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Hou Y, Gao W, Guo X. Differences in attentional bias between self-related information and external cues from others in individuals with social anxiety: An event-related potential study. Brain Res 2024; 1845:149199. [PMID: 39187054 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2024.149199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2024] [Revised: 07/11/2024] [Accepted: 08/23/2024] [Indexed: 08/28/2024]
Abstract
Individuals with high social anxiety show a more considerable attentional bias toward self-relevant information and outwardly threatening stimuli than do those with low social anxiety. Some studies have investigated the attentional bias between self-relevant information and external social cues in people with high social anxiety but have not reached consistent conclusions. This study used a modified dot-probe task and collected temporal and electroencephalogram responses to three self-other face pairs among 15 people with high social anxiety and 20 people with low social anxiety. Both groups responded quicker to self-relevant information than external social cues. Others' emotional potencies moderated the attentional bias. Individuals with high social anxiety exhibited larger P1 amplitudes and smaller N170 amplitudes (mainly in the right hemisphere) for all face pairs and larger P2 amplitudes for the self-neutral and other-angry face pairs than those with low social anxiety. These findings suggest that people with social anxiety prioritize allocating attentional resources to self-relevant information, with others' angry faces having the greatest influence on the allocation. Individuals with high social anxiety initially exhibit more attentional vigilance and less structural coding for face pairs, followed by heightened engagement with threatening cues compared to those with low social anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yaxian Hou
- School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, Liaoning 116029, China
| | - Wen Gao
- School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, Liaoning 116029, China.
| | - Xiaoxiao Guo
- School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, Liaoning 116029, China
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2
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Fernandes-Magalhaes R, Carpio A, Ferrera D, Peláez I, De Lahoz ME, Van Ryckeghem D, Van Damme S, Mercado F. Neural mechanisms underlying attentional bias modification in fibromyalgia patients: a double-blind ERP study. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 2024; 274:1197-1213. [PMID: 37980687 DOI: 10.1007/s00406-023-01709-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2023] [Accepted: 10/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/21/2023]
Abstract
There is a growing interest in the potential benefits of attentional bias modification (ABM) training in chronic pain patients. However, studies examining the effectiveness of ABM programs in fibromyalgia patients have demonstrated inconclusive effects on both behavioral indices and clinical symptoms. Additionally, underlying neural dynamics of ABM effects could yield new insights but remain yet unexplored. Current study, therefore, aims to investigate the effects of ABM training on known neural electrophysiological indicators of attentional bias to pain (P2, N2a). Thirty-two fibromyalgia patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to an ABM training (N = 16) or control (N = 16) condition (2 weeks duration). Within the ABM training condition participants performed five sessions consisting of a modified version of the dot-probe task in which patients were trained to avoid facial pain expressions, whereas in the control group participants performed five sessions consisting of a standard version of the dot-probe task. Potential ABM training effects were evaluated by comparing a single pre- and post-treatment session, in which event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded in response to both facial expressions and target stimuli. Furthermore, patients filled out a series of self-report questionnaires assessing anxiety, depression, pain-related worrying, fear of pain, fatigue and pain status. After training, results indicated an overall reduction of the amplitude of the P2 component followed by an enhancement of N2a amplitude for the ABM condition compared to control condition. In addition, scores on anxiety and depression decreased in patients assigned to the training condition. However, we found no effects derived from the training on pain-related and fatigue status. Present study offers new insights related to the possible neural mechanisms underlying the effect of ABM training in fibromyalgia. Clinical trial (TRN: NCT05905159) retrospectively registered (30/05/2023).
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Affiliation(s)
- Roberto Fernandes-Magalhaes
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Av. Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Alberto Carpio
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Av. Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - David Ferrera
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Av. Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Irene Peláez
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Av. Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - María Eugenia De Lahoz
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Av. Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Dimitri Van Ryckeghem
- Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
- Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Stefaan Van Damme
- Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Francisco Mercado
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Av. Atenas s/n, 28922, Alcorcón, Madrid, Spain.
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3
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Leng X, Yu X, Chen Y, Wang T, Zhao F, Feng C, Feng W. Temporal dynamics of spatial attentional biases toward weight-related words among females with weight dissatisfaction. Biol Psychol 2024; 190:108807. [PMID: 38703810 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2023] [Revised: 04/22/2024] [Accepted: 04/29/2024] [Indexed: 05/06/2024]
Abstract
Attentional bias toward weight-related stimuli plays a crucial role in the development and maintenance of body image disturbances. However, the temporal dynamics of attentional biases responsible for the previously reported behavioral effects caused by the task-irrelevant but spatial-relevant weight-related stimuli presented in the peripheral visual field among females with high weight dissatisfaction (HWD) remain unclear. The present study combined the modified dot-probe task and event-related potentials to explore the temporal dynamics of spatial attentional biases toward weight-related words among females with HWD. The results showed significantly larger N2pc amplitudes were elicited by fat-related and thin-related words than neutral words only in the HWD group. Moreover, only fat-related words elicited a significant PD for the HWD group, and the PD amplitudes were larger in the HWD group than in the control group. These findings revealed that weight-related words initially captured spatial allocation among females with HWD, and then fat-related words were actively suppressed after the initial capturing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xuechen Leng
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 21512, China
| | - Xiaocui Yu
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 21512, China
| | - Yixuan Chen
- College of Teacher Education, Lishui University, Lishui, Zhejiang 323000, China
| | - Ting Wang
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 21512, China
| | - Fan Zhao
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 21512, China.
| | - Chengzhi Feng
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 21512, China.
| | - Wenfeng Feng
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 21512, China; Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, China.
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House T, Stephen ID, Brooks KR, Bould H, Attwood AS, Penton-Voak IS. The effect of an odd-one-out visual search task on attentional bias, body size adaptation, and body dissatisfaction. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 11:231817. [PMID: 39021772 PMCID: PMC11252673 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231817] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2023] [Accepted: 05/20/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
Body image disturbance is a both a risk factor for, and a symptom of, many eating disorders and refers to the misperception of and dissatisfaction with one's own body. Women with high body dissatisfaction have been shown to direct more attention to low body mass index (BMI) bodies, which results in the overestimation of body size via body size adaptation. Therefore, attention may have a causal role in body image disturbance. We conducted a novel training visual search task with 142 young adult women who we trained to attend to either high or low BMI bodies. We assessed the effects of this training on attention to bodies of different sizes, body size adaptation, and body dissatisfaction. Women trained to attend to low BMI bodies decreased their perceptions of a 'normal' body size via adaptation from pre- to post-training (p < 0.001); however, women trained to attend to high BMI bodies showed no change in their perception of a 'normal' body size. We found no lasting effects of the training on attention to body size or body dissatisfaction; however, our visual search task showed poor internal consistency as a measure of attention. These findings indicate that attention to low BMI bodies may exacerbate body image disturbance in women. However, more reliable measures of attentional are required to confirm this finding.
