Investigating the Relationship Between the Pattern Reversal Visual Evoked Brain Potential and Anxiety in College Students

Department

Psychology Department

Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

4-17-2026

Abstract

Anxiety and depression are prevalent issues among college students. Event-Related Potentials (ERP) are the bioelectric activity in the brain as a response to stimuli. A checkerboard is used to trigger the pattern-reversal visual evoked potential (PREP). The striate cortex stores the PREP generators. PREP N1 latency refers to the time between the stimulus presented and the appearance of the first negative wave. Two hypotheses were proposed: (1) PREP N1 latency will have a significant positive relationship with anxiety and depression, (2) indicated use of alcohol will increase scores of PREP N1 latency. The PREP task consists of watching a blackwhite checkerboard reverse 100 times. Sixteen participants contributed to the results. Statistics from the correlation analyses showed that higher scores of anxiety and depression were significantly related to increased PREP N1 latency. Not enough information was gathered to defend or deny the relationship between alcohol and PREP N1 latency. These results indicate that PREP can be used as a potential neurophysiological indicator of anxiety and depression in college student populations. Understanding this relationship may help researchers and clinicians better identify the underlying neural patterns associated with mental health concerns. Future research is needed with larger sample sizes and more detailed behavioral measures to further clarify these relationships and strengthen the reliability of these findings.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS