Anxiety and the Error-Related Negativity Across Development: Considering Sex as a Moderator in Children and Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Abstract

Anxiety relates to alterations in cognitive performance. The association between anxiety and cognition may be indexed in studies using electroencephalogram (EEG) by the error-related negativity (ERN), a neural response considered to index cognitive control after mistakes (Moser et al., 2013). In adults, increased worry, a dimension of anxiety defined by future-oriented, negative verbal thinking, relates to an enhanced ERN in women, but not men (Moser et al., 2016). The ERN may reflect a call for greater cognitive resources for task-relevant processing, because some resources are usurped by worry (Moser et al., 2013). This compensatory process is thought to allow for adequate performance at a cost of inefficiency (Eysenck et al., 2007; Moser et al., 2013).
In older children, symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety, and separation anxiety have all been shown to relate to an enhanced ERN (Meyer, 2017; Moser, 2017). In younger children, however, results have been mixed (Meyer, 2017; Moser, 2017). Additionally, sex has seldom been considered as a moderator of this association in youth (Moser, 2017). One study in a small youth sample found that, while anxiety and the ERN were unrelated in boys, increased anxiety symptoms related to a smaller ERN in young girls and to a larger ERN in older girls (Ip et al., 2019). Therefore, age and sex are critical to consider in the association between anxiety and the ERN in youth.
In the current study, we examined age and sex as moderators of the association between anxiety and the ERN amplitude in 186 youth (Age: 4 – 13 yrs., M = 9.046 yrs., SD = 2.409). Participants completed two tasks used to elicit the ERN (i.e., fish flanker and child Go/NoGo tasks). GAD, social anxiety, and separation anxiety symptoms were measured using the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS; Chorpita et al., 2000). A series of multiple linear regressions were run to examine associations between each anxiety symptom dimension and the ERN/ task performance on each task, as well as their moderation by sex and age. Results revealed that the association between GAD symptoms and ERN amplitude was significantly moderated by sex on the Go/NoGo task, controlling for age (see Figure 1). In males, more GAD symptoms predicted a significantly larger ERN (B = -3.280, β = -0.226 , SE = 1.549 , t = -2.117, p = 0.036), but there was no association in females (B = 1.645, β = 0.156 , SE = 1.123 , t = 1.465, p = 0.145). Additionally, across both tasks, greater anxiety symptoms in each domain were related to making fewer errors in males and were either positively related or not related to errors in females.
Our findings suggest that the association between anxiety and the ERN may be specific to type of symptom, task and sex in youth. More specifically, increased GAD symptoms, such as worry, may relate to an enlarged ERN and making fewer errors in males. Implications for existing theories of the ERN and their application in youth will be discussed.

Authors

• Lilianne Marie Gloe, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• C. Emily Durbin, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason Scot Moser, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author