Dissociable neurocognitive mechanisms of state and trait anxiety in working memory: Threat-induced alterations in decision dynamics and attenuation of large-scale network reconfiguration.

Trait and state anxiety represent dissociable dimensions that influence working memory (WM) through distinct neurocognitive mechanisms. However, how each dimension modulates WM performance and large-scale brain network interactions under threat remains poorly understood. This study disentangled their respective contributions by integrating an interference-suppression WM task with a threat-of-shock paradigm, complemented by hierarchical drift-diffusion modeling (HDDM) and functional network connectivity (FNC) analyses. Threat-induced state anxiety robustly accelerated reaction times across all task conditions, whereas trait anxiety exerted a selective effect, impairing accuracy specifically in the highest-interference condition. HDDM revealed that state anxiety was associated with reduced decision threshold, shortened non-decision time, and task-dependent increases in drift rate. This pattern of effects is consistent with an urgency-driven shift in decision policy toward faster, less cautious responding. FNC analyses indicated that state anxiety attenuated task-evoked network reconfiguration, weakening segregation between the anterior default network (aDN) and task-positive networks (dorsal attention network, frontoparietal control network [FPCN]), while also reducing aDN-posterior default network coupling. Resting-state analyses identified heightened aDN-FPCN anticorrelation as a stable neural correlate of trait anxiety, and this anticorrelation was selectively associated with trait worry in the High Trait Anxiety group. These findings reveal a dissociation: state anxiety drives context-dependent shifts in decision policy and task-evoked network reconfiguration, while trait anxiety manifests primarily as a stable intrinsic network characteristic with selective behavioral expression under low-to-moderate cognitive load.