Theoretical and Natural Science
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Theoretical and Natural Science
Vol. 24, 20 December 2023
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The Influence of stress factors on anxiety and depression: The mediating role of neural responses to errors and rewards
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This paper examines how stress impacts depression and anxiety through neural responses to mistakes and rewards. Currently, mental health problems, specifically anxiety and depression, are on the rise. This paper presents a study on how stress affects depression and anxiety. To begin with, this paper describes two neural responses: Error-Related Negative Wave (ERN) and Reward Positive (RewP). ERN could be a significant biomarker of anxiety symptoms. RewP, however, is linked to depression. Based on previous studies, this paper posits that depressed patients exhibit lower RewP amplitude indicative of reduced sensitivity to rewards. Moreover, this paper combines previous studies to demonstrate that stress could impact the amplitude of ERN and RewP. To be more precise, stress could amplify the magnitude of ERN, indicating that people's neural response to errors is heightened, thereby resulting in higher levels of anxiety. However, stress may reduce the magnitude of RewP, indicating a decrease in reward sensitivity and potentially increasing the susceptibility to depression. In summary, this article offers insights on how to articulate the connections among stress, anxiety, depression, and related factors. Furthermore, this article introduces a novel perspective on approaches to treating and preventing anxiety and depression.
Keywords
Anxiety, Depression, Error-Related Negativity, Reward Positivity
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Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Biological Engineering and Medical Science
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-221-3
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-222-0
- Published Date
- 20 December 2023
- Series
- Theoretical and Natural Science
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-8818
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-8826
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-8818/24/20231086
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Author(s)
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited