Figure 3. Grand average waveforms depicting ERN difference waves (error – correct) waveforms for neutral and discarding tasks. The left waveform depicts the neutral task, and the right waveform depicts the discarding task. The temporal region (50-150ms) where the mean ERN is measured is demarcated by the grey rectangle.
Alpha asymmetry. There were no significant group differences in alpha asymmetry, F (2, 81) = 2.43, p = .094, η2p = 0.06 (see Table 2).
Psychophysiological activity. It should be noted that we had missing data for ETCO2 (n = 23; 7 HD, 5 ANX, 11 HC) due to equipment failure. For ETCO2, there were no main effects of group, F (2, 64) = 1.47, p = .237, η2p = 0.04 or task, F (1, 64) = 1.62, p = .208, η2p = 0.03 and no interaction, F (2, 64) = 1.56, p = .219, η2p = 0.05. For HRV, there were no main effects of group, F (2, 82) = 1.15, p = .320, η2p = 0.03 or task, F (1, 82) = 0.24, p = .625, η2p = 0.00 and no interaction, F (2, 82) = 0.57, p = .566, η2p = 0.01. For HR, there were no main effects of group, F (2, 82) = 1.61, p = .206, η2p = 0.04 or task, F (1, 82) = 1.26, p = .265, η2p = 0.02 and no interaction, F (2, 82) = 0.15, p = .863, η2p = 0.00.
We also had missing EDA data for 18 participants (4 HD, 8 ANX, 6 HC) due to quality control issues. For SCL, there were no main effects of group,F (2, 69) = 1.06, p = .351, η2p = 0.03 or task, F (1, 69) = 2.19, p = .143, η2p = 0.03 and no interaction, F (2, 69) = 0.58, p = .562, η2p = 0.02. Finally, for SCRs, there were no main effects of group, F (2, 69) = 1.44, p = .244, η2p = 0.04 or task, F (1, 69) = 1.62, p = .207, η2p = 0.02 and no interaction, F (2, 69) = 0.43, p = .650, η2p = 0.01.
Contrary to hypotheses, these findings indicate no differences in psychophysiological activity among the groups or between the two tasks. See Table 2 for means and standard deviations across groups.