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Published on: January 9, 2016
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Anxious Individuals Are Impulsive Decision-Makers in the Delay Discounting Task: An ERP Study
Lisheng Xia1, Ruolei Gu2, Dandan Zhang3
1College of Information Engineering, Shenzhen University Shenzhen, China.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
|February 9, 2017
Summary
High trait anxiety individuals exhibit more impulsive decision-making, preferring immediate rewards over delayed ones. This is evidenced by behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) biomarkers in a temporal discounting task.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Decision Science
Background:
- Impulsivity is linked to psychiatric disorders and characterized by preferring immediate rewards.
- The relationship between anxiety and impulsivity remains debated.
- Event-related potential (ERP) components can serve as biomarkers for decision-making processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of trait anxiety on inter-temporal decision-making using ERPs.
- To examine how anxiety influences choices between immediate and delayed rewards.
- To identify specific ERP components associated with anxiety and impulsivity in decision-making.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a temporal discounting task to assess inter-temporal decision-making.
- Compared behavioral choices and ERPs between high trait anxiety (HTA) and low trait anxiety (LTA) groups.
- Analyzed ERP components: N1 (attention), Reward Positivity (RewP, reward value), and P3 (motivational significance).
Main Results:
- The HTA group made more immediate choices and had shorter response times for immediate rewards compared to the LTA group.
- HTA group showed larger N1 amplitudes for immediate options and larger N1 and RewP for immediate choices in delayed options.
- LTA group exhibited a larger P3 amplitude for delayed choices, indicating greater motivational significance.
Conclusions:
- Anxiety is associated with impulsive decision-making in the context of delay discounting.
- ERP components like N1 and RewP may reflect heightened sensitivity to immediate rewards in anxious individuals.
- Anxiety may alter the processing of reward value and motivational significance during inter-temporal choices.
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