The effect of uncertainty on the magnitude of error-related brain activity in anxious people during a reinforcement learning task
Date
2015
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Numerous studies have shown that anxious people produce larger Error-Related Negativity (ERN) than non-anxious people when making mistakes. However, this enhancement was not observed in several recent studies in people with Obsessive-Compulsive (OC) symptoms during tasks that require the trial and error learning of stimulus-response relationships. The present set of experiments explore the hypothesis that people with OC symptoms are uncertain that they have correctly learned the stimulus-response mappings in these tasks. This uncertainty results in producing a smaller ERN than they otherwise might in a more straight-forward and more commonly used response conflict task. Additionally, the present experiments explore whether worriers, who have been shown to have enhanced ERNs on response conflict tasks, show the same decreased ERN during learning tasks as people with OC symptoms. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that people with OC symptoms produce smaller ERNs during a learning task than during a typical response conflict task. No difference in ERN amplitude, however, was found for worriers. Additionally, only the participants with OC symptoms reported less cognitive confidence and more uncertainty about their responses during the learning task than during the response conflict task. Experiment 2 aimed to increase feelings of uncertainty about the task performance in non-anxious people and Experiment 3 aimed to decrease uncertainty about task performance in participants with OC symptoms. However, both of these manipulations were unsuccessful. Overall, the findings from these three studies provide only modest support for the hypothesis that participants with OC symptoms feel more uncertain about the accuracy of their responses during learning tasks and there is no support for the hypothesis that their uncertainty is related to smaller ERNs. It should be noted that this effect appears to be specific to people with OC symptoms and does not generalize to people with anxiety more broadly.