Cognitive process in high neuroticism: incompatible flexibility in frontal brain region

Nasir Yusoff,Nor Azila Noh,Norrul Aikma Mohamed

doi:10.3329/bjms.v21i1.56338

Nasir Yusoff, Nor Azila Noh + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v21i1.56338

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Abstract

Objective: This study examines the difference of interference effect in high and low neuroticism. Material and Methods: Low and high groups of neuroticism performed the congruent and incongruent Stroop Colour Word task in the Event Related Potential session. The ERP P300 was extracted and analysed. Results: High neuroticism exhibited larger P300 amplitude than low neuroticism in both congruent and incongruent condition. Conclusion: High neuroticism appraises conflict and non-conflict condition under incompatibility manner driven by prefrontal cortical top–down control. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 21(1) 2022 Page : 129-134

Highlights

Neuroticism is a trait that is prone to experience negative feelings and emotional instability.[1]
High neuroticism participants had higher amplitude of P300 elicited in Fz electrode channel in response to congruent stimuli as compared to the low neuroticism (U = 79, p = .029) (Figure 2)
The difference of low neuroticism and high neuroticism was not observed in both Cz electrodes (U = 68, p = .190) and Pz electrodes (U = 47, p = .853) (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Neuroticism is a trait that is prone to experience negative feelings and emotional instability.[1]. The amygdala that is a major part of the brain has become an interest in the search for the neurobiological underpinning of neuroticism.[6,7,8]. Individual characteristic such as neuroticism can be a predictor of problematic outcomes in cognitive, emotional and behavioural realms. Cognitive flexibility - the ability of an individual to work efficiently to shift attention by efficiently changing to a new task and give responses at appropriate behaviour level, 9 is part of central aspect of executive functioning which relies on the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The P300 – a large positive waveform observed at approximately 300 milliseconds after stimulus presentation, is associated with engagement of attention and involuntarily shifts to changes of the stimuli representations.[7,11,12] It is justified that cognitive system with a high flexibility is able to switch from one task to another in a fast and efficient way resulting from the high speed of mental process

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Conclusion