This study examined the FRN, the P3, and individual differences in trait-BAS and trait-BIS in the context of reward expectation mismatch. A more negative FRN was predicted for higher vs. lower trait-BAS individuals and for higher vs. lower trait-BIS individuals. In the extinction-learning task, participants (N=102) chose between two response buttons to earn a maximum of points. In the acquisition phase, button 1 was continuously rewarded and button 2 was partially rewarded. In the extinction phase, one button was unexpectedly no longer rewarded. The FRN amplitude was more negative for higher vs. lower trait-BAS individuals and for lower vs. higher trait-BIS individuals within the extinction phase. The P3 was more positive in the extinction compared to the acquisition phase. Our results suggest that higher trait-BAS individuals have a more pronounced reward expectation mismatch.

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a widely used inventory for the assessment of affect in psychology and other applied sciences. Despite its popularity, the structure of the PANAS is still under debate. On the one hand, there is evidence of the traditional 2-factor model with Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) as uncorrelated factors. On the other hand, a more complex structure of the PANAS has been discussed. To shed further light on the core dimensions of the PANAS, 2 studies investigated the structure of the PANAS in 2 German samples (N = 354 and N = 364, respectively) by means of confirmatory factor analysis. The factor analysis results of Study 1 for a traitlike time frame instruction suggested a suboptimal model fit for the uncorrelated 2-factor model and the 3-factor model with PA, Afraid, and Upset as factors, whereas a superior model fit occurred for a bifactor model with traitlike PA, NA, and a general 3rd factor named Affective Polarity. In Study 2, the bifactor model was replicated for a statelike PANAS time frame instruction and evidence of criterion validity was provided for PA, NA, and Affective Polarity factors in 2 sex offender subgroups and in a community sample. With Affective Polarity, we introduce an affect dimension that captures additional variance beyond PA and NA. Because of the adjectives with relevant loadings on Affective Polarity, this general factor represents an individual's orientation toward approach and withdrawal, respectively.

J. A. Gray's Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) has produced a wealth of quasi-experimental studies in more than 35 years of research on personality and reinforcement sensitivity. The present meta-analysis builds on this literature by investigating RST in conflict and nonconflict reinforcement tasks in humans. Based on random-effects meta-analysis, we confirmed RST predictions of performance parameters (e.g., number of responses, reaction time) in reinforcement tasks for impulsivity- and anxiety-related traits. In studies on anxiety-related traits, the effect size variance was smaller for conflict tasks than for nonconflict tasks. A larger mean effect size and a larger variability of effect sizes were found for conflict compared to nonconflict tasks in studies on impulsivity-related traits. Our results suggest that problems with RST confirmation in reinforcement tasks are at least partly caused by insufficient statistical power of primary studies, and thus, encourage future research on RST.

This study investigates an extension of H.J. Eysenck's [Eysenck, H.J., 1967. The Biological Basis of Personality. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL] arousal theory of extraversion, incorporating an effort system as a control system for different aspects of arousal. Extraverts were expected to have lower levels of reticocortical arousal than introverts, to invest more effort, and to have lower task performance in a monotonous vigilance task. In a 40-min vigilance task, participants had to react to the shorter of two 1 kHz tones presented binaurally at an event rate of 200 per 10 min. Spontaneous EEG, event-related potential, and performance data of 40 extremely introverted and 41 extremely extraverted students were available for statistical analysis. A tendency for lower arousal levels of extraverts (alpha 2 band), the expected higher effort investment (P300) and a lower performance (hits) of extraverts were found.

Precision-cut liver tissue slices (PCLS) have been used for decades to study pharmacological metabolism as well as toxicology and efficacy of novel substances on primary material under standardized conditions. Slicing of primary liver tissue has been done using different slicing machines. Since there has been great variability in the results, we sought to compare the reproducibility of tissue slices generated using the newly developed Leica VT1200 S vibrating blade microtome with Vibrocheck (LV) and the Krumdieck tissue slicer (KD) which has been the standard apparatus for this application so far. Liver samples from five different species (human, pig, cattle, rat, mouse) were cut and the reproducibility of slice thickness was analyzed by cross sectioning the PCLS. The quality of the sliced tissue was determined via measurement of the ATP content. As a result, we found an improved accuracy and reproducibility of rat, mouse and human tissue slices using the new Leica vibrating blade microtome.

Previous research suggests that patterns of comorbidity of a limited number of anxiety, depressive, substance use and antisocial personality (ASP) disorders among adults are best reflected by a hierarchical three-factor structure with two correlated factors ('anxious-misery' and 'fear') that are summarized in a second-order 'internalizing' factor and one 'externalizing' factor. It has not been examined whether this structure is developmentally stable and robust against additions of more diagnoses. Using data from a prospective-longitudinal community study of adolescents and young adults we re-evaluate the three-factor model originally proposed by Krueger (Archives of General Psychiatry, 1999; 56, 921-926). Using confirmatory factor analysis with identical conventions as in Krueger's original work we found that the three factor model did not fit robustly across age or a wider range of diagnoses. Using explanatory factor analysis we examined alternative structures. We found various clinically meaningful patterns with good fit that go substantially beyond the original three-factor structure. However, again, there is little consistency in findings when different age groups or different diagnoses are considered. Our findings suggest that psychopathology cannot be reduced to any simple structure.

