EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS REVEAL IMPAIRED EMOTION-COGNITION INTERACTION IN INDIVIDUALS WITH PUBLIC SPEAKING ANXIETY

This study used reaction time (RT) and event-related potential (ERP) analysis in an emotion-cognition Eriksen-Flanker (ECEF) task to investigate behavioral and neural abnormalities in individuals with public speaking anxiety (PSA). Although 25 per cent of people worldwide suffer from PSA, there is currently a lack of standardized assessment or biomarkers to detect emotion-cognition abnormalities in individuals with PSA. RT and ERP were compared between 12 subjects with high (H) PSA and 12 subjects with low (L) PSA in the ECEF experiment. EEG was recorded with the 14-channel Emotiv EPOC+. RT data showed a significant Flanker Effect across groups in the neutral and emotional (PSA-related) conditions, with increased Flanker effect in the HPSA group. On average, LPSA subjects were faster than the HPSA subjects in the ECEF task. HPSA subjects showed aberrant ERP responses in two ways. Firstly in the reversed N200 conflict effect with increased frontocentral amplitude in the incongruent compared to the congruent condition. Secondly, in the absence of the P200 frontocentral emotional modulation found in LPSA subjects. In the HPSA group, decreased P200 amplitude is significantly related to impaired behavioral performance in the neutral congruent condition. RT and ERP are useful in modern medicine because they successfully unveiled the biomarkers of abnormalities during the interaction of emotion and cognition. Impaired conflict processing in PSA-related condi- tions was found at the N200 and P200 windows in HPSA individuals.