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<p>When a behavioral task becomes attentionally demanding, anxiety-prone individuals become more susceptible to task-irrelevant sensory events. Attentional control theory proposes that this susceptibility arises from impairments in the inhibition function, a central executive function that regulates responses to sensory stimuli. This study examined whether anxiety-related impairment of inhibition affects early sensory processing of task-irrelevant auditory stimuli, as measured by mismatch negativity (MMN), an early pre-attentive electroencephalographic response evoked by abrupt auditory changes. MMNs were recorded using an oddball paradigm while participants performed a visual task of varying difficulty. The results showed that the enhancement of MMN to a task-irrelevant high-frequency tone at a latency within 250&#xa0;ms was significantly associated with trait anxiety when the visual task became more attentionally demanding, suggesting that impaired inhibition intrudes on early sensory processing. Furthermore, time–frequency analyses revealed that power enhancements of mismatch oscillatory responses in the alpha/low-beta band, occurring approximately up to 450&#xa0;ms after stimulus onset, were significantly correlated with trait anxiety under high attentional demand. These findings suggest that compensatory top-down mediated sensory suppression of task-irrelevant events occurs through early sensory processing, along with impaired distractor inhibition reflected in MMN. This study proposes that impaired inhibition and compensatory sensory suppression in anxiety-prone individuals occur in a multi-tiered manner, even at the pre-attentive level.</p>

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Anxiety-related impairment of inhibition during early sensory processing: an MMN/MOR study

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月29日

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  • Tomokazu Urakawa,
  • Kentaro Imai,
  • Keigo Mikami,
  • Kyoko Shibata,
  • Takuya Obata,
  • Toshimi Okazaki,
  • Osamu Araki

摘要

When a behavioral task becomes attentionally demanding, anxiety-prone individuals become more susceptible to task-irrelevant sensory events. Attentional control theory proposes that this susceptibility arises from impairments in the inhibition function, a central executive function that regulates responses to sensory stimuli. This study examined whether anxiety-related impairment of inhibition affects early sensory processing of task-irrelevant auditory stimuli, as measured by mismatch negativity (MMN), an early pre-attentive electroencephalographic response evoked by abrupt auditory changes. MMNs were recorded using an oddball paradigm while participants performed a visual task of varying difficulty. The results showed that the enhancement of MMN to a task-irrelevant high-frequency tone at a latency within 250 ms was significantly associated with trait anxiety when the visual task became more attentionally demanding, suggesting that impaired inhibition intrudes on early sensory processing. Furthermore, time–frequency analyses revealed that power enhancements of mismatch oscillatory responses in the alpha/low-beta band, occurring approximately up to 450 ms after stimulus onset, were significantly correlated with trait anxiety under high attentional demand. These findings suggest that compensatory top-down mediated sensory suppression of task-irrelevant events occurs through early sensory processing, along with impaired distractor inhibition reflected in MMN. This study proposes that impaired inhibition and compensatory sensory suppression in anxiety-prone individuals occur in a multi-tiered manner, even at the pre-attentive level.