Affective Go/No-go (AGN)
Overview
This test assesses information processing biases for positive and negative stimuli.
Affective cognitive functions are thought to be related to the ventral and medial-prefrontal cortex areas of the brain because of the limbic connections with this region. As such, the Affective Go/No-go test represents a powerful research assessment tool for current studies on the neural substrates of depression, bipolar disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and many other affective conditions.
Murphy et al, 1999 , found that manic patients had a clear bias for positive words (because they showed less inhibition in moving from negative words as targets to positive words as targets) while those in the depressed state had a bias for negative words. Making a decision about the emotional valence of a word is associated with the cingulate gyrus (Elliott et al, 2000).
Administration Time
Around 10 minutes, depending on level of impairment.
Task
The test consists of several blocks, each of which presents a series of words from two of three different Affective categories: Positive (for example, joyful), Negative (for example, hopeless), and Neutral (for example, element). The participant is given a target category, and is asked to press the press pad when they see a word matching this category.
Outcome Measures
Twelve outcome measures covering latency and errors of commission and omission.
NOTE
Currently available in English only (please contact us for information on translating this test).
Test
Six modes, four using positive and negative stimuli only, and two using positive, negative and neutral stimuli.
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