Dierential lateralization of trait anxiety and trait fearfulness: Evoked potential correlates

There is an ongoing debate on whether the terms anxiety and fear denote distinct states. Brain imaging studies suggest they may indeed be dissociable and are di€erentially lateralized. A study of 54 normal college students successfully found doubly dissociable electrophysiological correlates of trait anxiety and fearfulness that had the predicted laterality. Trait anxious participants displayed a leftlateralized visual N1 (localized to the temporo-parietal junction) whereas trait fearful participants presented a right-lateralized P1r (localized to the superior parietal region). These ®ndings support the proposal that trait anxiety and trait fearfulness are distinct personality dimensions with distinctive patterns of laterality. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.