The effect of state anxiety on the online and offline control of fast target directed movements

In target directed aiming, afferent information is used to adjust limb trajectories during movement execution (i.e., online) and to enhance the programming of subsequent trials (i.e., offline). The objective of the present study was to determine the influence of state anxiety on both online and offline afferent information processing for the first time. Participants practiced either a directional aiming task (Experiment 1) or an amplitude aiming task (Experiment 2) without anxiety before being transferred to a high anxiety condition. In both Experiments, within subject SD was calculated throughout the limb trajectory and was then compared between the low and high anxiety conditions. Results revealed that anxiety resulted in a decrement in performance. Furthermore, use of afferent information to adjust movement trajectories online was disrupted when movements were performed with anxiety, whereas there were no differences in the offline processing of afferent information between the low anxiety and high anxiety conditions. These findings indicated that state anxiety leads to a breakdown in the reflexive processes associated with the online control and not the less reflexive processes involved in movement programming and parameterisation.