Pacheco Unguetti, A. P. , Rueda, M. R. , Castellanos, M. C. , Acosta, A. & Lupiáñez, J.
Department of Experimental Psychology and Behavioural Physiology. University of Granada. Granada, Spain
When studying the functioning of attentional networks (orienting, alerting, and executive control) in individuals with different type and level of anxiety, we have previously observed poorer efficiency of the executive attention network in high trait-anxiety individuals as well as an overfunctioning of the alerting and orienting networks associated with state-anxiety compared to age matched controls. In the current study we aim at examining brain activation during performance of a modified version of the Attention Network Test as a function of trait-anxiety using a high-density event-related potentials technique. Participants (n=50) are individuals with high and low STAI trait-anxiety scores. Preliminary data show the most important difference between High and Low anxiety on the flanker interference effect, an index of efficiency of the executive control network. High anxiety participants show a delayed N2b effect (i.e. larger negative amplitude for incongruent compared to congruent trials) over fronto-parietal channels compared to the Low-anxiety group. Additionally, the N2b is left-lateralized for the High-anxiety group and right-lateralized for the Low-anxiety group. Further, the fronto-central P3 effect appears to be larger for the high-anxiety group. These results are consistent with the idea that anxious individuals have poorer efficiency of regulatory mechanisms important for attentional control.