Low Trait Anxiety Group Research Articles

Regulation of negative emotions through directed attention in high-trait-anxious women: Evidence from event-related potentials and eye-tracking

Abnormal emotional responses in high-trait-anxious (HTA) individuals may be related to the use of emotion regulation strategies. Directed attention is a substrategy of attention deployment, which has been proven to be effective in regulating individual negative emotions. The present study investigated whether HTA women can effectively utilize directed attention to decrease negative emotions. Two studies were conducted using the same directed attention paradigm, with one focusing on event-related potentials (ERPs) and the other utilizing eye-tracking techniques. Participants viewed negative and neutral pictures and rated their negative emotions experienced during viewing. During directed attention, attention was directed towards highly arousing aspects, less arousing aspects of negative pictures, or less arousing aspects of neutral pictures. In study 1, late positive potentials (LPP) were recorded in 26 HTA and 24 low-trait-anxious (LTA) women. In study 2, the latency of first fixation, the proportion of gaze duration and fixations in the specific area were recorded in 27 HTA and 23 LTA women. Both the HTA and LTA groups revealed a decrease in negative emotional ratings and LPP amplitudes when their attention was directed towards the less arousing aspects of negative pictures. Furthermore, in this condition, the HTA group had a shorter latency of first fixation on highly arousing aspects and a higher proportion of gaze duration on less arousing aspects of negative pictures compared to the LTA group. These results indicate that when confronted with negative pictures, HTA women are able to regulate their emotional responses through directed attention, which may be accompanied by attentional vigilance and avoidance tendencies.

In the anticipation of threat: Neural regulatory activity indicated by delta-beta correlation and its relation to anxiety

The anticipation of oncoming threats is emotionally challenging and related to anxiety. The current study aimed to investigate the neural regulatory processes during the anticipatory preparations in stressful situations in relation to trait anxiety, especially in an uncertainty-related stressful situation. To this end, we measured within-subjects delta-beta amplitude-amplitude correlation (AAC) and phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) with electroencephalography using a well-defined stress-inducing paradigm in 28 high-trait-anxiety (HTA) and 29 low-trait-anxiety (LTA) college students. Specifically, a threat probability task was conducted, where participants anticipated the future stimuli under the uncertain (i.e., an average of 50% electric shocks), certain (i.e., 100% electric shocks) and no threat conditions, as well as a resting state task. Results showed a generally larger delta-beta AAC in the LTA group relative to the HTA group across conditions, supporting the hypothesis that delta-beta AAC reflects the efficiency of stress regulation and trait anxiety could compromise this adaptive regulatory activity. Furthermore, a larger delta-beta PAC was found under the uncertain threat condition relative to the no threat condition, indicating the sensitivity of delta-beta PAC in reflecting state anxiety. These findings indicate that while delta-beta AAC is more related to trait anxiety and could distinguish between high and low trait anxiety irrespective of conditions, delta-beta PAC is more related to state anxiety and is sensitive enough to detect the uncertainty-related anxious state.

The cognitive neural mechanism of trait anxiety influences mind wandering: An ERP study

Converging evidence from behavioral and neuroscience studies demonstrated that our attention to the external world is influenced by emotion, especially anxiety. However, little is known about how trait anxiety influences neural and behavioral responses during mind wandering. The present study aimed to examine the neural and cognitive time courses of how trait anxiety affects mind wandering. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 20 individuals with high trait anxiety and 20 with low trait anxiety when they performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) in which they were asked to respond to frequent ‘‘nontargets’’ (digits 0–6, 8–9) but withhold responses to infrequent ‘‘targets’’ (the digit 7). We compared the behavioral performance and electroencephalographic waves between the high and low trait anxiety groups during states of “mind wandering” (fail to withhold a response to the target number) and being “on-task” (correctly withhold a response to the target number). Results showed that a larger late positive component (LPC, 400–950 ms) was elicited when participants were “on task” than when they were mind wandering. Additionally, a larger late slow waveform (LSW, 950–1050 ms) was elicited in the high trait anxiety group than in the low trait anxiety group. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between self-reported trait anxiety scores and the LSW amplitudes during mind wandering. It was proposed that the effect of trait anxiety on the cognitive neural mechanism underlying attentional processing was primarily reflected in a later process involving the redistribution of cognitive resources.