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Affiliation(s)
- T. House
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
| | - I. D. Stephen
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, UK
| | - K. R. Brooks
- School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
- Perception in Action Research Centre (PARC), Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
- Lifespan Health & Wellbeing Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2109, Australia
| | - H. Bould
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
- Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, Centre for Academic Mental Health, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
| | - A. S. Attwood
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
- National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - I. S. Penton-Voak
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1QU, UK
- National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Wirth BE, Wentura D. Social processing modulates the initial allocation of attention towards angry faces: evidence from the N2pc component. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2023; 18:nsad070. [PMID: 37971294 PMCID: PMC10689156 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsad070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2023] [Revised: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Previous research has shown that attentional bias towards angry faces is moderated by the activation of a social processing mode. More specifically, reliable cueing effects for angry face cues in the dot-probe task only occurred when participants performed a task that required social processing of the target stimuli. However, cueing effects are a rather distal measure of covert shifts in spatial attention. Thus, it remains unclear whether the social processing mode modulates initial allocation of attention to or attentional disengagement from angry faces. In the present study, we used the N2pc, an event-related potential component, as an index of attentional shifts towards angry faces. Participants performed a dot-probe task with two different target conditions while the electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. In the social target condition, target stimuli were socially meaningful (schematic faces), and in the non-social target condition, they were meaningless (scrambled schematic faces). The amplitude of the N2pc component elicited by angry face cues was significantly larger in the social target condition than in the non-social target condition. This pattern also occurred for behavioural cueing effects. These results suggest that the activation of a social processing mode due to current task demands affects the initial allocation of attention towards angry faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benedikt Emanuel Wirth
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Campus A2 4, Saarbrücken 66123, Germany
- Cognitive Assistants Department, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Campus D3 1, Saarbrücken 66123, Germany
| | - Dirk Wentura
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Campus A2 4, Saarbrücken 66123, Germany
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Kang S, Osinsky R. The influence of single-session reward-based attentional bias modification on attentional biases towards threat as measured by the N2pc component. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1279311. [PMID: 38054167 PMCID: PMC10694235 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1279311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 12/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Attentional biases toward threatening faces have repeatedly been studied in the context of social anxiety, with etiological theories suggesting exacerbated biases as a possible cause for the latter. To counteract these postulated effects, research has focused on the concept of attentional bias manipulation (ABM), in which spatial contingencies between succeeding stimuli are traditionally employed in training paradigms designed to deliberately shift automatic attention processes away from threat-related stimuli. The ABM research field has been faced with various methodological challenges, such as inconsistent results, low reliabilities of dependent variables and a high susceptibility to moderating factors. We aimed to combine several recent approaches to address these issues. Drawing upon theories of value-driven attention, we explored reward-based contingencies in a Dot Probe task to improve the training's efficacy, combined with neurophysiological measures for greater reliability compared to reaction times, while evaluating the moderating effect of explicitness in the instruction. In a healthy sample (N = 60) and within a single session, we found a general attentional bias toward angry faces present across all conditions as indicated by the N2pc, which was, however, marked by large intrinsic lateralization effects, with submeasures exhibiting opposing polarities. This prompted us to explore an alternative, intrahemispheric calculation method. The new N2pc variant showed the attentional bias to have disappeared at the end of the training session within the explicit instruction group. Reliabilities of the main dependent variables were varied from excellent to questionable, which, together with the exploratory nature of the analysis, leaves this result as preliminary.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susan Kang
- Department of Psychology, School of Human Sciences, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
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Yang K, Zeng Y, Tong L, Hu Y, Zhang R, Li Z, Yan B. Extremely negative emotion interferes with cognition: Evidence from ERPs and time-varying brain network. J Neurosci Methods 2023; 396:109922. [PMID: 37454701 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2023.109922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 06/20/2023] [Accepted: 07/13/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
In recent years, the relationship between emotion and cognition was a hot topic. However, it remains unclear which specific emotions can significantly interfere with cognition and how they do so. In this study, we designed a novel Affective Stroop experiment paradigm to investigate these issues. The extremely negative (EN), moderately negative (MN), moderately positive (MP), extremely positive (EP) and neutral pictures were displayed before Stroop tasks. The behavioral results revealed that EN emotion significantly interfered with cognitive performance compared to other types of emotions, with a significant increase in reaction time under the EN emotion condition (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the dynamic brain mechanisms were analyzed from both Event-Related Potential (ERP) and time-varying brain network perspectives. Results showed that EN emotion evoked larger N2, P3, and LPP amplitudes in the frontal, parietal, and occipital brain regions. In contrast, the Stroop task under EN condition led to smaller N2, P3, and LPP amplitudes compared to neutral condition. This indicates that EN emotion was prioritized and consumed more cognitive resources relative to neutral emotion. During the P3 and LPP stages, we observed enhanced bottom-up connections between the parietal and frontal regions while the processing of EN emotion. Additionally, there were stronger top-down cognitive control connections from the frontal to the occipital regions while processing the Stroop task under EN condition. These findings consistently suggest that EN emotion interferes with cognition by consuming more cognitive resources, and the brain needs to enhance cognitive control to support Stroop task execution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Yang
- PLA Strategy Support Force Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
| | - Ying Zeng
- PLA Strategy Support Force Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
| | - Li Tong
- PLA Strategy Support Force Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
| | - Yidong Hu
- PLA Strategy Support Force Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
| | - Rongkai Zhang
- PLA Strategy Support Force Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
| | - Zhongrui Li
- PLA Strategy Support Force Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou 450001, China
| | - Bin Yan
- PLA Strategy Support Force Information Engineering University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
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8
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Folyi T, Rohr M, Wentura D. When emotions cannot be efficiently used to guide attention: Flexible, goal-relevant utilization of facial emotions is hindered by social anxiety. Behav Res Ther 2023; 162:104254. [PMID: 36708619 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2023.104254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2022] [Revised: 10/08/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
In order to achieve optimal outcomes in diverse situations, emotional information can be used to initiate novel, goal-directed processes that are not inherently related to the emotional meaning. Demonstrating this goal-dependent flexibility, in a recent study, we presented facial emotions as informative spatial cues: Participants could direct their attention to the probable target location based on the expressed emotion with a remarkable efficiency (Folyi, Rohr, & Wentura, 2020). However, as inherent motivational aspects of threat-related facial expressions can be particularly salient to socially anxious individuals (e.g., Staugaard, 2010), they might not be able to use this information flexibly in the pursuit of a context-specific goal. The present study tested this assumption in an endogenous cueing task with anger and fear expressions as informative central cues. Indeed, in Experiment 1 (N = 174), higher social anxiety was associated with reduced cueing at a 600 ms cue-target asynchrony, and this deficit was specific to social as opposed to general anxiety. Furthermore, this effect occurred only when faces were presented upright (Experiment 1), and not under inverted presentation (Experiment 2, N = 90), ruling out a general deficit in attentional control. The results suggest that flexible utilization of threat-related emotional information is sensitive to participants' social anxiety, suggesting an imbalance between using emotional information in the pursuit of a context-dependent goal on the one hand, and processes intrinsically related to the emotional meaning on the other.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timea Folyi
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Germany.
