Abstract
Background: Goal-directed control guides optimal decision-making and it is an important cognitive faculty that protects against developing habits. Previous studies have found some evidence of goal-directed deficits when healthy individuals are stressed, and in psychiatric conditions characterised by compulsive behaviours and anxiety. Here, we tested if goal-directed control is affected by state anxiety, which might explain the former results.
Methods: We carried out a causal test of this hypothesis in two experiments (between-subject N = 88; within-subject N = 50) that used the inhalation of hypercapnic gas (7.5% CO2) to induce an acute state of anxiety in healthy volunteers. In a third experiment (N = 1413), we used a correlational design to test if real-life anxiety-provoking events (panic attacks, stressful events) are associated with impaired goal-directed control.
Results: In the former two causal experiments, we induced a profoundly anxious state, both physiologically and psychologically, but this did not affect goal-directed performance. In the third, correlational, study, we found no evidence for an association between goal-directed control, panic attacks or stressful life events over and above variance accounted for by trait differences in compulsivity.
Conclusions: In sum, three complementary experiments found no evidence that anxiety impairs goal-directed control in human subjects.
Methods: We carried out a causal test of this hypothesis in two experiments (between-subject N = 88; within-subject N = 50) that used the inhalation of hypercapnic gas (7.5% CO2) to induce an acute state of anxiety in healthy volunteers. In a third experiment (N = 1413), we used a correlational design to test if real-life anxiety-provoking events (panic attacks, stressful events) are associated with impaired goal-directed control.
Results: In the former two causal experiments, we induced a profoundly anxious state, both physiologically and psychologically, but this did not affect goal-directed performance. In the third, correlational, study, we found no evidence for an association between goal-directed control, panic attacks or stressful life events over and above variance accounted for by trait differences in compulsivity.
Conclusions: In sum, three complementary experiments found no evidence that anxiety impairs goal-directed control in human subjects.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1467-1478 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Psychological Medicine |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| Early online date | 2 Mar 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2021 |