Deficits in Emotional Perception–Related Motor Cortical Excitability in Individuals With Trait Anxiety: A Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Abnormal emotional perception may contribute to emotional dysfunction in individuals with anxiety. This study explored the progression of impaired emotional perception with the deepening of anxiety in individuals with nonclinical trait anxiety, by measuring the motor cortical excitability associated with emotional perception. In total, 87 participants were assigned to a high trait anxiety (n = 27), moderate trait anxiety (n = 30), or low trait anxiety (n = 30) group. Transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied to the right primary motor cortex at 150 ms or 300 ms after the onset of positive, negative, or neutral images, while participants performed an emotion recognition task, and motor‐evoked potentials (MEPs) were collected. For participants with low trait anxiety, MEP amplitudes were significantly higher for both negative and positive stimuli than for neutral stimuli. Participants with moderate trait anxiety showed significantly higher MEP amplitudes only for negative stimuli. Participants with high trait anxiety showed no significant difference in MEP amplitudes for positive, negative, and neutral stimuli. Trait anxiety score was negatively correlated with MEP amplitude: For higher trait anxiety scores, MEP amplitudes were correlated with lower emotional perception of positive and negative stimuli. Findings suggest that anxiety impairs emotional perception–related motor cortical excitability, starting with decreased motor cortical excitability responses to positive information and progressing to negative information as anxiety levels increase.

Visually assessing work performance using a smartwatch via day-to-day fluctuations in heart rate variability.

To optimize workplace health promotion, a simple method for quantifying allostatic load response is needed. This study examines the feasibility of optimizing objective anxiety and presenteeism monitoring using daily smartwatch-measured ultra-short heart rate variability (HRV). Office workers without diagnosed disease prospectively performed 30 s HRV self-measurement each morning for two months and responded to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Work Limitation Questionnaire (WLQ). Logistic regression analysis examined daily HRV parameters in the high-trait anxiety group (HTA, STAI ≥ 40) using mean and variance HRV, age, self-reported gender, and body mass index (BMI). The ideal cutoff value enabled comparison of WLQ using the Mann-Whitney U test. Heart rate variability data were collected for 279 participants (male ratio, 83.9%; age, 42 ± 10 years) who completed questionnaires and monitored HRV for 30+ days. Compared to the low-trait anxiety group, HTA exhibited higher variance of the log-transformed coefficient of component variance of high-frequency component (LnccvHF) and low-frequency per HF (Lnccv L/H), in addition to differences in the means of these HRV parameters. In addition to BMI (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92, p = 0.02) and mean LnccvL/H (OR = 10.75, p < 0.01), the variance of Lnccv L/H was an independent predictor of HTA (OR = 2.39E + 8, p = 0.011). The daily Lnccv L/H dispersion group had a lower WLQ productivity loss score (p = 0.02, r = 0.17). By focusing on HRV dispersion status, this simple and instantly applicable daily HRV monitoring system enables optimized quantitative monitoring of anxiety and productivity.

No trait anxiety linked differences in affective and non-affective task-switching

Elevated levels of trait anxiety are argued to interfere with the ability to shift attention between different task sets, yet empirical support for this hypothesis is scarce. Using a task-switching paradigm in two separate studies, we compared high and low trait anxious participants' ability to switch from non-affective, positive, and negative tasks to different non-affective tasks. In Study 1 (N = 59 high and low trait anxious undergraduate students), we found that non-affective-to-non-affective switch costs were smaller than both positive-to-non-affective and negative-to-non-affective switch costs, and positive-to-non-affective switch costs were smaller than negative-to-non-affective switch costs. In Study 2 (N = 97 high and low trait anxious community members), we found that non-affective-to-non-affective switch costs and positive-to-non-affective switch costs were both smaller than negative-to-non-affective switch costs, but positive-to-non-affective and non-affective-to-non-affective switch costs did not differ. Crucially, none of the switch costs in either of the studies or in an analysis of the combined data differed between high and low trait anxious groups. While we cannot exclude the possibility that anxiety linked differences in task-switching do exist when switching from more demanding to less demanding tasks, our studies found no evidence for the general idea that elevated trait anxiety interferes with attentional shifting.

