title: Anxiety, emotional distraction, and attentional control in the Stroop task.
abstract: Using a Stroop task, we investigated the effect of task-irrelevant emotional distractors on attentional proactive control and its interaction with trait anxiety. On the basis of recent findings showing opposed neural responses in the dorsal-executive versus the ventral-emotional systems in response to emotional distractors and of the attentional control theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007), we hypothesized that negative distractors will result in a reduction of proactive task control in the executive system, especially for high-trait-anxious individuals. Using a computational model of the Stroop task, we derive 2 specific behavioral predictions of reduced proactive task control: increased Stroop interference and reversed Stroop facilitation. Twenty-five high- and 25 low-trait-anxious participants completed a Stroop task in which the target stimuli were preceded by brief (neutral vs. aversive) emotional distractors. While no effects of picture valence on proactive control was found in the low-anxious group, the predicted signatures of reduced proactive control were observed in the high-anxiety group. These results indicate that trait anxiety influences the interaction between irrelevant emotional stimuli and proactive control.
authors.affiliation: Anxiety Disorders Clinic and the Center for OCD and Related Disorders, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Medical Center.
authors.forename: Eyal
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kalanthroff
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
authors.forename: Avishai
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Henik
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London.
authors.forename: Nazanin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Derakshan
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University.
authors.forename: Marius
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Usher
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D057190:Stroop Test; D055815:Young Adult