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Related Experiment Videos

Anxiety and error-related brain activity.

Greg Hajcak1, Nicole McDonald, Robert F Simons

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.

Biological Psychology
|November 7, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Individuals with high general anxiety and worry exhibit heightened error-related brain activity, similar to those with obsessive-compulsive disorder. This enhanced error-related negativity (ERN) suggests broader implications within anxiety spectrum disorders.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Psychiatry

Background:

  • Error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related brain potential linked to action monitoring and error detection.
  • ERN is associated with anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activity and is often enhanced in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
  • Previous research indicated elevated ERN in college students with obsessive-compulsive characteristics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether enhanced ERN extends to individuals with high general anxiety and worry.
  • To examine the specificity of ERN alterations within the anxiety spectrum.

Main Methods:

  • Measured ERN in college undergraduates using event-related potentials.
  • Participants were grouped based on scores from the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and combined Snake (SNAQ) and Spider (SPQ) Questionnaires.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Compared ERN amplitudes between high-anxiety/worry groups, phobic groups, and non-anxious controls.

    • Main Results:

    • Subjects with high scores on general anxiety and worry measures demonstrated enhanced ERN.
    • This enhanced error-related brain activity was comparable to that observed in individuals with OCD.
    • The findings suggest that elevated ERN is not exclusive to OCD but generalizes within anxiety spectrum disorders.

    Conclusions:

    • Enhanced ERN is present in individuals with high levels of general anxiety and worry.
    • The findings support the hypothesis that ERN alterations are part of a broader pattern within anxiety spectrum disorders.
    • While ERN generalizes across some anxiety disorders, it may also exhibit specificity within this spectrum.