Modification of the association between nausea and vomiting of pregnancy and anxiety by personality trait during early pregnancy: A longitudinal study of Japanese pregnant women.

This study aimed to elucidate whether personality traits modify the relationship between nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) and anxiety, stratified by three pregnancy periods: 5-8 weeks, 9-12 weeks, and 13-20 weeks. This longitudinal study was conducted from August 2018 to February 2019 at a perinatal outpatient unit in a general hospital. We included 153 pregnant women aged ≥20 years and under 20 weeks of gestation at their first prenatal visit. They completed the Index of Nausea, Vomiting, and Retching, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to measure anxiety in terms of both trait (STAI-T) and state anxiety (STAI-S), and retook them at follow-up checkups for a maximum of three times. Using longitudinal data until 20 weeks' gestation, changes in NVP and trait anxiety were significantly associated with changes in state anxiety independently, with trait anxiety being more strongly involved than the change in NVP. This tendency was pronounced in the high-trait anxiety group with STAI-T scores of ≥45. Cross-sectional analyses by gestational week showed similar results in the low-trait anxiety group (STAI-T < 45). In the high-trait anxiety group, only trait anxiety was significantly associated with state anxiety up to 12 weeks gestation. However, only NVP was significantly associated with state anxiety after 13 weeks. Pregnant women who tend to be anxious temperamentally may have other factors that cause anxiety besides nausea immediately after the discovery of pregnancy. Understanding personality traits may help reduce anxiety in pregnant women.

Explaining reversal learning deficits in anxiety with electrophysiological evidence

Reversal learning is a crucial aspect of behavioral flexibility that plays a significant role in environmental adaptation and development. While previous studies have established a link between anxiety and impaired reversal learning ability, the underlying mechanisms behind this association remain unclear. This study employed a probabilistic reversal learning task with electroencephalographic recording to investigate these mechanisms. Participants were divided into two groups based on their scores on Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory: high trait-anxiety (HTA) and low trait-anxiety (LTA), consisting of 50 individuals in each group. The results showed that the HTA group had poorer reversal learning performance than the LTA group, including a lower tendency to shift to the new optimal option after rule reversals (reversal-shift). The study also examined event-related potentials elicited by reversals and found that although the N1 (related to attention allocation), feedback-related negativity (FRN: related to belief updating), and P3 (related to response inhibition) were all sensitive to the grouping factor, only the FRN elicited by reversal-shift mediated the relationship between anxiety and the number/reaction time of reversal-shift. From these findings, we suggest that abnormalities in belief updating may contribute to the impaired reversal learning performance observed in anxious individuals. In our opinion, this study sheds light on potential targets for interventions aimed at improving behavioral flexibility in anxious individuals.

Interpretation Bias Featured In Military Personnel With High Trait Anxiety Measured By A Novel Paradigm

Background: Anxiety has become one of the most common psychological problems affecting the combat effectiveness of soldiers. As the generation, maintenance, and recurrence of anxiety have an important interaction with interpretation bias, yet none proof was for the existence of interpretation bias in military personnel. Methods: 112 military officers and soldiers were recruited. Based on scores of the Trait-anxiety Inventory, participants were divided into the high trait anxiety group and the low trait anxiety group. the Picture Sentence Association Paradigm comprised of military-simulated ambiguous scenarios and emotional facial expressions was used to test the differences of the interpretation bias between the two groups. Results: Military personnel with high trait anxiety showed interpretation bias by endorsing more negative valence to the ambiguous scenarios and reject the positive valence. Especially in a self-related scenario, the interpretation bias was more remarkable. Conclusion: This study revealed the existed interpretation bias in military personnel with high trait anxiety using a new paradigm and highlighted the need for further researches to improve the measurement of interpretation bias. Moreover, the picture sentence association paradigm could provide plausible methods for cognitive bias modification to decrease the soldiers’ anxiety.