| | - Michaela Rohr
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Germany
| | - Dirk Wentura
- Department of Psychology, Saarland University, Germany
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Dennis Tiwary TA, Cho H, Myruski S. Effects of attention bias modification for anxiety: Neurophysiological indices and moderation by symptom severity. Clin Neurophysiol 2023; 147:45-57. [PMID: 36642007 PMCID: PMC9974920 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2022.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Revised: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Attention bias modification (ABM) aims to decrease anxiety symptom severity through the reduction of threat-related attention bias (AB). Individual differences in treatment response and poor measurement reliability of AB have called its clinical promise into question. The current study examined whether individual differences in anxiety severity at baseline moderated treatment response, and employed both behavioral and neurophysiological metrics of AB. METHODS Participants (N = 99) were randomly assigned to four weeks of ABM or placebo control training (PT). Self-reported anxiety symptom severity, and AB metrics and ERPs generated during the dot probe task were collected at baseline (Time 1), one-week post-intervention (Time 5), and at a three-month follow-up (Time 6). RESULTS ABM, relative to PT, reduced ERPs indexing attention discrimination (N170) and increased ERPs indexing salience tracking (P3). Increases in P3 were associated with ABM-related reductions in anxiety. Anxiety severity was reduced following ABM, but only among those with higher baseline anxiety symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS ABM effectively reduced symptom severity among those with higher levels of anxiety, and modulated neurophysiological indices of AB. SIGNIFICANCE Results provide evidence for attention-relevant ERPs as outcomes of ABM treatment responsivity and suggest that ABM may be most beneficial for those with more severe anxiety symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tracy A Dennis Tiwary
- Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, USA; Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA.
| | - Hyein Cho
- Department of Neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, USA
| | - Sarah Myruski
- Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
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Hu L, Tang H, Huang Y. General deficits of attentional inhibition in high trait anxiety: ERP evidence. Cereb Cortex 2023:7030626. [PMID: 36749005 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhad038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 01/22/2023] [Accepted: 01/25/2023] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Behavioral evidence shows that individuals with high trait anxiety tend to be distracted by irrelevant stimulation not only for threat-related stimuli but also for non-emotional neutral stimuli. These findings suggest that there may be a general deficit of attentional control in trait anxiety. However, the neural mechanism underlying the anxiety-related deficit in attentional control, especially inhibition function, is still unclear. Here, we examined the attentional processing of the non-emotional neutral distractor on 66 young adults with different levels of trait anxiety, using the ERP indices of attentional selection (N2pc) and top-down inhibition (Pd) in a search task with geometric stimuli. We found that the distractor-evoked N2pc amplitude did not vary with anxiety levels, but increased anxiety was associated with smaller Pds (i.e. worse inhibition). Besides, delayed attentional selection of targets was associated with higher anxiety levels. These correlations of trait anxiety remained significant even after controlling for state anxiety, and state anxiety did not affect the attentional processing of distractors and targets, suggesting that trait anxiety, not current anxiety, affects attentional function. Our findings clarify the mechanism underlying the general attentional deficits in trait anxiety, e.g. reduced distractor inhibition and delayed target selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liping Hu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, The Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute (BCBDI), Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Hongsi Tang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, The Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute (BCBDI), Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Yan Huang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Behavior, CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Connectome and Manipulation, The Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute (BCBDI), Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institute of Brain Science-Shenzhen Fundamental Research Institutions, Shenzhen, 518055, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
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11
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Rayson H, Ryan ZJ, Dodd HF. Behavioural inhibition and early neural processing of happy and angry faces interact to predict anxiety: a longitudinal ERP study. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2023; 60:101207. [PMID: 36764038 PMCID: PMC9929676 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2022] [Revised: 01/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/30/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Limited prospective research has examined whether attention biases to emotion moderate associations between Behavioural Inhibition (BI) and anxiety in preschool-aged children. Furthermore, there has been an over-reliance on behavioral measures in previous studies. Accordingly, we assessed anxiety in a sample of preschool-aged children (3-4 years) at baseline, and again approximately 6 and 11 months later, after they started school. At baseline, children completed an assessment of BI and an EEG task where they were presented with angry, happy, and neutral faces. EEG analyses focused on ERPs (P1, P2, N2) associated with specific stages of attention allocation. Interactions between BI and emotion bias (ERP amplitude for emotional versus neutral faces) were found for N2 and P1. For N2, BI was significantly associated with higher overall anxiety when an angry bias was present. Interestingly for P1, BI was associated with higher overall anxiety when a happy bias was absent. Finally, interactions were found between linear time and happy and angry bias for P1, with a greater linear decrease in anxiety over time when biases were high. These results suggest that attention to emotional stimuli moderates the BI-anxiety relationship across early development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Holly Rayson
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, CNRS / Université Claude Bernard Lyon, France.
