting of 50 individuals in each group. The results showed that the HTA group had poorer reversal learning performance than the LTA group, including a lower tendency to shift to the new optimal option after rule reversals (reversal-shift). The study also examined event-related potentials elicited by reversals and found that although the N1 (related to attention allocation), feedback-related negativity (FRN: related to belief updating), and P3 (related to response inhibition) were all sensitive to the grouping factor, only the FRN elicited by reversal-shift mediated the relationship between anxiety and the number/reaction time of reversal-shift. From these findings, we suggest that abnormalities in belief updating may contribute to the impaired reversal learning performance observed in anxious individuals. In our opinion, this study sheds light on potential targets for interventions aimed at improving behavioral flexibility in anxious individuals.

Impaired probabilistic reversal learning in anxiety: Evidence from behavioral and ERP findings.

BACKGROUND: Reversal learning reflects an individual's capacity to adapt to a dynamic environment with changing stimulus-reward contingencies. This study focuses on the potential influence of anxiety on reversal learning skills. METHODS: We asked 40 participants with a high level of trait anxiety (HTA) and 40 counterparts with a low anxiety level (LTA) to finish a probabilistic reversal learning task with event-related potential (ERP) recording, during which stimulus-reward contingencies are reversed after players have learned the optimal choice. RESULTS: We found that compared to their LTA counterparts, the HTA participants showed worse learning performance and were less likely to make lose-shift choices. The FRN amplitude might help interpret these behavioral results, which is suggested to be associated with punishment sensitivity and was positively correlated with the number of lose-shift in this study. Seeing that anxiety level predicted the FRN amplitude for lose-shift, we explain that anxious individuals' inflexible behavioral responses to losses are due to their impaired sensitivity to negative feedback. CONCLUSIONS: A higher level of anxiety is associated with weaker reversal learning performance, possibly because of abnormal sensitivity to negative outcomes. These findings have implications for the understanding of behavioral symptoms in anxiety.

Trait Anxiety Attenuates Response Inhibition: Evidence From an ERP Study Using the Go/NoGo Task.

Neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience have shown that anxious individuals have deficits in response inhibition. However, existing knowledge about the influence of trait anxiety on response inhibition is still inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate response inhibition between groups with high trait anxiety (HTA) and low trait anxiety (LTA). Here, we used event-related potential (ERP) indexes as biomarkers to examine the effect of trait anxiety on response inhibition using the Go/NoGo task. Behavioral results indicated that the HTA group made significantly lower accuracy than did the LTA group in the NoGo condition but not the Go condition. Meanwhile, the HTA group needed significantly longer overall response time (RT) than the LTA group did. ERP analyses revealed that the HTA group had smaller and later frontal NoGo-N2 as well as larger and later parietal NoGo-P3 compared to the LTA group. The two response inhibition-related ERP components are distinct neurophysiological indexes that, first, the NoGo-N2 is a component involved in the motor plan prior to the motor execution inhibitory process. Second, the NoGo-P3 reflects later monitoring and evaluation of the inhibition process. Accordingly, the current ERP findings suggest that HTA individuals' response inhibition deficits are the consequence of abnormal premotor inhibition control and inefficient evaluation and monitoring. In addition, we also found that the peak amplitude of NoGo-N2 and NoGo-P3 were significantly correlated with the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores after correction for multiple comparisons. To sum up, these results support the notion that trait anxious individuals have response inhibition deficits in the Go/NoGo task.

Critical role of the right VLPFC in emotional regulation of social exclusion: a tDCS study.

There is abundant evidence suggesting that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays an important role in down-regulating the emotional response to social exclusion. However, a causal relationship between rVLPFC function and explicit emotional regulation is not clear in the context of social exclusion. This study employed anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to activate rVLPFC while participants used emotional regulation to reappraise pictures of social exclusion. Forty-four participants were randomly assigned to an active tDCS group or a sham group. Both groups viewed social exclusion images under two conditions: in the no-reappraisal condition, participants were instructed to passively view social exclusion images; in the reappraisal condition, they reappraised the images to down-regulate negative emotional responses. Compared to sham stimulation, anodal tDCS over the rVLPFC resulted in less negative emotion ratings, and produced significantly smaller pupil diameter in the reappraisal, compared to no-reappraisal block. The tDCS also led to longer fixation durations to rejectees and shorter fixation durations to rejecters. Taken together, these findings suggest a causal role for rVLPFC in down-regulation of negative emotions produced by social exclusion. This study has implications for clinical interventions targeting emotional regulation deficits.

Face-body integration of intense emotional expressions of victory and defeat.

Human facial expressions can be recognized rapidly and effortlessly. However, for intense emotions from real life, positive and negative facial expressions are difficult to discriminate and the judgment of facial expressions is biased towards simultaneously perceived body expressions. This study employed event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural dynamics involved in the integration of emotional signals from facial and body expressions of victory and defeat. Emotional expressions of professional players were used to create pictures of face-body compounds, with either matched or mismatched emotional expressions in faces and bodies. Behavioral results showed that congruent emotional information of face and body facilitated the recognition of facial expressions. ERP data revealed larger P1 amplitudes for incongruent compared to congruent stimuli. Also, a main effect of body valence on the P1 was observed, with enhanced amplitudes for the stimuli with losing compared to winning bodies. The main effect of body expression was also observed in N170 and N2, with winning bodies producing larger N170/N2 amplitudes. In the later stage, a significant interaction of congruence by body valence was found on the P3 component. Winning bodies elicited lager P3 amplitudes than losing bodies did when face and body conveyed congruent emotional signals. Beyond the knowledge based on prototypical facial and body expressions, the results of this study facilitate us to understand the complexity of emotion evaluation and categorization out of laboratory.

Anxious Individuals Are Impulsive Decision-Makers in the Delay Discounting Task: An ERP Study.

Impulsivity, which is linked to a wide range of psychiatric disorders, is often characterized by a preference for immediate but smaller rewards over delayed but larger rewards. However, debate exists on the relationship between anxiety and impulsivity. Here we use event-related potential (ERP) components as biomarkers in the temporal discounting task to examine the effect of anxiety on inter-temporal decision-making. Our behavioral results indicated that the high trait anxiety (HTA) group made significantly more immediate choices than the low trait anxiety (LTA) group. Compared with the LTA group, shorter response time was associated with immediate rewards in the HTA group. Furthermore, previous studies have demonstrated three ERP components that are associated with impulsivity and/or delay discounting. First, the N1 is an early sensory component involved in selective attention and attention processing for goal-directed actions. Second, the reward positivity (RewP) reflects reward-related dopaminergic activity and encodes reward values. Third, the P3 is regarded as a measure of motivational significance in the decision-making literature. Accordingly, this study found in the immediate-option-evoked ERPs that the HTA group had a larger N1 than the LTA group did. For the delayed-option-evoked ERPs, the HTA group had larger N1 and RewP for the immediate choice than the LTA group did, while the LTA group had a larger P3 for the delayed choice than the HTA group did. These results support the notion that anxiety individuals are impulsive decision-makers in the Delay Discounting Task.