Anxiety reduction through obstetric consultation combined with ultrasound examination in women after cesarean section

• Literature on how to help women process and facilitate their birth experience after CS is scarce. • An obstetric consultation combined with an ultrasound examination decreases anxiety in women after CS. • The higher the state anxiety before the appointment the more positive effect of the appointment is. • A special consideration for women after a CS is important, particularly for those who have experienced trauma in relation to their CS. Women are at increased risk of developing anxiety or depression disorders after Cesarean section (CS). This study aims to evaluate whether an appointment with a senior obstetrician combined with an ultrasound examination reduces levels of anxiety in women after CS. A prospective observational study was conducted in Sweden. Women underwent an appointment with an obstetrician 6–9 months after their first CS. Before the appointment, women were asked to fill in the state and trait subscales of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Beck's Depression Inventory. The women's experience of the childbirth was discussed and an ultrasound examination of the hysterotomy scar was performed. After the appointment, the participants filled in the state scale again. The women were divided into low trait anxiety (< 40) and high trait anxiety (≥ 40) groups for comparisons. 147 women were included. Of those, 114 (78%) had lower trait score <40 (mean 29.2 ± 5.4) and 33 (22%) had higher trait score ≥ 40 (mean 47.4 ± 6.5). Mean difference of state score in the low trait anxiety group before and after the examination was 4.8 ± 5.6 (95% CI 7.20 to 11.97, p <0.0001) and in the high trait anxiety group, the mean difference was 9.2 ± 6.5 (95% CI 3.77 to 5.82, p <0.0001). A clinical examination with a diagnosis of depression in these women was not made by a psychiatrist. Conclusions: A supportive obstetric consultation combined with an ultrasound examination of the uterine scar decreased anxiety levels in women after CS, particularly in patients with higher anxiety

The modifying effect of trait anxiety on the association of fine particulate matter with heart rate variability variables.

Previous studies have shown that exposures to ambient particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5μm (PM2.5) and stress are associated with adverse cardiovascular health effects. To investigate the potential modifying effect of trait anxiety on the association between short-term exposures to PM2.5 and HRV variables. A panel of 92 middle-aged and elderly adults in Tianjin and Shanghai were recruited for repeated follow-ups with measurements of 24-h personal exposures to air pollutants and Holter ECG monitoring. Heart rate variability (HRV) variables calculated over 5-minute segments during the 24 h, including low frequency power (LF), high frequency power (HF), standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN) and root mean square of successive differences (rMSSD), were included in the analysis. The Trait Anxiety Inventory was used to investigate the long-term general anxiety level of the participants. Generalized linear mixed-effects model was used to analyze the association between exposure factors and HRV variables, and potential effect modification by trait anxiety. Data on 87 participants were included in final analysis after exclusions. Higher exposure to PM2.5 was associated with lower levels of LF, HF, SDNN and rMSSD, and the largest decreases in LF, HF, SDNN and rMSSD were found at 3-h moving average. Trait anxiety significantly modified the associations of PM2.5 with LF, HF, SDNN and rMSSD, with stronger inverse associations found in high trait anxiety group than in low trait anxiety group. For an IQR (27.3μg/m³) increase in PM2.5 at 3-h moving average, there were decreases of 3.50% (95% CI: -4.46%, -2.54%) and 3.50% (95% CI: -4.49%, -2.50%) in the high trait anxiety group, and decreases of 0.81% (95% CI: -1.22%, -0.40%) and 0.65% (95% CI: -1.07%, -0.23%) in the low trait anxiety group in HF and rMSSD, respectively (both p for interaction<0.01). Our study suggests that trait anxiety could modify the association of short-term exposure to PM2.5 with HRV variables, indicating that higher trait anxiety may increase the cardiac susceptibility to air pollution in the study participants.

