The role of novelty in the development and maintenance of anxiety
The role of novelty in the development and maintenance of anxiety
A particularly influential theory of anxiety suggests that the anxious state is associated with hypersensitivity to novelty and/or ambiguity (Gray 1982), but this feature has attracted little attention. In this study, auditory event-related potentials associated with unexpected novel noises were explored in normally developing children with low and high self-reported trait anxiety.
A total of 23 children participated in an event related potential study of novelty processing. The children were divided into low (n = 12) and high (n = 11) trait anxious groups according to a median split of STAIC (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children) scores. A novelty auditory oddball paradigm was employed. This paradigm presents frequent low tones, and equally infrequent high tones and novel noises (e.g. dog bark). The amplitude and latency of two main components, the ‘N1’ and the ‘P3’ were compared between groups.
Significant effects were found between groups, confined to the N1 component. The N1 elicited by novel stimuli, was of longer latency (p = .014) and greater amplitude (p = .004) in the high compared to low anxious group. In support, significant linear correlations revealed that novelty N1 amplitude increased with an increase in trait anxiety.
Brain response to novelty is modulated by increased trait anxiety in normally developing children. The subtle changes in brain activity extend previous event-related potential data obtained from high trait anxious children (Daruna, Rau, and Strecker, 1991) and children who are behaviourally inhibited (Bar-Haim, Marshall, Fox, Schorr, and Gordon-Salant, 2003). However, the present findings are unique in demonstrating a significant effect of stimulus novelty in the absence of stimulus-probability effects.
University of Southampton
Butterfield, Elinor Loveday
9db2873d-41bc-4b02-b2ac-2b014898da75
2006
Butterfield, Elinor Loveday
9db2873d-41bc-4b02-b2ac-2b014898da75
Butterfield, Elinor Loveday
(2006)
The role of novelty in the development and maintenance of anxiety.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
A particularly influential theory of anxiety suggests that the anxious state is associated with hypersensitivity to novelty and/or ambiguity (Gray 1982), but this feature has attracted little attention. In this study, auditory event-related potentials associated with unexpected novel noises were explored in normally developing children with low and high self-reported trait anxiety.
A total of 23 children participated in an event related potential study of novelty processing. The children were divided into low (n = 12) and high (n = 11) trait anxious groups according to a median split of STAIC (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children) scores. A novelty auditory oddball paradigm was employed. This paradigm presents frequent low tones, and equally infrequent high tones and novel noises (e.g. dog bark). The amplitude and latency of two main components, the ‘N1’ and the ‘P3’ were compared between groups.
Significant effects were found between groups, confined to the N1 component. The N1 elicited by novel stimuli, was of longer latency (p = .014) and greater amplitude (p = .004) in the high compared to low anxious group. In support, significant linear correlations revealed that novelty N1 amplitude increased with an increase in trait anxiety.
Brain response to novelty is modulated by increased trait anxiety in normally developing children. The subtle changes in brain activity extend previous event-related potential data obtained from high trait anxious children (Daruna, Rau, and Strecker, 1991) and children who are behaviourally inhibited (Bar-Haim, Marshall, Fox, Schorr, and Gordon-Salant, 2003). However, the present findings are unique in demonstrating a significant effect of stimulus novelty in the absence of stimulus-probability effects.
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Published date: 2006
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Local EPrints ID: 467100
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/467100
PURE UUID: 0b701288-731a-4d59-b2de-85cf1680e6a1
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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2022 08:12
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 20:59
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Author:
Elinor Loveday Butterfield
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