Trait-like visual cortical hyperactivity in trait anxiety

TL;DR

People with high trait anxiety show early visual cortex overactivity linked to disrupted brain balance, affecting how they process visual information from the start.

Contribution

Identifies stable, parvocellular-specific visual cortical hyperactivity in high trait anxiety linked to disrupted excitation–inhibition modulation.

Findings

Visual cortical hyperactivity in high trait anxiety emerges as early as 46 ms and is localized to V1/V2.

The hyperactivity is specific to the parvocellular pathway and reproducible across arousal states and stimulus types.

Cortical excitation–inhibition balance predicts parvocellular responses only in low-anxiety individuals.

Abstract

Sensory processing varies across individuals, with some traits—particularly sensory hypersensitivity to basic non-valenced stimuli—linked to emotional traits and psychiatric risk. Traditional accounts attribute this sensory–emotion linkage to limbic or prefrontal modulation, but empirical support is limited. Growing evidence suggests sensory cortex itself flexibly encodes value beyond labeled-line analysis. Across four high-density EEG experiments with multi-wave assessments, we identified reliable visual cortical hyperactivity in high trait anxiety. The effect emerged as early as 46 ms, localized to V1/V2, and was specific to the parvocellular pathway. It was reproducible across arousal states, stimulus valence, extended intervals, and paradigms, and evident for both simple (grating) and complex real-world images. Importantly, cortical excitation–inhibition balance (EEG aperiodic exponent/1/f slope) predicted parvocellular responses in low- but not high-anxiety individuals, implicating disrupted E/I modulation. Thus, trait anxiety alters early visual processing, aligning cortical computations with an individual’s intrinsic biological propensity from the outset.

Here, the authors show people with high trait anxiety display stable, parvocellular-specific visual cortical hyperactivity linked to disrupted cortical excitation–inhibition modulation. Trait anxiety thus alters sensory encoding from the earliest stages of cortical processing.

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