Trouble crossing the bridge: altered interhemispheric communication of emotional images in anxiety.
Publication/Presentation Date
10-1-2008
Abstract
Worry is thought to involve a strategy of cognitive avoidance, in which internal verbalization acts to suppress threatening emotional imagery. This study tested the hypothesis that worry-prone individuals would exhibit patterns of between-hemisphere communication that reflect cognitive avoidance. Specifically, the hypothesis predicted slower transfer of threatening images from the left to the right hemisphere among worriers. Event-related potential (ERP) measures of interhemispheric transfer time supported this prediction. Left-to-right hemisphere transfer times for angry faces were relatively slower for individuals scoring high in self-reported worry compared with those scoring low, whereas transfer of happy and neutral faces did not differ between groups. These results suggest that altered interhemispheric communication may constitute one mechanism of cognitive avoidance in worry.
Volume
8
Issue
5
First Page
684
Last Page
692
ISSN
1528-3542
Published In/Presented At
Compton, R. J., Carp, J., Chaddock, L., Fineman, S. L., Quandt, L. C., & Ratliff, J. B. (2008). Trouble crossing the bridge: altered interhemispheric communication of emotional images in anxiety. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 8(5), 684–692. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012910
Disciplines
Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Health and Medical Administration | Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods
PubMedID
18837618
Department(s)
Administration and Leadership
Document Type
Article