Abstract
There is an ongoing debate on whether the terms anxiety and fear denote distinct states. Brain imaging studies suggest they may indeed be dissociable and are differentially lateralized. A study of 54 normal college students successfully found doubly dissociable electrophysiological correlates of trait anxiety and fearfulness that had the predicted laterality. Trait anxious participants displayed a left-lateralized visual N1 (localized to the temporo-parietal junction) whereas trait fearful participants presented a right-lateralized P1r (localized to the superior parietal region). These findings support the proposal that trait anxiety and trait fearfulness are distinct personality dimensions with distinctive patterns of laterality.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 333-356 |
Number of pages | 24 |
Journal | Personality and Individual Differences |
Volume | 26 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 11 1998 |
Keywords
- Anxiety
- Emotions
- Event-related potentials
- Laterality
- N1
- P300
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychology(all)