Interpretation bias in social anxiety as detected by event-related brain potentials.
Little is known about psychophysiological correlates of interpretation bias in social anxiety. To address this issue, the authors measured event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in high and low socially anxious individuals during a task wherein ambiguous scenarios were resolved with either a positive or negative ending. Specifically, the authors examined modulations of the P600, an ERP that peaks approximately 600 ms following stimulus onset and indexes violations of expectancy. Low-anxious individuals were characterized by an increased P600 to negative in comparison with positive sentence endings, suggesting a positive interpretation bias. In contrast, the high-anxious group evidenced equivalent P600 magnitude for negative and positive sentence endings, suggesting a lack of positive interpretation bias. Similar, but less reliable results emerged in earlier time windows, that is, 200-500 ms poststimulus. Reaction time, occurring around 900 ms poststimulus, failed to show a reliable interpretation bias. Results suggest that ERPs can detect interpretation biases in social anxiety before the emission of behavioral responses.
Department of Psychology, University of Delaware.
Jason S
JS
Moser
Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University.
Greg
G
Hajcak
Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety.
Jonathan D
0000-0002-0537-4701
JD
Huppert
Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety.
Edna B
EB
Foa
Department of Psychology, University of Delaware.
Robert F
RF
Simons
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003469:Culture; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult