Fig. 2

Anxiety-potentiated startle and differential anxiety ratings across load. a GAD patient and healthy control anxiety-potentiated startle (APS; threat-safe) was consistently elevated, suggesting anxiety was higher in threat versus safe conditions. APS was reduced as task difficulty increased, indicating that anxiety was regulated with an increase in load. Paired sample t-tests demonstrated that patients’ APS during 3-back was significantly lower than other conditions. Healthy controls’ APS during view was significantly higher than all other conditions, and APS during 3-back was also lower than 2-back. b Anxiety ratings for both groups were lower when subjects were engaged in the working memory task versus when they were simply viewing the stimuli. Paired-sample t-tests indicate that ratings during view were significantly higher than all other levels of load. Asterisk indicates p < .05