An ERP study characterizing how trait anxiety modulates proactive and reactive response inhibition independent of different emotional contexts

Background: Human's response inhibition could be classified as proactive (top-down) and reactive (bottom-up) inhibition process. Although trait anxiety has been proposed to alter an individual's response inhibition, whether and how it modulates the proactive and reactive response inhibition processes in different emotional contexts remains unclear. Methods: We combined an adapted emotional Stop-Signal Task with high-temporal resolution electrophysiological recordings to compare the results of high and low trait anxiety participants. Results: At the behavioral level, no significant differences were found between high and low trait anxiety individuals in either proactive or reactive inhibition. However, the event-related potential analysis suggested that although trait anxiety might affect early object recognition, indicated by a greater P2 amplitude, high trait anxiety individuals may exhibit intact proactive inhibition but impaired reactive inhibition, signified by a delayed P3 peak latency. In addition, behavioral and event-related potential analyses revealed that negative emotional context impaired reactive inhibition independent of the effect of trait anxiety. Conclusions: Trait anxiety impairs reactive inhibition but not proactive inhibition independently of neutral or negative emotional contexts.