| | - Zoe J Ryan
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK
| | - Helen F Dodd
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, UK; Children and Young People's Mental Health Research Collaboration (ChYMe), Exeter Medical School, University of Exeter, UK
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12
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Chen T, Li Y, Feng C, Feng W. Spatial attentional biases toward height-related words in young males with physical stature dissatisfaction. Psychophysiology 2023; 60:e14163. [PMID: 35965305 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14163] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2021] [Revised: 05/22/2022] [Accepted: 06/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
By recording event-related potentials (ERPs) during a dot-probe task, the present study examined the neural dynamics of attentional bias toward height-related words among height dissatisfied males. Sixty male participants screened by Negative Physical Self Scale-Stature Concerns subscale (NPS-S) were assigned into a high height dissatisfaction (HHD) group and a low height dissatisfaction (LHD) group. The results showed that tall-related versus neutral words elicited larger N2pc for both HHD and LHD groups, whereas short-related versus neutral words elicited larger N2pc only for the HHD group. Additionally, an evident Pd was elicited by tall-related words for the HHD group, but not for the LHD group. Taken together, these findings revealed attentional biases toward height-related information for HHD individuals on a neural level. Specifically, HHD individuals showed an enhanced spatial attention oriented toward both tall-related and short-related words, and then, the allocated attention to the tall-related words was terminated by an active suppression mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tingji Chen
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Yishuang Li
- Wuzhong Changqiao Middle School, Suzhou, China
| | - Chengzhi Feng
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
| | - Wenfeng Feng
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.,Research Center for Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
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Zheng J, Cao F, Chen Y, Yu L, Yang Y, Katembu S, Xu Q. Time course of attentional bias in social anxiety: Evidence from visuocortical dynamics. Int J Psychophysiol 2023; 184:110-117. [PMID: 36621629 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2023.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2022] [Revised: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/01/2023] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Threat-related attentional bias is thought to have a causal influence on the etiology of social anxiety. However, there is uncertainty on whether attention dwells on or diverts away from threats, and the measurements typically utilized to explore attentional bias cannot continuously quantify changes in attention. Here, we used steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) as a continuous neurophysiological measure of visual attentional processing to examine the time course of attentional bias in social anxiety. Participants with high (n = 18) and low (n = 18) social anxiety passively viewed two faces flickering at 15 and 20 Hz frequency to evoke ssVEPs, and completed Attentional Control Scale. The results showed that angry faces, as compared to happy and neutral faces, elicited larger ssVEP amplitudes for the time window of 180-500 ms after facial stimuli onset only in the high socially anxious individuals, and the effect extended to the next two periods of 500-1000 ms and 1000-1500 ms. The ssVEP amplitudes differed most when individuals with high social anxiety viewed angry-neutral expression combinations. Additionally, attentional control was negatively correlated with social anxiety and threat-related attentional bias. The results suggested that individuals with social anxiety initially oriented attention toward the threat and subsequently exhibited difficulty in disengaging attention from it, possibly due to impaired attentional control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junmeng Zheng
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Feizhen Cao
- Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yanling Chen
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Linwei Yu
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Yaping Yang
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Stephen Katembu
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Qiang Xu
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
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14
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Carlson JM, Fang L, Coughtry-Carpenter C, Foley J. Reliability of attention bias and attention bias variability to climate change images in the dot-probe task. Front Psychol 2023; 13:1021858. [PMID: 36710831 PMCID: PMC9878553 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1021858] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, which is perhaps why information about climate change has been found to capture observers' attention. One of the most common ways of assessing individual differences in attentional processing of climate change information is through the use of reaction time difference scores. However, reaction time-based difference scores have come under scrutiny for their low reliability. Given that a primary goal of the field is to link individual differences in attention processing to participant variables (e.g., environmental attitudes), we assessed the reliability of reaction time-based measures of attention processing of climate change information utilizing an existing dataset with three variations of the dot-probe task. Across all three samples, difference score-based measures of attentional bias were generally uncorrelated across task blocks (r = -0.25 to 0.31). We also assessed the reliability of newer attention bias variability measures that are thought to capture dynamic shifts in attention toward and away from salient information. Although these measures were initially found to be correlated across task blocks (r = 0.17-0.67), they also tended to be highly correlated with general reaction time variability (r = 0.49-0.83). When controlling for general reaction time variability, the correlations across task blocks for attention bias variability were much weaker and generally nonsignificant (r = -0.25 to 0.33). Furthermore, these measures were unrelated to pro-environmental disposition indicating poor predictive validity. In short, reaction time-based measures of attentional processing (including difference score and variability-based approaches) have unacceptably low levels of reliability and are therefore unsuitable for capturing individual differences in attentional bias to climate change information.
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15
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Song S, Zhao S, Jiang T, Li S, Zhang M, Ren W, Zheng Y, Ge R. Positive attention bias in high socially anxious individuals: Evidence from an ERP study. J Affect Disord 2022; 319:300-308. [PMID: 36162660 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2022.09.087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/30/2021] [Revised: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The Bivalent Fear of Evaluation (BFEO) model posits that the fear of positive evaluation (FPE) is a core feature of social anxiety. As such, high socially anxious individuals may show attention bias when faced with positive stimuli. However, most of the previous studies focused on the negative attention bias of social anxiety, and less on the attention bias of positive stimuli. Meanwhile, the effect of stimulus presentation time on the attention bias pattern was unclear. In order to investigate this question, we used a dot-probe paradigm with facial expressions (happy, fearful, angry, neutral) presented for 100 ms and 500 ms. The ERP results showed: (1) For high socially anxious group, happy faces elicited a larger N1 for valid than for invalid cued probes, whereas for healthy control group, angry faces elicited a larger N1 for valid than for invalid cued probes. (2) When valid cues following happy faces presented for 500 ms, the N1 amplitude was larger than that of invalid cues. However, when valid cues following angry and fear faces presented for 100 ms, the N1 amplitude was larger than that of invalid cues. The results showed difficulty in attention disengagement of high socially anxious individuals from positive stimuli, as reflected by N1, illustrating the positive attention bias in social anxiety. These results prove that FPE may contribute to maintaining social anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sutao Song
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China; School of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, China.
| | - Shimeng Zhao
- School of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, China
| | - Ting Jiang
- School of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, China; Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
| | - Shuang Li
- School of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, China; Centre for Cognition and Brain Disorders, Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University; Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments
| | - Mingxian Zhang
- School of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, China; Center for Study of Applied Psychology, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Wangang Ren
- Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, China.
| | - Yuanjie Zheng
- School of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China.
| | - Ruiyang Ge
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 2A1, Canada
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16
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The questionable validity of attention bias variability: Evidence from two conceptually unrelated cognitive tasks. JOURNAL OF AFFECTIVE DISORDERS REPORTS 2022; 10:100411. [PMID: 36684713 PMCID: PMC9851093 DOI: 10.1016/j.jadr.2022.100411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Attention bias variability is thought to measure fluctuations in attention towards and away from threat-related information and is elevated in affective disorders. However, recent evidence suggests that attention bias variability may quantify general reaction time variability rather than attention bias behavior per se. Methods The current study calculated "attention bias variability" from two conceptually unrelated cognitive tasks: the dot-probe task (measuring attentional bias) and the arrow flanker task (measuring cognitive control). Results Attention bias variability measures were correlated across these unrelated tasks. Yet, when general reaction time variability was controlled, attention bias variability across tasks was no longer correlated. In addition, the reliability of attention bias variability measures decreased when controlling for general reaction time variability. Finally, although attention bias variability calculated from the dot-probe task initially correlated with anxious symptoms, this association was no longer significant when controlling for general reaction time variability. Limitations Our sample was comprised of high trait anxious individuals. Replication in clinical samples is warranted. Conclusions These findings collectively provide strong empirical evidence that attention bias variability is not a valid measure of attention-related behavior, but reflective of general reaction time variability more broadly.
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17
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Hu C, Song X, Song J, Hong Y, Zhou R. Neurophysiological Correlates for Dynamic Variability Between Vigilance and Avoidance in Test Anxiety. Biol Psychol 2022; 175:108427. [PMID: 36170941 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2022.108427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Revised: 09/12/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Attention bias (ABs) to threat is essential in the etiology and maintenance of test anxiety. However, little is known about the attention pattern of ABs in test anxiety. The stimulus duration affects the attention pattern in anxiety. Thus, the present research combined the dot-probe paradigm and event-related potentials (ERPs) and varied the stimulus duration (100ms or 500ms) to test the ABs in test anxiety. Consequently, both groups showed a threat N2pc in 100ms and 500ms duration, suggesting that both groups allocated attention to the test-related threat. However, in the 100ms duration, the high test-anxious (HTA) group had smaller target-elicited P1 and greater target-elicited N2 in the threat-congruent condition than in the neutral condition. In the 500ms duration, an earlier threat N2pc and a threat PD followed a greater target P1, and smaller target N2 were pronounced in the HTA group. The current results provided electrophysiological evidence that the HTA group kept a dynamic attention pattern that fluctuated shift between vigilance and avoidance in the 100ms and 500ms duration. The HTA group was more vigilant than the LTA group in the 500ms duration when strategic attention was concerned, proposing that the vigilance in test anxiety was not an automatic process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cenlou Hu
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Sciences & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Xueling Song
- National Education Examinations Authority, Beijing, China
| | - Jintao Song
- Department of Psychology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Yan Hong
- Department of Psychology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Renlai Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Sciences & Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China; Department of Psychology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China; State Key Laboratory of Media Convergence Production Technology and Systems, Beijing, China.
