Individuals with high levels of anxiety are known to exhibit cognitive processing abnormalities, such as heightened attention to potentially threatening information. Such processing abnormalities contribute to the pernicious thought patterns that can prolong clinical disorders. Yet, despite recent research describing attentional deficits in anxiety, little is currently known about the neural mechanisms contributing to these deficits. The present investigation examines the effects of anxiety on interhemispheric processing, a paradigmatic brain system for investigating selective attention. Prior research has demonstrated that interhemispheric processing, the division of relevant perceptual information between the left and right hemispheres, increases the cognitive capacity available for task performance and can aid in filtering out distracting, irrelevant information. Though many studies have investigated the interhemispheric processing of cognitive and perceptual information, virtually none have investigated the interhemispheric processing of emotional information. The present study is designed to meet three specific objectives: (1) the development of a measure of the interhemispheric transfer of emotional information; (2) examination of the effects of trait anxiety on interhemispheric transfer of emotional information; and (3) examination of the effects of evaluation stress on interhemispheric transfer of emotional information. The hypotheses to be tested are first, that trait-anxious individuals are deficient overall in their utilization of interhemispheric resources; and second, that failure to suppress task-irrelevant threatening information from being communicated between the hemispheres is a characteristic of both trait anxiety and evaluation stress. Together, the three stages of the project integrate cognitive and neuropsychological approaches to emotion to advance knowledge regarding the effects of anxiety on processing of emotional information in the brain.
| Compton, Rebecca J; Carp, Joshua; Chaddock, Laura et al. (2008) Trouble crossing the bridge: altered interhemispheric communication of emotional images in anxiety. Emotion 8:684-92 |
| Compton, Rebecca J; Carp, Joshua; Chaddock, Laura et al. (2007) Anxiety and error monitoring: increased error sensitivity or altered expectations? Brain Cogn 64:247-56 |
| Compton, Rebecca J; Feigenson, Keith; Widick, Page (2005) Take it to the bridge: an interhemispheric processing advantage for emotional faces. Brain Res Cogn Brain Res 24:66-72 |
| Compton, Rebecca J; Wilson, Kristen; Wolf, Kate (2004) Mind the gap: interhemispheric communication about emotional faces. Emotion 4:219-32 |
| Compton, Rebecca J (2002) Inter-hemispheric interaction facilitates face processing. Neuropsychologia 40:2409-19 |
