Impulsivity, anxiety, and individual differences in evoked and induced brain oscillations

There is much evidence to confirm the view that slow waves of delta and theta ranges are linked to activation whereas alpha oscillations are somehow related to inhibition processes. In the domain of individual differences, impulsive behavior is frequently associated with increased spectral power of slow oscillations whereas Behavioral Inhibition (BI) may be associated with higher reactivity within alpha band. Here it is hypothesized that Impulsivity would predispose to higher responding in low frequencies whereas BI would predispose to higher responding within alpha band. In a sample of 51 subjects, evoked and induced responses to auditory stimuli were studied in two experimental sessions: 1) in a simple discrimination task and 2) in a stop-signal task in which subjects had to be ready to withdraw the prepared motor response. Impulsive subjects showed higher baseline delta, theta and alpha power and higher magnitude of induced responses in low frequencies. They also showed lower phase-locking in low frequencies to auditory stimuli and higher phase-locking to the overt behavioral response onset. High BI scorers showed higher baseline alpha power and higher desynchronization in this frequency band in response to stimuli. The reported findings appear to support the idea that low frequency oscillations are associated with behavioral approach and alpha with behavioral inhibition tendencies but these associations are only valid for induced responses to stimuli.