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18
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Lü W, Zhu W, Wang S. Associations between general trait anxiety, trait social anxiety and cardiovascular responses to social and non-social stressors. J Psychosom Res 2022; 160:110979. [PMID: 35777178 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2022.110979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Revised: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 06/19/2022] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The present study sought to examine whether anxiety propensity dimensions (general trait anxiety vs. trait social anxiety) interact with stressor types (tasks with social vs. non-social challenges) to determine cardiovascular stress responses. METHODS A 2 × 3 mixed-factorial experimental design was employed. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Social Performance and Social Interaction Anxiety Scales were administered to 233 participants, who engaged in a stress task with either social or non-social challenges during which their cardiovascular data were continuously collected. RESULTS General trait anxiety negatively predicted heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity (β = -0.16, p = 0.001; β = -0.17, p = 0.001; β = -0.18, p < 0.001), and positively predicted HR, SBP, DBP recovery (β = 0.16, p = 0.012; β = 0.15, p = 0.014; β = 0.15, p = 0.011), regardless of stress types. Social performance anxiety (β = -0.23, p = 0.002; β = -0.25, p = 0.001; β = -0.24, p = 0.001) and social interaction anxiety (β = -0.22, p < 0.001; β = -0.25, p < 0.001; β = -0.22, p < 0.001) only negatively predicted HR, SBP, DBP reactivity to the stress task with social challenges. No associations were observed between trait social anxiety and cardiovascular recovery from the stress task with social or non-social challenges. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that different trait anxiety dimensions interact with stressor types in affecting cardiovascular stress responses, which have different health implications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Lü
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Shaanxi Key Research Center for Children Mental and Behavior Health, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, China.
| | - Wenke Zhu
- Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Shaanxi Key Research Center for Children Mental and Behavior Health, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, China
| | - Sheng Wang
- School of Business, Xi'an Technology and Business College, China
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19
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Wang Y, Tang Z, Zhang X, Yang L. Auditory and cross-modal attentional bias toward positive natural sounds: Behavioral and ERP evidence. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:949655. [PMID: 35967006 PMCID: PMC9372282 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.949655] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2022] [Accepted: 06/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, researchers have expanded the investigation into attentional biases toward positive stimuli; however, few studies have examined attentional biases toward positive auditory information. In three experiments, the present study employed an emotional spatial cueing task using emotional sounds as cues and auditory stimuli (Experiment 1) or visual stimuli (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3) as targets to explore whether auditory or visual spatial attention could be modulated by positive auditory cues. Experiment 3 also examined the temporal dynamics of cross-modal auditory bias toward positive natural sounds using event-related potentials (ERPs). The behavioral results of the three experiments consistently demonstrated that response times to targets were faster after positive auditory cues than they were after neutral auditory cues in the valid condition, indicating that healthy participants showed a selective auditory attentional bias (Experiment 1) and cross-modal attentional bias (Experiment 2 and Experiment 3) toward positive natural sounds. The results of Experiment 3 showed that N1 amplitudes were more negative after positive sounds than they were after neutral sounds, which further provided electrophysiological evidence that positive auditory information enhances attention at early stages in healthy adults. The results of the experiments performed in the present study suggest that humans exhibit an attentional bias toward positive natural sounds.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanmei Wang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Zhenwei Tang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Xiaoxuan Zhang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
- Shanghai Changning Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China
| | - Libing Yang
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Psychological Crisis Intervention, School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
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20
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Attentional bias to threat and gray matter volume morphology in high anxious individuals. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 22:600-609. [PMID: 34755317 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00968-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
In a sample of highly anxious individuals, the relationship between gray matter volume brain morphology and attentional bias to threat was assessed. Participants performed a dot-probe task of attentional bias to threat and gray matter volume was acquired from whole brain structural T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging scans. The results replicate previous findings in unselected samples that elevated attentional bias to threat is linked to greater gray matter volume in the middle frontal gyrus and superior frontal gyrus. In addition, we provide novel evidence that elevated attentional bias to threat is associated with greater gray matter volume in the inferior frontal gyrus, insula, cerebellum, and other distributed regions. Lastly, exploratory analyses provide initial evidence that distinct subregions of the right posterior parietal cortex may contribute to attentional bias in a sex-specific manner. Our results illuminate how differences in gray matter volume morphology relate to attentional bias to threat in anxious individuals. This knowledge could inform neurocognitive models of anxiety-related attentional bias to threat.
