Effects of task performance and time course on alpha power under competitive situations

Abstract

Competitive situations can serve as social psychological stressors in our daily lives, as they create successful experiences (i.e., winning) or failures (i.e., losing) depending on, or in spite of, our efforts. An electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded during a cued reaction time task consisting of 40 trials under both solo and competitive situations, and the fast Fourier transform analysis was performed to compute absolute and relative EEG alpha power values, which were used to investigate the participants' responses to social psychological stress due to competitive situations by examining the effects of task performance and time course on EEG alpha power. The alpha power obtained in competitive conditions was generally reduced compared with that obtained in solo conditions. The alpha power of later trials was also generally larger than that of earlier trials in both conditions. Participants in the lowest group of task performance had a smaller alpha power in the right frontal area in earlier trials in competitive conditions compared with earlier trials in solo conditions, whereas other participants exhibited any effect of neither condition nor time course in the same area. These results suggest that competitive situations increase tension, which in turn decreases, even while the situation continues to be competitive. In addition, it is suggested that individuals with a lower task performance may become anxious relatively early under competitive situations.