State Anxiety Modulates Conflict Control Depending on Cognitive Control Context: Evidence From Behavioral and ERP Data

ABSTRACT The impact of state anxiety on conflict control and its neural mechanisms, particularly in relation to proactive versus reactive control, remains incompletely understood. Therefore, we conducted two experiments to investigate how state anxiety affects conflict control across different control contexts and to explore the associated temporal dynamics. The threat of shock paradigm was employed to induce state anxiety. Participants completed the Stroop task under alternating safe and threat states, while EEG data were recorded. In Experiment 1, equal proportions of congruent and incongruent trials were used to create a balanced context. Experiment 2 manipulated trial proportions to induce either proactive or reactive control contexts. Significantly higher subjective anxiety ratings and startle reflexes in the threat state confirmed the successful induction of state anxiety in both experiments. Key findings revealed that in the balanced context, state anxiety enhanced conflict resolution efficiency, manifested by shortened reaction times and decreased sustained potential (SP) amplitudes for incongruent trials under the threat state. In the reactive control context, state anxiety impaired conflict monitoring efficiency, as evidenced by reduced N450 difference waves (incongruent minus congruent trials) under the threat state. This reduction was primarily driven by enhanced N450 amplitudes in congruent trials. Furthermore, enlarged SP difference waves were observed, indicating compensatory recruitment of additional cognitive resources to counteract the impaired monitoring process. Conversely, in the proactive control context, neither behavioral nor neural indicators were affected by state anxiety. These results demonstrate that the impact of state anxiety on conflict control depends critically on the control mode engaged by the task context, offering novel insights into the complex relationship between anxiety and cognitive control.