Previous research suggests that patterns of comorbidity of common mental disorders among adults are best reflected by a hierarchical three-factor structure with two correlated factors ('anxious-misery' and 'fear') summarized in a second-order 'internalizing' factor and one 'externalizing' factor. This three-factor structure has not been examined yet in a sample of adolescents and young adults.A representative sample of 3021 adolescents and young adults (baseline age 14-24) were prospectively followed over 10 years. Mental disorders were assessed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) by using the standardized Munich Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Ten mental disorders (major depressive episode, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, specific phobia, agoraphobia, panic disorder, alcohol dependence, drug dependence, antisocial personality) were fitted to a series of Confirmatory Factor Analysis models using:(1) 12-month data, and (2) lifetime data from a person-year data set.The three-factor model showed good fit to the observed data in our sample both when 12-month diagnoses and lifetime-to-date diagnoses from a person-year data file were used; yet the higher-order 'internalizing' factor summarizing 'anxious misery' and 'fear' had to be omitted.The three-factor model could be replicated in a sample of adolescents and young adults with the exception that the second-order 'internalizing' factor was not consistent with the data. Further research is necessary to provide more complete insight into the structure of mental disorders by examining the stability of the structure of mental disorders in different developmental stages (ages) and by using a more extensive set of mental disorders.

Abstract Task- and personality-related modulations of the N2 were probed within the framework of the revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST). Using an appetitive choice task, we investigated 58 students with extreme scores on the behavioral inhibition system and behavioral approach system (BIS/BAS) scales. The baseline-to-peak N2 amplitude was sensitive to the strength of decision conflict and demonstrated RST-related personality differences. In addition to the baseline N2 amplitude, temporal PCA results suggested two N2 components accounting for a laterality effect and capturing different N2 patterns for BIS/BAS groups with increasing conflict level. Evidence for RST-related personality differences was obtained for baseline-to-peak N2 and tPCA components in the present task. The results support the RST prediction that BAS sensitivity modulates conflict processing and confirm the cognitive-motivational conflict concept of RST.

The present paper introduces model-related (MR) factor score predictors, which reflect specific aspects of confirmatory factor models. The development is mainly based on Schönemann and Steiger's regression score components, but it can also be applied to the factor score coefficients. It is shown that the rotation of factor score predictors has no impact on the covariance matrix reproduced from the corresponding regression component patterns. Thus, regression score components or factor score coefficients can be rotated in order to obtain the required properties. This idea is the basis for MR factor score predictors, which are computed by means of a partial Procrustes rotation towards a target pattern representing the interesting properties of a confirmatory factor model. Two examples demonstrate the construction of MR factor score predictors reflecting specific constraints of a factor model.

The measurement of anterior electroencephalograph (EEG) asymmetries has become an important standard paradigm for the investigation of affective states and traits. Findings in this area are typically interpreted within the motivational direction model, which suggests a lateralization of approach and withdrawal motivational systems to the left and right anterior region, respectively. However, efforts to compare this widely adopted model with an alternative account-which relates the left anterior region to behavioral activation independent of the direction of behavior (approach or withdrawal) and the right anterior region to goal conflict-induced behavioral inhibition-are rare and inconclusive. Therefore, the authors measured the EEG in a sample of 93 young men during emotional imagery designed to provide a critical test between the 2 models. The results (e.g., a correlation between left anterior activation and withdrawal motivation) favor the alternative model on the basis of the concepts of behavioral activation and behavioral inhibition. In addition, the present study also supports an association of right parietal activation with physiological arousal and the conceptualization of parietal EEG asymmetry as a mediator of emotion-related physiological arousal.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

Deficient fear conditioning leads to maladaptive contextual anxiety as predicting danger is a key factor in regulating anxiety. A virtual reality conditioning task was used to evaluate cue learning and contextual anxiety with fear-potentiated startle and subjective fear in two experiments. In Experiment 1, failure to condition to a cue resulted in a constant state of context anxiety (subjective fearfulness and startle). Trait anxiety was unrelated to learning cue contingencies but the participants who failed to learn scored lower on a self-report measure of attentional control. Part of the group that learned the cue contingency failed to deduce safety of the context and hence did not reduce their contextual anxiety. Experiment 2 specifically focused on isolating this process and demonstrated an inverse association between trait anxiety and adaptive modulation of contextual anxiety. In conclusion, predicting threat aids in but not automatically implies successful regulation of contextual anxiety. High trait anxiety may increase risk of deficient modulation of contextual anxiety.

