Electrophysiological and behavioral evidence that the effect of trait anxiety on contingent attentional capture

• Main Authors: Hsin-Jie Lu, 呂昕潔
• Other Authors: Chi-Hung Juan
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/52976016196832753800

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 認知與神經科學研究所 === 104 === Attention may be captured by salient stimuli, but this effect is determined by top-down control settings, a phenomenon called "contingent capture". Previous theoretical approaches claimed that anxiety impairs attentional control processing by disrupting the balance between top-down and bottom-up attentional control systems (Eysenck et al., 2007) resulting in anxious individuals having difficulty resisting distraction. The present study tests this assumption by investigating the relationship between individual differences in trait anxiety and attentional distraction by task-irrelevant stimuli in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm while the electroencephalogram was recorded. Analysis of the behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of attentional control processing for three different distractors showed a larger capture effect in the target-relevant distractor condition than the non-target relevant distractor and the distractor absent condition both in high trait anxiety and low trait anxiety groups, states that capture effects appear to be contingent on top-down attention settings. Moreover, high trait anxiety participants generated a larger N2pc in the target-relevant distractor condition and their behavioral performance was worse when distractors presented in the left visual field. The findings in this study suggested that trait anxiety influence the balance between two hemispheres especially in hyperactivation of the right ventral attention network, resulting in a leftward attentional asymmetry effect in spatial orienting.