Increased Intra-Individual Variability as a Marker of Executive Dysfunction in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Recent studies suggest that individual difference in intra-individual variability (IIV) of reaction times is an important indicator of attentional executive control. However, there are few existing studies on the executive control of high trait-anxious individuals assessed by using reaction time variability. This study assessed whether executive functions are impaired among clinical and non-clinical trait-anxious individuals indicated by IIV. The cross-reliability and discriminative power of three IIV parameters (raw intra-individual standard deviation, SD; reaction time coefficient of variation, RTCV; and mean absolute deviation, MAD) were compared. Twenty-five non-clinical individuals with low trait anxiety (LTA), 31 non-clinical individuals with high trait anxiety (HTA), and 19 clinical patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) finished self-reported measures, an emotional spatial-cuing task, and a non-emotional arrow flanker task. In the emotional task, GAD patients had significantly slower response speed, lower accuracy, and greater IIV parameters than the LTA and HTA groups. In the non-emotional task, the GAD group exhibited poorer processing efficiency, greater SD and RTCV, and intact performance effectiveness. RTCV is suggested to be a better marker of executive dysfunction than SD and MAD due to its good discriminative power and reliability as well as less affected by reaction times.

Inhibition or Disinhibition? Creativity Relates to Better Flexible Inhibitory Control

Trait anxiety has been shown to moderate transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) effects on some cognitive functions. Based on the attentional control theory (ACT), trait anxiety might be closely related to dysfunctional executive control and prefrontal activity. Importantly, executive and prefrontal functions are necessary for creativity. Critically, it is unknown whether trait anxiety moderates tDCS effects on creativity. To address this, thirty low-trait-anxious (LTA) and thirty-one high-trait-anxious (HTA) participants performed creativity tasks assessing divergent thinking (alternate uses task, AUT) and convergent thinking (compound remote associates test, CRAT), while receiving three types of tDCS (L-R+: left cathodal/right anodal; L+R-: reverse protocol; sham) over the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). L+R- stimulation promoted superior performance on the AUT compared with the other two stimulations. Importantly, L+R- stimulation benefitted LTA but not HTA individuals. No significant main nor interactive effects were found on the CRAT. These results demonstrate that L+R- stimulation benefits divergent but not convergent thinking. Furthermore, divergent thinking is more sensitive to L+R- stimulation in the LTA group than in the HTA group. Based on the ACT, this is likely due to differential DLPFC activation between the groups. Future studies should consider trait anxiety when exploring tDCS effects on creativity.

Trait anxiety modulates the temporal dynamics of Stroop task switching: An ERP study

The current study aimed to find neural evidence that trait anxiety interferes with one’s shifting function processing efficiency. Twenty-five high trait-anxiety (HTA) and twenty-five low trait-anxiety (LTA) participants were instructed to complete a cue-based Stroop task-switching assessment of shifting function. No group difference in behavioral performance was shown, though event-related potential (ERP) results in the cue-locked period showed that only the LTA group had a general switch benefit in contingent negative variation (CNV) amplitude, indicating the LTA group exerted less task preparation effort. In the subsequent target-locked period, compared to the LTA group, the local switch cost of target-P3 was higher in the HTA group in incompatible trials, suggesting inefficient attentional resource allocation in the HTA group in incompatible trials. These ERP findings indicated that the HTA group ultimately achieved comparable behavioral performance with the LTA group at the expense of using more compensatory strategies at the neural level.

A Comparison of Sugar Intake between Individuals with High and Low Trait Anxiety: Results from the NutriNet-Santé Study.