Neuroscience suggests that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is responsible for conflict monitoring and the detection of errors in cognitive tasks, thereby contributing to the implementation of attentional control. Though individual differences in frontally mediated goal maintenance have clearly been shown to influence outward behavior in interference-rich contexts, it is unclear whether corresponding differences exist in neural responses that arise out of the ACC. To investigate this possibility, we conducted an electrophysiological study using a variant of the Simon Task, recording event-related potentials (ERPs) in healthy normal individuals with varying working memory capacity (high vs. low spans; a behavioral proxy for variability in goal maintenance). Primary analyses focused on the magnitude of the error-related negativity (ERN), a response-locked ERP component associated with the commission of errors thought to arise because of action monitoring in the ACC. Our results revealed that frontally mediated working memory capacity may alter error monitoring by the ACC, with high spans showing a greater ERN than low spans. These individual differences were also observed in the posterror positivity, a response-locked ERP component associated with updating cognitive strategies, suggesting greater awareness of errors with increased working memory capacity. These results are interpreted within 2-process models of attentional control, suggesting individuals with greater working memory capacity may better maintain task goals by more strongly biasing neural activity in frontal-executive networks.(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of strategic conflict-related adjustments in cognitive control processes on indices of performance monitoring. Previous research has examined the effects of parametric task-related manipulations to bias attention to errors; however, the present study sought to elucidate the effects of internal adjustments in control mediated by the anterior cingulate cortex on error-related conflict processing. High-density event-related potentials (ERPs) were obtained from 124 healthy individuals (68 female, 66 male) during a modified Eriksen flanker task. Behavioral measures (i.e., error rates, response times [RTs]) and N2 amplitudes showed significant conflict adaptation (i.e., previous-trial congruencies influenced current-trial measures). For error trials, the error-related negativity (ERN) was more negative for errors on high-conflict (i.e., incongruent) trials following high-conflict trials relative to errors on high-conflict trials following low-conflict (i.e., congruent) trials. These findings indicate that error-related conflict-monitoring processes adjust according to the post-conflict recruitment of strategic cognitive control and suggest an ongoing interplay between conflict and internal adjustments in control resources. Interpretations from the perspective of the conflict monitoring theory of cognitive control, the reinforcement learning theory, and the response-outcome theory of the ERN are discussed.

Theories of human action control deal with the question of how cognitive control is dynamically adjusted to task demands. The conflict monitoring theory of anterior cingulate (ACC) function suggests that the ACC monitors for response conflicts in the ongoing processing stream thereby triggering the mobilization of cognitive control. Alternatively, the outcome evaluation account of ACC function suggests that the ACC monitors for negative performance outcomes, an information that serves as an aversive learning signal for future action selection. Botvinick (2007) recently suggested that both theories might converge on the detection of aversive signals in general. Here, the authors provide first evidence that conflicts are registered as aversive signals. Congruent and incongruent Stroop color-words served as primes, and positive and negative stimuli as targets in an affective priming paradigm. Negative targets were evaluated faster after incongruent than after congruent Stroop primes, and positive targets were evaluated slower after incongruent than after congruent primes. The finding that conflicts are actually registered as aversive signals bridges the gap between competing theories of ACC function and has broad theoretical and behavioral implications as it makes the conflict monitoring theory applicable to a much wider range of situations and tasks.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Recent cognitive models propose that intrusive trauma memories arise and persist because high levels of emotional arousal triggered by the trauma disrupt conceptual processing of elements of the event, while enhancing sensory/perceptual processing. A trauma film analogue design was used to investigate if the predicted facilitating effects on intrusions from inhibiting conceptual processing and predicted attenuating effects on intrusions from inhibiting sensory processing are moderated by individual differences in emotionality. METHODS: One hundred and five non-clinical participants viewed a traumatic film while undertaking a conceptual interference task, a sensory interference task, or no interference task. Participants recorded the frequency and intensity of intrusions over the following week. RESULTS: There was no facilitating effect for the conceptual interference task compared to no interference task. A significant attenuation of the frequency of intrusions was evident for those undertaking sensory interference (ŋ(2) = .04). This effect, however, was only present for those with high trait anxiety (d = .82) and not for those with low trait anxiety (d = .08). Relative to high trait anxious controls, high anxious participants who undertook sensory interference also reported lower intensity of intrusions (d = .66). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first trauma film analogue study to show that the attenuating effect of concurrent sensory/perceptual processing on the frequency and intensity of subsequent intrusions is evident only for people with high trait anxiety. The results have implications for conceptual models of intrusion development and for their application to the prevention of post traumatic distress.

