Anxiety and error monitoring: the importance of motivation and emotion

• Published in: Frontiers in human neuroscience Vol. 7; p. 636
• Main Authors: Proudfit, Greg H, Inzlicht, Michael, Mennin, Douglas S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 08.10.2013; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Anxiety; Conductance; Defensive behavior; endophenotype; ERN; error-related negativity; Heart rate; Motivation; Neuroscience; Obsessive compulsive disorder; Startle response; Sympathetic nervous system; threat; Threats; New York; United States > US; ERN; endophenotype; error-related negativity; anxiety; threat
• ISSN: 1662-5161; 1662-5161
• DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00636

In support of this view, errors are experienced as distressing (Spunt et al., 2012) and are associated with a host of physiological changes consistent with defensive mobilization: following errors, the startle reflex is increased (Hajcak and Foti, 2008; Riesel et al., 2013), heart rate decelerates (Hajcak et al., 2003, 2004), the pupil dilates (Critchley et al., 2005), the corrugator (i.e., frowning) muscle contracts (Lindstrom et al., 2013), and a sympathetic nervous system response is evident in skin conductance changes (Hajcak et al., 2003, 2004). [...]there is increasing behavioral evidence that errors and other variants of response conflict are aversive (Botvinick, 2007; Dreisbach and Fischer, 2012; Schouppe et al., 2012). Previously we used the term defensive motivation in discussing both state and trait effects (Hajcak, 2012; Weinberg et al., 2012b); to avoid potential confusion here, we use the term threat sensitivity to refer to trait-like individual differences which we contrast with defensive motivation, which reflects a transient response to threat. [...]we view errors as unpredictable threats that prompt an immediate defensive motivational response. [...]in one study, participants scoring high in trait negative emotionality demonstrated larger increases in skin conductance after making errors (Hajcak et al., 2004). [...]anxious people report excessive concern about their mistakes. [...]the ERN demonstrates sufficient test-retest reliability over two weeks to more than two years (Olvet and Hajcak, 2009; Weinberg and Hajcak, 2011). [...]about 50% of the variation in ERN amplitude appears to be heritable (Anokhin et al., 2008), and variation in the ERN has been linked to a variety of genes (Manoach and Agam, 2013).