(1) Background: Dietary carbohydrates are likely correlated with mental health in general, and with anxiety in particular. Our aim was to investigate the cross-sectional relationship between trait anxiety and carbohydrate (especially sugar) intake in a large sample derived from the general French population. (2) Methods: The analyses included 20,231 non-diabetic adults enrolled in the NutriNet-Santé e-cohort, who had completed the trait anxiety subscale of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (T-STAI, 2013–2016) and who were subsequently divided into high and low trait anxiety groups (T-STAI cut-off of 40 points). Sugar-rich food and macronutrient intake was calculated from ≥3 self-administered 24-h dietary records. The association between trait anxiety and carbohydrate intake was evaluated by ANCOVA according to age category (<45 and ≥45 years). (3) Results: In the full sample, 7942 (39.3%) individuals fell into the high trait anxiety category. They were more likely to be women (82.2% versus 69.2%; p < 0.0001) and younger (mean age 51.6 versus 55.1 years; p < 0.0001) compared to the low trait anxiety group. In fully-adjusted models, high-anxiety individuals aged under 45 years had significantly higher mean consumption of added simple sugars (43.9 versus 42.3 g/d; p < 0.0007), whereas those aged over 45 years with high trait anxiety had significantly lower mean consumption of fruit (214.0 versus 219.5 g/d; p < 0.02) compared to their low-anxiety counterparts. (4) Conclusions: This cross-sectional study revealed modest age-specific associations between anxiety status and sugar intake among adults. Prospective studies with representative samples are needed to explore potential bi-directionality of the observed associations.

Anxiety and Attentional Processes: The Role of Resting Heart Rate Variability

Individuals with high anxiety preferentially focus attention on emotional information. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays an important role in modulating both anxiety and attentional processes. Despite many studies having evaluated attentional bias in anxious people, few of them have investigated the change blindness phenomenon associated with the attentional response toward salient stimuli, considering the role of the ANS. This study aimed to examine the role of heart rate variability (HRV) in trait anxiety and top-down and bottom-up attentional processes toward emotional stimuli. Seventy-five healthy university students were divided into high (N = 39) and low (N = 36) trait anxiety groups and completed a change detection flicker task with neutral, positive, and negative stimuli. The results evidenced a different attentional pattern between people with high and low anxiety considering both the two attentional processes and the valence of the stimuli. Specifically, individuals with high anxiety showed a bias in elaborating emotional stimuli related to their salience (i.e., negative stimuli were faster elaborated than neutral and positive stimuli when top-down attentional mechanisms were involved, while slower performances were highlighted considering bottom-up attentional mechanisms in response to emotional stimuli compared to neutral stimuli). Moreover, an association between HRV, trait anxiety levels, and change blindness phenomenon was confirmed. These results underline the role of HRV as a possible predictor of the alteration of attentional mechanism in anxiety.

Trait anxiety moderates the effects of tDCS over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on creativity

Trait anxiety has been shown to moderate transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) effects on some cognitive functions. Based on the attentional control theory (ACT), trait anxiety might be closely related to dysfunctional executive control and prefrontal activity. Importantly, executive and prefrontal functions are necessary for creativity. Critically, it is unknown whether trait anxiety moderates tDCS effects on creativity. To address this, thirty low-trait-anxious (LTA) and thirty-one high-trait-anxious (HTA) participants performed creativity tasks assessing divergent thinking (alternate uses task, AUT) and convergent thinking (compound remote associates test, CRAT), while receiving three types of tDCS (L-R+: left cathodal/right anodal; L+R-: reverse protocol; sham) over the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). L+R- stimulation promoted superior performance on the AUT compared with the other two stimulations. Importantly, L+R- stimulation benefitted LTA but not HTA individuals. No significant main nor interactive effects were found on the CRAT. These results demonstrate that L+R- stimulation benefits divergent but not convergent thinking. Furthermore, divergent thinking is more sensitive to L+R- stimulation in the LTA group than in the HTA group. Based on the ACT, this is likely due to differential DLPFC activation between the groups. Future studies should consider trait anxiety when exploring tDCS effects on creativity.

Mechanisms of cross-modal selective attentional bias for negative faces of anger and disgust in high-trait anxiety individuals.

