ERN/Ne and Feedback-Negativity as correlates of dispositional anxiety: On the experimental investigation of reactive control and suggestibility

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The present project investigates the relationship of the Error-related Negativity (ERN/Ne) and the Feedback Negativity (FN) components of the event-related potential (ERP) with dispositional anxiety/anxious apprehension (AApp). In a meta-analysis, Moser, Moran, Schroder, Donnellan, and Yeung (2013) observed a negative correlation of ERN/NE with AA. Moser et al. (2013) suggested that negative cognitions which go along with increased AA distract from continuous goal activation. This leads to compensatory reactive goal activation following errors and to a more pronounced ERN/Ne (compensatory error-monitoring hypothesis) – especially in individuals with higher AA scores. The induction of worries requires that the worries do not induce higher state-anxiety and anxious arousal (AArou). The manipulation of worries should at best be most directly related to cognitions. Therefore, one main goal of the present project is to compare evidence of the compensatory error-monitoring hypothesis of Moser et al. (2013) and of the alternative explanation on the aversive impact of errors (Proudfit et al., 2013). As the compensatory error-monitoring hypothesis and the hypothesis on the aversive impact of errors will be investigated with individual differences on state-rumination, Gudjonsson suggestibility scales, and AArou, we validate the corresponding German adaptations of the questionnaires (Study 1). In Study 2, we experimentally investigate the hypothesis on increased reactive control in individuals with higher AApp and more pronounced ERN/Ne activity in a digit-flanker task (Stahl, 2010). In this task, we experimentally manipulate negative cognitions/worries following neutral and negative suggestive performance feedback and the aversive impact of errors by means of neutral and aversive tones. Finally, in Study 3 we investigate the effect of performance-incompatible (i.e., incorrect) performance feedback of individuals with higher vs. lower anxiety on ERN/Ne and FN. To couple feedback and suggestive content, we induce uncertainty about correctness of performance. That is, individuals will be confronted with feedback that their responses occurred more slowly than required according to a pre-defined time interval. We expect that individuals with higher anxiety scores would be more suggestible towards performance-incompatible feedback resulting in smaller FN-differences between performance-compatible and performance-incompatible error feedback. In sum, the project makes an essential contribution on the explanation of neural foundations on anxiety, suggestibility, and variations on ACC-related ERPs.