Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Vol. 24, No. 1, October 2021, pp. 253~259 ISSN: 2502-4752, DOI: 10.11591/ijeecs.v24.i1.pp253-259  253 Journal homepage: http://ijeecs.iaescore.com Attentional bias during public speaking anxiety revealed using event-related potentials Farah Shahnaz Feroz 1 , Ahmad Rifhan Salman 2 , Muhammad Hairulnizam Mat Ali 3 , Afiq Idzudden Ismail 4 , S. Indra Devi 5 , S. K. Subramaniam 6 1 Pervasive Computing and Educational Technology (PET), Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektronik dan Kejuruteraan Komputer (FKEKK), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM), Melaka, Malaysia 2,3,4 Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektronik dan Kejuruteraan Komputer (FKEKK), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM), Melaka, Malaysia 5 Pervasive Computing and Educational Technology (PET), Pusat Pembelajaran Bahasa (PPB), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM), Melaka, Malaysia 6 Advance Sensors and Embedded Controls System (ASECS), Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektronik dan Kejuruteraan Komputer (FKEKK), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM), Melaka, Malaysia Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Dec 20, 2020 Revised Jun 24, 2021 Accepted Jul 15, 2021 Analysis of brain signals and their properties provides valuable information regarding the underlying neural deficiencies and enables the diagnosis of attention bias related to public speaking anxiety (PSA). Although 25% people around the world suffer from PSA, currently, there exists a lack of standard assessment in diagnosing the severity of attention bias in individuals with PSA. This study aims to distinguish behavioral and neural abnormalities related to attentional bias during PSA by comparing reaction time (RT) and event-related potential (ERP) correlates of high (H) PSA and low (L) PSA individuals. 12 individuals suffering from HPSA and 12 individuals with LPSA participated in the modified emotional Stroop experiment. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded with the low cost, 14-channel Emotiv Epoc+. RT showed slower responses, linked to attentional deficits in HPSA individuals. ERP results revealed the P200 emotional Stroop biomarker, found to be linked to attentional bias in HPSA, but not in LPSA individuals. These results revealed significant RT and P200 ERP abnormalities related to attentional bias in HPSA individuals using the low- cost Emotiv Epoc+. Keywords: Emotional Stroop Emotiv Event-related potentials P200 Public speaking anxiety EEG Attention bias This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Farah Shahnaz Feroz Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektronik dan Kejuruteraan Komputer Universiti Teknikal Malaysia (UTeM) 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia Email: shahnaz@utem.edu.my 1. INTRODUCTION Individuals suffering from public speaking anxiety (PSA) may experience impaired critical thinking skills and cognitive performance, resulting in mediocre academic performance, limited career opportunities and low quality of life [1]-[3]. Among the most common reasons behind this type of anxiety are fear of committing errors, incompetencies in the spoken language, fear of being negatively evaluated and fear of rejection [4], [5]. Eventhough PSA is highly prevalent in our modern society [6]-[8], there exists a lack of standard evaluation, or biomarkers to detect attention bias related to PSA [6], [9]. Standard self-assessment