Currently, the world is facing a global anxiety crisis, making it important to understand the neuropsychological processes contributing to maintaining such cognitive biases. Understanding the...Show moreCurrently, the world is facing a global anxiety crisis, making it important to understand the neuropsychological processes contributing to maintaining such cognitive biases. Understanding the factors that influence negative biases about the self is critical to intervene and prevent clinical effects. In this study we examine how Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) contributes to the emergence of a negative cognitive bias. We examine the neural correlates of this bias by examining the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN). In addition, learning about the self will be assessed through a computational model of affective updating of self-feelings after receiving performance feedback. The objective was to examine the effect of IU on the valence of FRN as well as affective updating. Ninety-eight participants (mean age = 20, 14 males), participated on two testing days in a self-performance task. Results failed to show that IU predicts FRN valence. Second, it could not be demonstrated that IU is more strongly associated with negative affective updating compared with positive affective updating. In addition, the subscales did not provide the expected finding that the relationship between the cognitive dimension of IU and the behavioral dimension of IU predicted negative affective updating more strongly than positive affective updating. A key message may be that further research and methodological changes are needed to make more detailed statements and predictions about the relationship between IU and FRN and affective updating. This would be important for drawing substantive conclusions about how IU maintains a negative cognitive bias toward the self and how potential interventions might be applied.Show less