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21
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Rutkowska N, Doradzińska Ł, Bola M. Attentional Prioritization of Complex, Naturalistic Stimuli Maintained in Working-Memory-A Dot-Probe Event-Related Potentials Study. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:838338. [PMID: 35571999 PMCID: PMC9101940 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.838338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that a stimulus actively maintained in working memory (WM) automatically captures visual attention when subsequently perceived. Such a WM-based guidance effect has been consistently observed for stimuli defined by simple features, such as color or orientation, but studies using more complex stimuli provided inconclusive results. Therefore, we investigated whether the WM-based guidance effect occurs also for naturalistic stimuli, whose identity is defined by multiple features and relations among them, specifically for faces and houses. The experiment consisted of multiple blocks in which participants (N = 28) either memorized or merely saw (WM or exposure condition, respectively) a template stimulus and then performed several dot-probe trials, with pairs of stimuli (template and control) presented laterally as distractors and followed by a target-asterisk. Analysis of reaction-times (RT) in the dot-probe task shows that memorized stimuli were prioritized by attention and points toward attention-hold, rather than capture, as a mechanism of attentional prioritization. Consistent with this interpretation, memorized items did not evoke a lateralized N2pc ERP component, thought to indicate attention shifts. However, in an exploratory ERP analysis we found evidence for a very early (100-200 ms post-stimulus) prioritization specific to the memorized faces, which is in line with the sensory recruitment theory of WM. In conclusion, our data provide evidence that complex stimuli are prioritized by attention when maintained in WM, and that the mechanism of such prioritization is based on a prolonged hold of spatial attention.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Michał Bola
- Laboratory of Brain Imaging, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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22
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Bacigalupo F, Luck SJ. Alpha-band EEG suppression as a neural marker of sustained attentional engagement to conditioned threat stimuli. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2022; 17:1101-1117. [PMID: 35434733 PMCID: PMC9766959 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsac029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2020] [Revised: 04/06/2022] [Accepted: 04/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Attention helps us to be aware of the external world, and this may be especially important when a threat stimulus predicts an aversive outcome. Electroencephalogram (EEG) alpha-band suppression has long been considered as a neural signature of attentional engagement. The present study was designed to test whether attentional engagement, as indexed by alpha-band suppression, is increased in a sustained manner following a conditioned stimulus (CS) that is paired with an aversive (CS+) vs neutral (CS-) outcome. We tested 70 healthy young adults in aversive conditioning and extinction paradigms. One of three colored circles served as the CS+, which was paired in 50% of the trials with a noise burst (unconditioned stimulus, US). The other colored circles (CS-) were never paired with the US. For conditioning, we found greater alpha-band suppression for the CS+ compared to the CS-; this suppression was sustained through the time of the predicted US. This effect was significantly reduced for extinction. These results indicate that conditioned threat stimuli trigger an increase in attentional engagement as subjects monitor the environment for the predicted aversive stimulus. Moreover, this alpha-band suppression effect may be valuable for future studies examining normal or pathological increases in attentional monitoring following threat stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Bacigalupo
- Correspondence should be addressed to Felix Bacigalupo, Pontificia
Universidad Catolica de Chile (UC-Chile). Avenida Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, Santiago,
Chile. E-mail:
| | - Steven J Luck
- Center for Mind and Brain, University of
California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
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23
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Eye tracking evidence of threat-related attentional bias in anxiety- and fear-related disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev 2022; 93:102142. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2022.102142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Revised: 01/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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24
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House T, Stephen ID, Penton-Voak IS, Brooks KR. The effect of attention on body size adaptation and body dissatisfaction. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2022; 9:211718. [PMID: 35223063 PMCID: PMC8864361 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211718] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Accepted: 01/31/2022] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Attentional bias to low-fat bodies is thought to be associated with body dissatisfaction-a symptom and risk factor of eating disorders. However, the causal nature of this relationship is unclear. In three preregistered experiments, we trained 370 women to attend towards either high- or low-fat body stimuli using an attention training dot probe task. For each experiment, we analysed the effect of the attention training on (i) attention to subsequently presented high- versus low-fat body stimuli, (ii) visual adaptation to body size, and (iii) body dissatisfaction. The attention training had no effect on attention towards high- or low-fat bodies in an online setting (Experiment 1), but did increase attention to high-fat bodies in a laboratory setting (Experiment 2). Neither perceptions of a 'normal' body size nor levels of body dissatisfaction changed as a result of the attention training in either setting. The results in the online setting did not change when we reduced the stimulus onset-asynchrony of the dot probe task from 500 to 100 ms (Experiment 3). Our results provide no evidence that the dot probe training task used here has robust effects on attention to body size, body image disturbance or body dissatisfaction.
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Affiliation(s)
- T. House
- School of Psychological Science, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- Department of Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - I. D. Stephen
- Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
| | - I. S. Penton-Voak
- Department of Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- National Institute for Health Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and University of Bristol, UK
| | - K. R. Brooks
- School of Psychological Science, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
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25
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Ahumada-Méndez F, Lucero B, Avenanti A, Saracini C, Muñoz-Quezada MT, Cortés-Rivera C, Canales-Johnson A. Affective modulation of cognitive control: A systematic review of EEG studies. Physiol Behav 2022; 249:113743. [DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2022.113743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2021] [Revised: 01/24/2022] [Accepted: 02/11/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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26
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Gupta RS, Kujawa A, Vago DR. A Preliminary Investigation of ERP Components of Attentional Bias in Anxious Adults using Temporospatial Principal Component Analysis. J PSYCHOPHYSIOL 2021; 35:223-236. [PMID: 34732969 DOI: 10.1027/0269-8803/a000275] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Threat-related attention bias is thought to contribute to the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Dot-probe studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have indicated that several early ERP components are modulated by threatening and emotional stimuli in anxious populations, suggesting enhanced allocation of attention to threat and emotion at earlier stages of processing. However, ERP components selected for examination and analysis in these studies vary widely and remain inconsistent. The present study used temporospatial principal component analysis (PCA) to systematically identify ERP components elicited to face pair cues and probes in a dot-probe task in anxious adults. Cue-locked components sensitive to emotion included an early occipital C1 component enhanced for happy versus angry face pair cues and an early parieto-occipital P1 component enhanced for happy versus angry face pair cues. Probe-locked components sensitive to congruency included a parieto-occipital P2 component enhanced for incongruent probes (probes replacing neutral faces) versus congruent probes (probes replacing emotional faces). Split-half correlations indicated that the mean value around the PCA-derived peaks were reliably measured in the ERP waveforms. These results highlight promising neurophysiological markers for attentional bias research that can be extended to designs comparing anxious and healthy comparison groups. Results from a secondary exploratory PCA analysis investigating the effects of emotional face position and analyses on behavioral reaction time data are also presented.
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Affiliation(s)
- Resh S Gupta
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Contemplative Neuroscience & Integrative Medicine Laboratory, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 3401 West End Ave., Suite 380, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
| | - Autumn Kujawa
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Peabody College #552, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203-5721, USA
| | - David R Vago
- Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Contemplative Neuroscience & Integrative Medicine Laboratory, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 3401 West End Ave., Suite 380, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.,Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2201 Children's Way, Suite 1318, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
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27
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Attention and prediction modulations in expected and unexpected visuospatial trajectories. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0242753. [PMID: 34624029 PMCID: PMC8500414 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242753] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Accepted: 09/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans are constantly exposed to a rich tapestry of visual information in a potentially changing environment. To cope with the computational burden this engenders, our perceptual system must use prior context to simultaneously prioritise stimuli of importance and suppress irrelevant surroundings. This study investigated the influence of prediction and attention in visual perception by investigating event-related potentials (ERPs) often associated with these processes, N170 and N2pc for prediction and attention, respectively. A contextual trajectory paradigm was used which violated visual predictions and neglected to predetermine areas of spatial interest, to account for the potentially unpredictable nature of a real-life visual scene. Participants (N = 36) viewed a visual display of cued and non-cued shapes rotating in a five-step predictable trajectory, with the fifth and final position of either the cued or non-cued shape occurring in a predictable or unpredictable spatial location. To investigate the predictive coding theory of attention we used factors of attention and prediction, whereby attention was manipulated as either cued or non-cued conditions, and prediction manipulated in either predictable or unpredictable conditions. Results showed both enhanced N170 and N2pc amplitudes to unpredictable compared to predictable stimuli. Stimulus cueing status also increased N170 amplitude, but this did not interact with stimulus predictability. The N2pc amplitude was not affected by stimulus cueing status. In accordance with previous research these results suggest the N170 is in part a visual prediction error response with respect to higher-level visual processes, and furthermore the N2pc may index attention reorientation. The results demonstrate prior context influences the sensitivity of the N170 and N2pc electrophysiological responses. These findings add further support to the role of N170 as a prediction error signal and suggest that the N2pc may reflect attentional reorientation in response to unpredicted stimulus locations.
