Electrophysiological correlates of anxious rumination ☆ Søren Bo Andersen a, ⁎, Roger Anthony Moore b , Louise Venables a , Philip Joseph Corr a a Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, United Kingdom b Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, King Henry I Street, Portsmouth PO1 2DY, Portsmouth, United Kingdom abstract article info Article history: Received 25 May 2008 Accepted 8 September 2008 Available online 25 September 2008 Keywords: Theta Coherence Power Rumination Septo-hippocampal system Rumination Anxiety EEG coherence and EEG power response were recorded as 63 participants engaged in one of three experimental conditions: ‘personal rumination’, ‘nominal rumination’, and ‘baseline counting’. The rumination conditions were separated by a neutral (counting) task to eliminate neural carry-over effects. For personal rumination, participants spent 2 min ruminating about something in their life about which they were in two minds (i.e., in a state of personal conﬂict). For nominal rumination, they were presented with a conﬂict scenario (concerning buying a car) and instructed to ruminate about that for 2 min. The baseline counting task simply involved counting forwards from 1 at a speed comfortable to the individual. Participants completed various questionnaires to measure mood and also traits of personality (including trait anxiety). EEG data were analysed in the following wavebands: 4–6 Hz, 6–8 Hz, 8–10 Hz, 10–12 Hz, 12–20 Hz and 20– 30 Hz. Results revealed that the scalp-wide EEG theta (4–6 Hz and 6–8 Hz) coherence associated with personal rumination was signiﬁcantly greater than that associated with nominal rumination and baseline counting. Similarly, the scalp-wide 6–8 Hz and parietal–occipital 4–6 Hz power associated with personal rumination were signiﬁcantly greater than power associated with the nominal rumination and power for baseline counting. For alpha, the 10–12 Hz scalp-wide EEG coherence associated with personal rumination was signiﬁcantly greater than that associated with baseline counting. Otherwise, the scalp-wide 10–12 Hz power related to both nominal rumination and personal rumination were signiﬁcantly greater than in response to baseline counting. For 20–30 Hz scalp-wide EEG power, data in response to the nominal rumination condition were signiﬁcantly increased compared to data associated with the baseline counting condition. In terms of questionnaire data, tense arousal, anger/frustration, hedonic tone and energetic arousal were all inﬂuenced by rumination. This was largely in line with expectation. Also, mood state was inﬂuenced by neuroticism and state anxiety. Our EEG results are consistent with Gray and McNaughton's [Gray, J.A., McNaughton, N., 2000. The neuropsychology of Anxiety: An Anquiry into the Functions of the Septo- Hippocampal System. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, Oxford.] account of recursive processing between the septo-hippocampal system and neocortex during goal-conﬂict resolution inherent in rumination. Evidence of posterior cingulate involvement in this processing was also discussed. Recommendations for future research, aimed at further evaluating the role of the SHS and the posterior cingulated, were outlined. Effects found in alpha were linked to increased vigilance whilst effects in beta were linked to cognitive and emotional aspects of the task. We conclude that these data provide new information of the neural processes associated with the psychological state of anxious rumination and, thus, hold implications for understanding normal and pathological anxiety. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Rumination is “the class of conscious thoughts that revolve around a common instrumental theme” (Martin and Tesser, 1996, p. 1). Such thoughts are well known to be disruptive in everyday life. For instance, Lyubomirsky, Kasri, and Zehm (2003) demonstrated the debilitating effects that dysphoric rumination can have on different academic tasks including reading pace, comprehension, lecture comprehension and proof reading. In other research, using media- tional modelling, Muris, Roelofs, Rassin, Franken, and Mayer (2005) provided evidence to suggest that the cognitive factor rumination (together with worry) mediates neuroticism. This further demon- strates the potential for rumination to mediate and to give rise to aversive psychological states. Rumination has been assessed through measurements of the extent to which participants think about depressive symptoms International Journal of Psychophysiology 71 (2009) 156–169 ☆ This study was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-1444) to Dr Søren Bo Andersen, Dr Roger Moore and Professor Philip Corr. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: s.b.andersen@swansea.ac.uk (S.B. Andersen). 0167-8760/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2008.09.004 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Psychophysiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpsycho