The Effect Of Trait Anxiety On Self-face Processing

Trait anxiety is a predisposing factor of anxiety and depression,which plays a key role in the development of anxiety and depression.Because anxiety disorder and depression have the performance of excessive "self-focus" in self-processing,but up to now,it has not been clear whether the individual with trait anxiety has self bias in self-related stimulation processing,especially in self face.In this study,behavioral and EEG studies were used to recruit subjects from two groups: low trait anxiety(LTA)and high trait anxiety(HTA)of normal people to carry out experiments,in order to clarify and clarify the characteristics and potential neural mechanism of self faces of different levels of trait anxiety individuals.Experiment 1 used a mixed experiment design of 2(trait anxiety level: high and low)× 3(face self-similarity: high self-similarity,fuzzy self-similarity,low self-similarity).The morph technique was used to synthesize self faces and non self faces(friend faces or stranger faces)according to different proportions,so as to manipulate the self similarity of faces.The task of the subjects was to determine whether the morph synthetic face presented was more like themselves or others.The results showed that under the condition of fuzzy similarity,people with high trait anxiety were significantly more likely to judge their own synthetic faces than those with low trait anxiety,which indicated that people with high trait anxiety were more sensitive to the detection of their own faces.In addition,compared with the condition of low self similarity and high self similarity,the response time of the two groups to face judgment is longer under the condition of fuzzy similarity.In Experiment 2,a mixed design of 2(trait anxiety level: high,low)× 3(face type: self-face,friend face,stranger face)was used.ERP technology and implicit face recognition task were used to investigate the time course characteristics of self face processing of individuals with high and low trait anxiety.The task of the subjects is to judge the orientation of the face,but ignore the identity of the face.The results showed that in the early stage of N170 / VPP,the main effects of trait anxiety group and face type were not significant.In N2 stage,the main effect of face type wassignificant,that is,the self-faces of high and low trait anxiety group all induced more negative N2.But in the P3 stage,only the high trait anxiety group induced greater P3.These results suggest that there is a significant self processing bias in high trait anxiety individuals,which occurs in the semi-automatic stage(N2 component)and the attention control stage(P3 component).However,low trait anxiety individuals only showed significant self-face recognition bias at N2 stage.Based on the above two experiments,we can draw a conclusion: trait anxiety can affect the processing of self faces.Compared with the low trait anxiety,the high trait anxiety subjects have a stronger processing bias to self faces.In the face of "like me,not me" face judgment,high trait anxiety people are more inclined to judge themselves,that is,they are more sensitive to the processing of self components;in the EEG experiment of study 2,there is also a stronger self bias in identifying self faces,and the processing of self faces by high trait anxiety is stable in the semi-automatic stage of self face processing(n 2)and the attention control phase(P3component).The results of this study provide cognitive neuroscience evidence for us to understand the cognitive processing characteristics of trait anxiety,and also provide a new perspective for us to understand anxiety and depression.