Grant, D.Shellhammer, K.Hahn, B. J.Wentz Research Scholars2025-05-072025-05-072025-04-22Shellhammer, K., Hahn, B. J., Grant, D. (2025, April 22). Heartbeat evoked potential differences between anxiety disorders. Poster session presented at the Oklahoma State University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Stillwater, OK.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14446/345918This study examined differences in interoceptive processing between individuals with social anxiety and generalized anxiety, using the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) as a neural marker of attention to internal bodily signals. HEPs were recorded during a heartbeat counting task to assess the degree of interoceptive attention. Consistent with prior research linking elevated HEP amplitude to perceived internal threat, results showed that individuals with high social anxiety exhibited significantly greater HEP amplitudes compared to those with low anxiety. In contrast, participants with high generalized anxiety did not show increased HEP activity, suggesting distinct neural processing mechanisms across anxiety subtypes. These findings highlight the importance of differentiating between types of anxiety in interoception research and suggest that social anxiety may involve heightened sensitivity to internal cues, which may have implications for diagnosis and treatment.application/pdfIn the Oklahoma State University Library's institutional repository this paper is made available through the open access principles and the terms of agreement/consent between the author(s) and the publisher. The permission policy on the use, reproduction or distribution of the article falls under fair use for educational, scholarship, and research purposes. Contact Digital Resources and Discovery Services at lib-dls@okstate.edu or 405-744-9161 for further information.Postergeneralized anxiety disordersocial anxiety disorderheartbeat evoked potentialanxietyinternal threats