Graded Affective-Neural-Behavioral Vulnerability in Trait Anxiety under Frustrative Reward Outcome: ERP Evidence

Reward outcome processing has received increasing attention in trait anxiety, yet existing findings remain inconsistent. We tested a conditional-vulnerability account, proposing that reward outcome processing vulnerability in trait anxiety may not reflect a stable generalized deficit, but may dynamically emerge when emotional and motivational demands on the reward system increase. Using graded frustrative non-reward as an affective-motivational challenge, we examined whether this vulnerability unfolds across dissociable affective, neural, and behavioral levels.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 30 high-trait-anxiety (HTA) and 30 low-trait-anxiety (LTA) participants during a modified frustrative non-reward task. The measures included self-reported frustration, accuracy, reaction time, and ERP indices of reward outcome processing, including P3 and reward positivity (RewP).

The HTA group reported higher frustration and showed lower overall accuracy than the LTA group. Reaction times did not differ between groups under low- or mid-frustration, but the HTA group responded faster under high-frustration. ERP results showed that the HTA group exhibited greater reward and loss RewP changes as frustration increased. Difference RewP further showed an increase from mid- to high-frustration in the HTA group, whereas this pattern was not observed in the LTA group.

These findings support a graded affective-neural-behavioral vulnerability profile of reward outcome processing in trait anxiety, with vulnerability evident across affective, neural, and behavioral indicators as frustrative challenge increases. Thus, trait-anxiety-related vulnerability in reward outcome processing may be understood as graded and context-sensitive rather than stable and generalized, providing a framework for examining how trait anxiety shapes reward outcome processing.