Anxiety disrupts the evaluative component of performance monitoring: An ERP study

Abstract

Thirty low and 30 high anxious participants performed a speeded Go/noGo task during which they had to rely on evaluative feedback to infer whether their actions were timely (correct) or not. We focused on FRN, an ERP component that is sensitive to the valence of feedback.Depending on the context, neutral faces served either as positive or negative feedback.Whereas the FRN of low anxious individuals did discriminate between neutral faces when used either as positive or negative feedback, the FRN of high anxious individuals did not.However, before the FRN, we also found evidence for a differential perceptual effect at the level of the N170 face-specific component between the two feedback conditions, equally so in low and high anxious individuals. These results suggest that anxiety disrupts selectively the evaluative component of performance monitoring, which presumably allows to ascribe a given value (either positive or negative) to actions.Keywords: Anxiety, ERP, FRN, N170, attribution 3 Performance monitoring and anxiety Anxiety disrupts selectively the evaluative component of performance monitoring: An ERP study Depending on the situation and circumstances, the control of behavior is based on the monitoring of either internal or external signals, or sometimes a combination of both. For example, the adequacy of a given action in response to a familiar stimulus may be determined based on an internal representation allowing to compare the discrepancy between the actual and expected or desired action, with a swift detection of any divergence between the two (Gehring et al., 1993). However, in many situations, performance monitoring cannot be achieved solely based on the processing of internal signals, but the processing of new external feedback information in the environment is required to establish whether the current action is appropriate (e.g., timely, correct) or not. Hence, the processing of feedback information available in the environment often indicates the appropriateness of certain actions and in turn allows to correct or adjust behavior if required, eventually leading to learning and preventing errors from recurring in the future (Holroyd & Coles, 2002;Rabbitt, 1966).Several ERP studies looking at outcome evaluation processes based on external feedback have described an ERP component, the feedback-related negativity (FRN) that is selectively associated with the processing of the valence or motivational significance of the feedback (Gehring & Willoughby, 2002;Holroyd & Coles, 2002;Miltner et al., 1997). The FRN is a negative component peaking at fronto-central electrodes roughly 250-300 ms after presentation of relevant feedback information. Usually, the FRN was found to be larger after negative feedback on task performance, e.g., the presentation of an evaluation signal indicating error commission or monetary loss, compared to positive feedback, e.g., the presentation of an evaluation signal indicating correct performance or monetary reward anxiety, which is usually related to depression (Beck et...

Understanding emotionally relevant situations in primary care dental practice: 1. Clinical situations and emotional responses

“…34 The dentists all endorsed feeling at least some degree of anxiety or fear on occasions. Recent laboratory studies have demonstrated 1. that anxiety selectively disrupts the evaluative component of performance monitoring 35 and 2. induced fear reduces digit sensory perception though induced anger had no effect. 36 The possible implications of this for dentists' practical abilities under stress have yet to be evaluated.…”

Performance monitoring and empathy during active and observational learning in patients with major depression

“…Goldberg & Fawcett, 2012) which may abolish FRN sensitivity to feedback valence (Aarts & Pourtois, 2012) and increase ERN amplitudes (Hajcak, McDonald & Simons, 2003;Santesso, Segalowitz, & Schmidt, 2006;Weinberg, Klein & Hajcak, 2012). However, anxiety does not seem to affect the ERN (Olvet & Hajcak, 2009) or FRN (Grundler, Cavanagh, Figueroa, Frank, & Allen, 2009) when trial-to-trial feedback is given.…”

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