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28
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Kappenman ES, Geddert R, Farrens JL, McDonald JJ, Hajcak G. Recoiling from Threat: Anxiety is Related to Heightened Suppression of Threat, Not Increased Attention to Threat. Clin Psychol Sci 2021; 9:434-448. [PMID: 34476132 DOI: 10.1177/2167702620961074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Increased attention to threat is considered a core feature of anxiety. However, there are multiple mechanisms of attention and multiple types of threat, and the relationships among attention, threat, and anxiety are poorly understood. The present study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to separately isolate attentional selection (N2pc) and suppression (PD) of pictorial threats (photos of weapons, snakes, etc.) and conditioned threats (colored shapes paired with electric shock). In a sample of 48 young adults, both threat types were initially selected for increased attention (an N2pc), but only conditioned threats elicited subsequent suppression (a PD) and a reaction time (RT) bias. Levels of trait anxiety were unrelated to N2pc amplitude, but increased anxiety was associated with larger PDs (i.e., greater suppression) and reduced RT bias to conditioned threats. These results suggest that anxious individuals do not pay more attention to threats, but rather engage more attentional suppression to overcome threats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily S Kappenman
- San Diego State University, Department of Psychology, San Diego, CA, 92120
| | | | - Jaclyn L Farrens
- San Diego State University, Department of Psychology, San Diego, CA, 92120
| | - John J McDonald
- Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada, V5A 1S6
| | - Greg Hajcak
- Department of Biomedical Science and Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32306
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29
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Neutral and threatening distracter word stimuli are unnecessarily stored in working memory but do not differ in their degree of working memory storage. Biol Psychol 2021; 162:108091. [PMID: 33864873 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Evidence suggests that threatening stimuli induce attentional biases compared to neutral stimuli, leading to subsequent storage in working memory. The current study examined how threatening versus neutral word distracters influence attention, and how this affects the unnecessary storage of these task-irrelevant stimuli in working memory. We measured the N2pc and contralateral delay activity (CDA), two event-related potentials (ERPs) that index attentional selection and the number of items maintained in WM, respectively, as participants completed a lateralized change detection task using word stimuli. Our results replicated work demonstrating a CDA effect for word stimuli, and found that distracter words are unnecessarily stored in working memory. However, we observed non-significant differences in attentional bias and working memory storage between distracter word conditions, and individual variation in anxiety was not associated with these processes. Bayes Factor analyses supported these null effects, suggesting that differences between neutral and threatening distracter words are unlikely.
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30
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Carlson JM. A systematic review of event-related potentials as outcome measures of attention bias modification. Psychophysiology 2021; 58:e13801. [PMID: 33682161 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2020] [Revised: 02/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Attention bias modification (ABM) was initially developed with the goal of reducing attentional bias to threat-and subsequently anxious symptoms-in individuals with heightened anxiety. Although controversial, ABM appears to be generally effective in achieving this goal. Yet, the primary outcome measure of ABM (i.e., the reaction time-based differences score) has poor reliability and temporal resolution, which limits the inferences that can be drawn. In contrast, event-related potentials (ERPs) have superior reliability as well as temporal resolution and may therefore be better outcome measures of ABM. In this review, I systematically assess the research using ERPs as outcome measures in ABM protocols. I focus on the extent to which the ERPs modified by ABM represent earlier or later stages of information processing. In addition, I explore the extent to which ABM produces near and/or far transfer of learning effects on ERP measures. The reviewed literature suggests that ERPs are promising outcome measures of ABM. ABM modulates the effects of affective stimuli on posterior visually evoked ERPs (i.e., P1) as well as ERPs at anterior electrodes (i.e., P2, N2, and ERN). Based on the state of the field, several directions for future research are identified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua M Carlson
- Department of Psychological Science, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI, USA
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31
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Yuan J, Zhang Q, Cui L. Disgust face captures more attention in individuals with high social anxiety when cognitive resources are abundant: Evidence from N2pc. Neuropsychologia 2020; 151:107731. [PMID: 33347915 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Revised: 12/12/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
There is a debate about the relative contributions of top-down and bottom-up attention to the threat-related attentional bias. In this study we investigated the attentional bias in individuals with social anxiety under conditions of no, low and high visual working memory (WM) load. Event-related potential (ERP) and response time (RT) data were recorded while participants performed the dot-probe task and a concurrent change-detection task. The ERP results revealed that the maximum N2pc effect emerged in no visual WM load condition in individuals with social anxiety. The difference of N2pc effect between high socially anxious (HSA) and low socially anxious (LSA) groups was observed in no visual WM load condition, whereas this difference was eliminated under low and high load conditions. However, no significant main effects or interactions were observed in the behavioral index (reflected by Trial Level-Bias Score variability). Overall, the findings indicate the critical role of top-down attention on social anxiety-related attentional bias, which have important implication for attentional bias modification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Yuan
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China; School of Teacher Education, Hebei Normal University for Nationalities, Chengde, China
| | - Qin Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Lixia Cui
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
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32
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Liu Y, Wang Y, Gozli DG, Xiang YT, Jackson T. Current status of the anger superiority hypothesis: A meta-analytic review of N2pc studies. Psychophysiology 2020; 58:e13700. [PMID: 33040366 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13700] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/29/2020] [Revised: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Numerous investigators have tested contentions that angry faces capture early attention more completely than happy faces do in the context of other faces. However, syntheses of studies on early event-related potentials related to the anger superiority hypothesis have yet to be conducted, particularly in relation to the N200 posterior-contralateral (N2pc) component which provides a reliable electrophysiological index related to orienting of attention suitable for testing this hypothesis. Fifteen samples (N = 534) from 13 studies featuring the assessment of N2pc amplitudes during exposure to angry-neutral and/or happy-neutral facial expression arrays were included for meta-analysis. Moderating effects of study design features and sample characteristics on effect size variability were also assessed. N2pc amplitudes elicited by affectively valenced expressions (angry and happy) were significantly more pronounced than those elicited by neutral expressions. However, the mean effect size difference between angry and happy expressions was ns. N2pc effect sizes were moderated by sample age, number of trials, and nature of facial images used (schematic vs. real) with larger effect sizes observed when samples were comparatively younger, more task trials were presented and schematic face arrays were used. N2pc results did not support anger superiority hypothesis. Instead, attentional resources allocated to angry versus happy facial expressions were similar in early stages of processing. As such, possible adaptive advantages of biases in orienting toward both anger and happy expressions warrant consideration in revisions of related theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanci Liu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition & Personality Southwest University, Chongqing, China
| | - Yang Wang
- Department of Pain and Translational Symptom Science, School of Nursing, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Davood G Gozli
- Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau S.A.R
| | - Yu-Tao Xiang
- Unit of Psychiatry, Institute of Translational Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau S.A.R
| | - Todd Jackson
- Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau S.A.R
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33
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Yuan J, Zhang Q, Cui L. Social anxiety and attention to dynamic disgust facial expression: No more attention captured from evidence of N2pc. Neurosci Lett 2020; 736:135269. [PMID: 32712349 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2020.135269] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2020] [Revised: 07/07/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
In this study we investigated the role of stimulus-driven attention in the attentional bias in individuals with social anxiety using electrophysiological technique. For this purpose, we employed static and dynamic facial expressions as stimuli in a dot-probe task. The results revealed that in behavior high socially anxious (HSA) group had longer response time in incongruent trials than congruent trials, and showed higher trial level-bias score variability than low socially anxious (LSA) group. In electrophysiology, we found that compared to LSA group, HSA group showed an enhanced N2pc amplitude to disgust facial expressions in static condition, whereas this difference was eliminated in dynamic facial expression condition. The results suggest the faces with peak emotion intensity are more likely to capture initial attention of individuals with social anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Yuan
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China; School of Teacher Education, Hebei Normal University for Nationalities, Chengde, China
| | - Qin Zhang
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Lixia Cui
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.