Research reveals that selective attentional bias to socially negative information is a reliable characteristic of individuals with high-trait anxiety (HTA). However, for selective attentional bias across sensory channels (visual and auditory), the interaction between attentional bias type and negative face type remains unclear. In this study, we recruited 30 individuals with high- and low-trait anxiety (LTA) (15 in each group), and measured their engagement and disengagement bias indices using the cross-modal attentional-probe paradigm, and measured the occipital P1 component using a 64-channel electroencephalography system. The results showed that under the engagement condition in the HTA group, the occipital P1 amplitude of an angry face was smaller than that of a neutral face, and there also exhibited smaller attentional bias indices of angry faces in the HTA group than that of the LTA group. For the presence of disgusted faces, the attentional bias indices of the HTA group were smaller than that of the LTA group under the disengagement condition. These findings demonstrate that the selective attentional bias occurs both in the engagement and the disengagement facets within the cross modal. There is a feature of facilitated attentional engagement bias for an angry face, and a feature of promoted attentional disengagement bias for a disgusted face in HTA individuals.

Trait Anxiety Attenuates Response Inhibition: Evidence From an ERP Study Using the Go/NoGo Task

Neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience have shown that anxious individuals have deficits in response inhibition. However, existing knowledge about the influence of trait anxiety on response inhibition is still inconsistent. The aim of this study was to investigate response inhibition between groups with high trait anxiety (HTA) and low trait anxiety (LTA). Here, we used event-related potential (ERP) indexes as biomarkers to examine the effect of trait anxiety on response inhibition using the Go/NoGo task. Behavioral results indicated that the HTA group made significantly lower accuracy than did the LTA group in the NoGo condition but not the Go condition. Meanwhile, the HTA group needed significantly longer overall response time (RT) than the LTA group did. ERP analyses revealed that the HTA group had smaller and later frontal NoGo-N2 as well as larger and later parietal NoGo-P3 compared to the LTA group. The two response inhibition-related ERP components are distinct neurophysiological indexes that, first, the NoGo-N2 is a component involved in the motor plan prior to the motor execution inhibitory process. Second, the NoGo-P3 reflects later monitoring and evaluation of the inhibition process. Accordingly, the current ERP findings suggest that HTA individuals’ response inhibition deficits are the consequence of abnormal premotor inhibition control and inefficient evaluation and monitoring. In addition, we also found that the peak amplitude of NoGo-N2 and NoGo-P3 were significantly correlated with the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scores after correction for multiple comparisons. To sum up, these results support the notion that trait anxious individuals have response inhibition deficits in the Go/NoGo task.

Life stress and background anxiety are not associated with resting metabolic rate in healthy adults.

This study examined associations between anxiety, stress, and resting metabolic rate (RMR). Thirty women and 23 men had RMR measured at two visits. Participants also had body composition assessed and completed several questionnaires: State-Trait Inventory for Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety (STICSA), Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI)-3, and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)-14. The state version of the STICSA was completed at both visits, while the other questionnaires were completed at visit one. RMR was expressed in kilocalories per day and relative to lean mass (RMRrelative). Participants were divided into low-, medium-, and high-anxiety groups based on STICSA trait scores, and RMR was compared among groups using one-way ANOVA. Changes between visits were evaluated using paired t tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. RMR did not change from visit one to visit two (1589 to 1586 kcal/day, p = 0.86) even though STICSA state scores slightly declined (Z-statistic = -2.39, p = 0.017). RMRrelative values were 30.3 ± 3.7, 29.0 ± 1.9, and 29.9 ± 3.6 kcal/kg of lean mass among low, medium, and high trait anxiety groups, respectively (F = 0.70, p = 0.50). No RMR variable significantly correlated with PSS-14, ASI-3, or STICSA scores. This study provides evidence that trait anxiety and life stress do not impact RMR. Whether an association between these factors exists in anxiety disorders remains to be evaluated. Novelty Contrary to previous research, this study found no associations between anxiety and RMR. It is doubtful whether practitioners need to account for healthy subjects' trait anxiety and stress when analyzing RMR data.