The present investigation examines the interhemispheric transfer of emotional and non-emotional information in anxious individuals. Anxiety is known to influence cognitive functioning, resulting in both overall cognitive inefficiency and selective biases to attend to threatening stimuli. Neural mechanisms for these cognitive deficits are currently not well understood. Our prior work using behavioral paradigms indicates that anxious and non-anxious individuals differ in interhemispheric communication. Specifically, anxious individuals do not appear to exchange information between the hemispheres as effectively as do non-anxious individuals. Further, anxious individuals appear to shift processing priorities to favor the interhemispheric exchange of threatening information, relative to positive information. These data indicate that interhemispheric communication may serve as a model system for understanding the cognitive deficits characteristic of anxiety. The present series of studies applies event-related potential (ERP) measures of interhemispheric transfer to study these issues, overcoming limitations of the behavioral methodology used to date. Three specific predictions are tested: (1) that interhemispheric transfer of non-emotional information is slowed in anxious individuals; (2) that interhemispheric transfer of threatening emotional information is relatively speeded in anxious individuals; and (3) that interhemispheric transfer of threatening emotional information is asymmetrically speeded from the left hemisphere to the right hemisphere, which is specialized for processing emotional cues. These predictions are tested in three studies that measure interhemispheric transmission time when subjects view neutral stimuli (Study 1), emotional faces (Study 2), and emotional words (Study 3). Application of the ERP methodology for measuring interhemispheric transmission is expected to produce a detailed picture of how emotional relevance affects the spread of information from one hemisphere to another. ? ?
| 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 |
