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When Neutral is Not Neutral: Neurophysiological Evidence for Reduced Discrimination between Aversive and Non-Aversive Information in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

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Samantha Denefrio
Samantha Denefrio
Samantha Denefrio
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Sarah Myruski at Pennsylvania State University
Sarah Myruski
Douglas Mennin
Douglas Mennin
Douglas Mennin
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Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary
Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary
Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary
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Abstract and Figures

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by a range of cognitive and affective disruptions, such as pathological worry. There is debate, however, about whether such disruptions are specifically linked to heightened responses to aversive stimuli, or due to overgeneralized threat monitoring leading to deficits in the ability to discriminate between aversive and non-aversive affective information. The present study capitalized on the temporal and functional specificity of scalp-recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine this question by exploring two targeted neurocognitive responses in a group of adults diagnosed with GAD: (1) visual processing of angry (aversive) versus neutral (non-aversive) faces; and (2) response monitoring of incorrect (aversive) versus correct (non-aversive) responses. Electroencephalography was recorded while 15 adults with GAD and 15 age-matched controls viewed angry and neutral faces prior to individual trials of a flanker task. ERPs to faces were the P1, reflecting attention allocation, the early posterior negativity (EPN), reflecting early affective discrimination, and the N170, reflecting face-sensitive visual discrimination. The error-related negativity (ERN) and positivity (Pe) were generated to incorrect and correct responses. Results showed reduced discrimination between aversive and non-aversive faces and responses in the GAD relative to the control group during visual discrimination (N170) and later-emerging error monitoring (Pe). These effects were driven by exaggerated processing of non-aversive faces and responses, suggesting over-generalized threat monitoring. Implications for cognitive-affective models of GAD are discussed.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
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Motivation and Emotion (2019) 43:325–338
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9732-0
ORIGINAL PAPER
When neutral isnotneutral: Neurophysiological evidence forreduced
discrimination betweenaversive andnon-aversive information
ingeneralized anxiety disorder
SamanthaDenefrio1,2· SarahMyruski1· DouglasMennin3· TracyA.Dennis‑Tiwary1,2
Published online: 8 October 2018
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by a range of cognitive and affective disruptions, such as pathological
worry. There is debate, however, about whether such disruptions are specifically linked to heightened responses to aversive
stimuli, or due to overgeneralized threat monitoring leading to deficits in the ability to discriminate between aversive and
non-aversive affective information. The present study capitalized on the temporal and functional specificity of scalp-recorded
event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine this question by exploring two targeted neurocognitive responses in a group of
adults diagnosed with GAD: (1) visual processing of angry (aversive) versus neutral (non-aversive) faces; and (2) response
monitoring of incorrect (aversive) versus correct (non-aversive) responses. Electroencephalography was recorded while 15
adults with GAD and 15 age-matched controls viewed angry and neutral faces prior to individual trials of a flanker task. ERPs
to faces were the P1, reflecting attention allocation, the early posterior negativity(EPN), reflecting early affective discrimi-
nation, and the N170, reflecting face-sensitive visual discrimination. The error-related negativity(ERN) and positivity (Pe)
were generated to incorrect and correct responses. Results showed reduced discrimination between aversive and non-aversive
faces and responses in the GAD relative to the control group during visual discrimination (N170) and later-emerging error
monitoring (Pe). These effects were driven by exaggerated processing of non-aversive faces and responses, suggesting over-
generalized threat monitoring. Implications for cognitive-affective models of GAD are discussed.
Keywords Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)· Event-related potentials (ERPs)· Emotion· Anxiety
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is among the most com-
monly-diagnosed anxiety disorders (Ballenger etal. 2001)
affecting an estimated 5.7% of the adult population in their
lifetime and over 18million individuals in the U.S. alone
(Kessler etal. 2005). Recent theoretical models of GAD
(Mennin etal. 2002, 2005; Salters-Pedneault etal. 2006)
posit that overgeneralized threat monitoring, measured in
terms of reduced ability to differentiate between aversive and
non-aversive affective information, may be a key mechanism
in the emergence and maintenance of GAD symptoms.
Reduced affective discrimination may be one of several,
temporally-distinct stages of disrupted threat processing in
GAD. For example, research on GAD using reaction time
measures documents early-emerging exaggerated atten-
tion to threat-themed relative to neutral stimuli (Amir etal.
2009), whereas research using neuroimaging techniques
such as fMRI documents reduced discrimination between
aversive and neutral images (e.g., enhanced bilateral dorsal
amygdala activation to cues predicting both aversive and
neutral images; Nitschke etal. 2009). These two findings,
one of early exaggerated response to aversive stimuli and
the other of reduced discrimination during more elabora-
tive processing, may reflect methdological differences in the
level of analysis (brain or behavior) and in the time-scale of
measurement. The use of a single measurement technique
that can simultaneously capture multiple stages of response
to affective stimuli is therefore a crucial next step in clarify-
ing the nature of affective discrimination in GAD.
* Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary
tracy.dennis@hunter.cuny.edu
1 Hunter College, The City University ofNew York,
NewYork, NY, USA
2 The Graduate Center, The City University ofNew York,
NewYork, NY, USA
3 Teachers College, Columbia University, NewYork, NY, USA
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Some studies have found that, relative to healthy controls, adults diagnosed with GAD show larger-magnitude ERNs following the commission of an error relative to a correct response (Weinberg et al., 2010(Weinberg et al., , 2012(Weinberg et al., , 2015. Yet, other studies document that GAD is associated with broader disruptions in error-related brain activity, including exaggerated processing of correct responses that are non-aversive (Denefrio et al., 2019;Endrass et al., 2010;Xiao et al., 2011). For example, in one study, adults diagnosed with GAD, compared to healthy controls, showed greater magnitude error positivity to non-aversive correct responses, suggesting overgeneralized threat monitoring at a temporal window slightly later than the ERN (Denefrio et al., 2019). ...
... Yet, other studies document that GAD is associated with broader disruptions in error-related brain activity, including exaggerated processing of correct responses that are non-aversive (Denefrio et al., 2019;Endrass et al., 2010;Xiao et al., 2011). For example, in one study, adults diagnosed with GAD, compared to healthy controls, showed greater magnitude error positivity to non-aversive correct responses, suggesting overgeneralized threat monitoring at a temporal window slightly later than the ERN (Denefrio et al., 2019). ...
... The goal of the present study was to test whether the association between GAD symptom severity and ERN was sensitive to individual differences in processing inhibition measured via NQ. To do so, we reanalyzed data from a previously published study examining the ERN in adults diagnosed with GAD (i.e., Denefrio et al., 2019). We quantified NQ to non-aversive (neutral faces) and aversive (angry faces) stimuli presented prior to flanker arrays on each trial of a speeded flanker task, from which ERN to incorrect versus correct responses were generated. ...
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... Other studies hypothesized that distinguishing between safety and threat cues occur during the later stages of processing (Mogg et al., 2000), in which anxious individuals have top-down processing in threat-safety detection (Eysenck et al., 2007). These conflicting findings may reflect methodological differences (Denefrio et al., 2019). ...
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The Oxford Handbook of Event-Related Potential Components
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