Adolescents face constant exams and often experience severe test anxiety. Previous studies suggested that test anxiety impairs individuals’ inhibitory control. Neurophysiological evidence suggests that anxiety interferes with the recruitment of the prefrontal region of the brain, which modulates top-down attentional control during the completion of inhibitory control tasks. However, there is little neurophysiological evidence regarding how test anxiety impairs inhibitory control in adolescents. This study used the flanker task to measure individuals’ inhibitory control ability, and both event-related potential and electroencephalography indicators were used to measure neurophysiological processes. The results showed that increased trait test anxiety was significantly negatively correlated with theta power oscillation, while adolescents performed both incongruent and congruent trials. This finding suggests that trait test anxiety adolescents are less able to exert greater effort to complete the inhibitory control task and show impoverished top-down attentional control resources.

中文翻译：

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脑电图与青少年侧卫任务中特质测试焦虑的相关性

青少年面临不断的考试，常常会经历严重的考试焦虑。先前的研究表明，考试焦虑会损害个人的抑制控制能力。神经生理学证据表明，焦虑会干扰大脑前额叶区域的募集，该区域在完成抑制性控制任务期间调节自上而下的注意力控制。然而，关于考试焦虑如何损害青少年的抑制控制，几乎没有神经生理学证据。本研究采用侧翼任务来测量个体的抑制控制能力，并采用事件相关电位和脑电图指标来测量神经生理过程。结果表明，特质测试焦虑的增加与 theta 功率振荡显着负相关，而青少年同时进行不一致和一致试验。这一发现表明，特质测试焦虑症青少年不太能够付出更大的努力来完成抑制控制任务，并表现出自上而下的注意力控制资源匮乏。