When searching for a target, it is possible to suppress the features of a known distractor. This suppression may prevent distractor processing altogether or only after the distractor initially captures attention (i.e., search and destroy). However, suppression may be impaired in individuals with attentional control deficits, such as in high anxiety. In this study (n = 48), we used ERPs to examine the time course of attentional enhancement and suppression when participants were given pretrial information about target or distractor features. Consistent with our hypothesis, we found that individuals with higher levels of anxiety had lower neural measures of suppressing the template-matching distractor, instead showing enhanced processing. These findings indicate that individuals with anxiety are more likely to use a search-and-destroy mechanism of negative templates-highlighting the importance of attentional control abilities in distractor-guided search.

中文翻译：

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分心：焦虑会损害视觉搜索中已知分心特征的神经抑制。

在搜索目标时，可以抑制已知干扰项的特征。这种抑制可以完全或仅在干扰项最初引起注意（即，搜索和破坏）之后阻止干扰项处理。然而，具有注意力控制缺陷的个体，例如高度焦虑的个体，抑制可能会受到损害。在这项研究 (n = 48) 中，我们使用 ERP 来检查当参与者获得有关目标或干扰物特征的审前信息时注意力增强和抑制的时间过程。与我们的假设一致，我们发现焦虑程度较高的个体抑制模板匹配干扰因素的神经措施较低，而是表现出增强的处理能力。