Worry-inducing stimuli in an aversive Go/NoGo task enhance reactive control in individuals with lower trait-anxiety

Aversiveness of errors and the error-related negativity (ERN): A systematic review on the affective states' manipulations findings

Error-related negativity (ERN) has been used to investigate neural mechanisms underlying error processing and conflict monitoring. Recent evidence highlights that affective and motivational states modulate the ERN and that aversiveness of errors plays a vital role in error monitoring. Therefore, our primary objective was to systematically evaluate and describe the influence of affect state-related manipulations on the ERN. A total of 51 publications identified from PsyInfo, PubMed, and PsyArticles databases were included following the Prisma procedures for systematic reviews. Papers were analyzed using sample attributes, psychological paradigms, and states manipulations. The present study shows that the ERN component has recurrently appeared to be sensitive to manipulations of affective states in the reviewed literature. However, conclusive findings concerning the affect state-dependent properties of the ERN remain elusive. Results are discussed considering heterogeneity in paradigms, variables, and the state-trait interactions. Furthermore, recommendations for future high-quality studies are provided along with the necessity of upcoming high-power replication attempts and more studies with positive affect manipulations.

ERP study on the associations of peripheral oxytocin and prolactin with inhibitory processes involving emotional distraction

BACKGROUND

Child maltreatment is a major health and social welfare problem, with serious and longstanding consequences. Impulse control ability plays an important role in reducing the risk of child maltreatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations of oxytocin (OXT) and prolactin (PRL) with behavior inhibition using children's facial expressions (angry or neutral) as emotional distractions. This may clarify a part of the neuroendocrinological mechanism that modulates impulse control ability in the context of child caregiving.

METHODS

Participants were 16 females who had never been pregnant. Following venous blood sampling for OXT and PRL levels, participants performed an emotional Go/Nogo task during their follicular and luteal phases to test inhibitory control ability. Behavioral performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) during the task were measured.

RESULTS

The results showed that there were significant fixed effects of OXT on behavioral performance, as measured by sensitivity (d-prime). This suggests that high peripheral OXT levels may be associated with better performance on the emotional Go/Nogo task, regardless of emotional distractors. PRL was associated with inhibitory processes as reflected by the Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3. Particularly, high PRL levels were associated with the Nogo-N2 latency extension with the emotional distractors.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that OXT might be associated with improving behavioral performance regardless of emotional processes. It is suggested that processes related to PRL are related to premotor activities of behavioral inhibitions and emotions.

The N2 component in a go-nogo learning task: Motivation, behavioral activation, and reasoning

Although the association of the N2 component with behavioral inhibition (BIS) has regularly been investigated, its association with other personality characteristics remains widely unknown. We investigated the association of the N2 with the sensitivity of the behavioral activation system (BAS). The aim was not to show that the N2 is linked to trait BAS instead of trait BIS, but that a motivating setting may alter its association with those traits. Furthermore, we aimed at replicating results indicating that the association between reasoning ability and the N2 depends on the matching of the content of the reasoning tasks and the go-nogo task. The electroencephalogram (64 electrodes, P9/P10 offline reference, Biosemi) was recorded in a sample of 117 healthy participants (60 females; age: M = 24.79, SD = 3.98), who performed a numerical learning task. At the beginning of each trial, participants heard motivating or neutral words. Participants completed Carver and White's BIS/BAS scales (1994) and the Intelligence-Structure-Test 2000R (Liepmann et al., 2007). The N2 was identified by a temporospatial principal component analysis. Structural equation models revealed that higher trait BAS scores were associated with larger N2s especially when hearing motivating words. Solely higher numerical reasoning scores were associated with larger N2s in the neutral condition. Moreover, the interaction of trait BAS with verbal reasoning ability predicted an increased negativity of the N2 with time-on-task in the motivating condition, suggesting that motivating words yielded an increase of conflict monitoring with time-on-task for participants with higher verbal reasoning ability and higher trait BAS.