According to recent theoretical approaches dispositional anxiety is fundamentally linked to neural mechanisms of cognitive control (Braver et al., 2007; Eysenck et al., 2007). The present study was conducted to further investigate this topic by focusing on the relation between trait anxiety, conflict-processing and dynamic adjustments in attentional allocation. Participants completed a modified version of the face-word Stroop task while an electroencephalogram was recorded. We analyzed behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of conflict processing and conflict-driven modulations in target and distractor processing. Anxiety was not related to general conflict-sensitivity but to individual differences in conflict-driven adjustments in attentional allocation: following a high level of stimulus-response conflict, highly anxious participants allocated more attentional resources to the processing of predominantly task-relevant information and withdrew attention from the processing of predominantly task-irrelevant information. Thus, trait anxiety appears to be closely related to individual differences in dynamic adjustments of attentional control.

Monitoring and controlling 2 language systems is fundamental to language use in bilinguals. Here, we reveal in a combined functional (event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging) and structural neuroimaging (voxel-based morphometry) study that dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a structure tightly bound to domain-general executive control functions, is a common locus for language control and resolving nonverbal conflict. We also show an experience-dependent effect in the same region: Bilinguals use this structure more efficiently than monolinguals to monitor nonlinguistic cognitive conflicts. They adapted better to conflicting situations showing less ACC activity while outperforming monolinguals. Importantly, for bilinguals, brain activity in the ACC, as well as behavioral measures, also correlated positively with local gray matter volume. These results suggest that early learning and lifelong practice of 2 languages exert a strong impact upon human neocortical development. The bilingual brain adapts better to resolve cognitive conflicts in domain-general cognitive tasks.

Asymmetrical patterns of frontal cortical activity have been implicated in the development and expression of aggressive behavior. Along with individual motivational tendencies, the ability to restrain one's impulses might be a factor in aggressive behavior. Recently, a role for the inhibitory cortical beta rhythm was suggested. The present study investigated whether individual differences in resting state asymmetries in the beta frequency band were associated with trait aggression and behavioral inhibition. In addition, the selective contributions of the prefrontal and motor cortex areas to these associations were examined. Results showed that relative dominant right frontal beta frequency activity was associated with both heightened trait aggression, especially hostility, and reduced response inhibition. Moreover, asymmetries over the anterior electrode locations proved to be related most closely to trait aggression, while asymmetries over the central electrode locations were associated with response inhibition. Together these findings show that right-dominant frontal beta activity is positively associated with aggressive tendencies and reduced behavioral inhibition.

Attention is preferentially deployed toward those stimuli which are threatening and those which are surprising. The current paper examines the intersection of these phenomena; how do expectations about the threatening nature of stimuli influence the deployment of attention? The predictions tested were that individuals would direct attention toward stimuli which were expected to be threatening (regardless of whether they were or not) and toward stimuli which were surprising. As anxiety has been associated with deficient control of attention to threat, it was additionally predicted that high levels of trait anxiety would be associated with deficits in the use of threat-expectation to guide attention. During fMRI scanning, 29 healthy volunteers completed a simple task in which threat-expectation was manipulated by altering the frequency with which fearful or neutral faces were presented. Individual estimates of threat-expectation and surprise were created using a Bayesian computational model. The degree to which the model derived estimates of threat-expectation and surprise were able to explain both a behavioral measure of attention to the faces and activity in the visual cortex and anterior attentional control areas was then tested. As predicted, increased threat-expectation and surprise were associated with increases in both the behavioral and neuroimaging measures of attention to the faces. Additionally, regions of the orbitofrontal cortex and left amygdala were found to covary with threat-expectation whereas anterior cingulate and lateral prefrontal cortices covaried with surprise. Individuals with higher levels of trait anxiety were less able to modify neuroimaging measures of attention in response to threat-expectation. These results suggest that continuously calculated estimates of the probability of threat may plausibly be used to influence the deployment of visual attention and that use of this information is perturbed in anxious individuals.

The role of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in cognition has been extensively investigated with several techniques, including single-unit recordings in rodents and monkeys and EEG and fMRI in humans. This has generated a rich set of data and points of view. Important theoretical functions proposed for ACC are value estimation, error detection, error-likelihood estimation, conflict monitoring, and estimation of reward volatility. A unified view is lacking at this time, however. Here we propose that online value estimation could be the key function underlying these diverse data. This is instantiated in the reward value and prediction model (RVPM). The model contains units coding for the value of cues (stimuli or actions) and units coding for the differences between such values and the actual reward (prediction errors). We exposed the model to typical experimental paradigms from single-unit, EEG, and fMRI research to compare its overall behavior with the data from these studies. The model reproduced the ACC behavior of previous single-unit, EEG, and fMRI studies on reward processing, error processing, conflict monitoring, error-likelihood estimation, and volatility estimation, unifying the interpretations of the role performed by the ACC in some aspects of cognition.