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34
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Attentional threat biases and their role in anxiety: A neurophysiological perspective. Int J Psychophysiol 2020; 153:148-158. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.05.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2019] [Revised: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/11/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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35
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Deveney CM, Grasso D, Hsu A, Pine DS, Estabrook CR, Zobel E, Burns JL, Wakschlag LS, Briggs-Gowan MJ. Multi-method assessment of irritability and differential linkages to neurophysiological indicators of attention allocation to emotional faces in young children. Dev Psychobiol 2020; 62:600-616. [PMID: 31631345 PMCID: PMC7328764 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21930] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2019] [Revised: 08/25/2019] [Accepted: 09/09/2019] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Facilitated attention toward angry stimuli (attention bias) may contribute to anger proneness and temper outbursts exhibited by children with high irritability. However, most studies linking attention bias and irritability rely on behavioral measures with limited precision and no studies have explored these associations in young children. The present study explores irritability-related attention biases toward anger in young children (N = 128; ages 4-7 years) engaged in a dot-probe task with emotional faces, as assessed with event-related brain potential (ERP) indices of early selective attention and multi-method assessment of irritability. Irritability assessed via semi-structured clinical interview predicted larger anterior N1 amplitudes to all faces. In contrast, irritability assessed via a laboratory observation paradigm predicted reduced P1 amplitudes to angry relative to neutral faces. These findings suggest that altered early attentional processing occurs in young children with high irritability; however, the nature of these patterns may vary with methodological features of the irritability assessments. Future investigations using different assessment tools may provide greater clarity regarding the underlying neurocognitive correlates of irritability. Such studies may also contribute to the ongoing debates about how to best define and measure irritability across the developmental spectrum in a manner that is most informative for linkage to neural processes.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Damion Grasso
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT, USA
| | - Amy Hsu
- Department of Psychology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
| | - Daniel S. Pine
- Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Christopher R. Estabrook
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
- Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Elvira Zobel
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - James L. Burns
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Lauren S. Wakschlag
- Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
- Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
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36
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Dong X, Gao C, Guo C, Li W, Cui L. Time course of attentional bias in social anxiety: The effects of spatial frequencies and individual threats. Psychophysiology 2020; 57:e13617. [PMID: 32557636 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2019] [Revised: 04/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/30/2020] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Hypervigilance and attentional bias to threat faces with low-spatial-frequency (LSF) information have been found in individuals with social anxiety. The vigilance-avoidance hypothesis posits that socially anxious individuals exhibit initial vigilance and later avoidance to threatening cues. However, the temporal dynamics of these two processes in response to various LSF threats in social anxiety remain unclear. In the current study, we presented faces containing anger, disgust, and fear in high and low spatial frequencies and compared the neural correlates with sensory perception and attention in individuals with high versus low social anxiety (HSA/LSA, n = 24). A visual search task was used to investigate the attentional effects of threats and spatial frequencies, and event-related potentials, particularly, the visual components of P1 and P250, were measured to index visual perceptual and attentional processes, respectively. We found that HSA individuals showed pronounced P1 and reduced P250 to LSF (vs. HSF) faces, regardless of emotion type, suggesting a general pattern of initial vigilance and later avoidance to LSF faces in social anxiety. Furthermore, while LSA individuals showed enhanced P250 to both fear and disgust (vs. neutral) faces, HSA individuals showed pronounced P250 to disgust faces alone. Our results, thus, elucidate the temporal profile of early vigilance and later avoidance in social anxiety, highlighting its broad implication for all faces and predominance in the low spatial frequency. Considering individual threats, our results demonstrate specific attentional avoidance of fear faces in social anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaofei Dong
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.,Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Chuanji Gao
- Department of Psychology, Institute of Mind and Brain, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
| | - Chunyan Guo
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Wen Li
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Lixia Cui
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition and School of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China
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37
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Wang Y, Liu Y, Gozli D, Xiang Y, Jackson T. The N2pc component as a neural index of early attention allocation among adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Eur J Pain 2020; 24:1368-1376. [DOI: 10.1002/ejp.1584] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2020] [Revised: 04/23/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Yang Wang
- Key Laboratory of Cognition & Personality Southwest University Chongqing China
| | - Yanci Liu
- Key Laboratory of Cognition & Personality Southwest University Chongqing China
| | - Davood Gozli
- Department of Psychology University of Macau Taipa Macau S.A.R
| | - Yu‐Tao Xiang
- Unit of Psychiatry Faculty of Health Sciences Institute of Translational MedicineUniversity of Macau Taipa Macau S.A.R
| | - Todd Jackson
- Key Laboratory of Cognition & Personality Southwest University Chongqing China
- Department of Psychology University of Macau Taipa Macau S.A.R
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38
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The stability and reliability of attentional bias measures in the dot-probe task: Evidence from both traditional mean bias scores and trial-level bias scores. MOTIVATION AND EMOTION 2020; 44:657-669. [PMID: 33551518 DOI: 10.1007/s11031-020-09834-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
A new method of calculating attentional bias from the dot-probe task measures fluctuations in bias towards and away from emotional stimuli over time using trial level bias score metrics. We assessed the stability and reliability of traditional attentional bias scores and trial level bias score measures of attentional bias across time in two five-block dot-probe task experiments in non-clinical samples. In experiments 1 and 2, both traditional attentional bias scores and trial level bias score measures of attentional bias did not habituate/decrease across time. In general, trial level bias score metrics (i.e., attention bias variability as well as the mean biases toward and away from threat) were more reliable than the traditional attention bias measure. This pattern was observed across both experiments. The traditional bias score, however, did improve in reliability in the later blocks of the fearful face dot-probe task. Although trial level bias score measures did not habituate and were more reliable across blocks, these measures did not correlate with state or trait anxiety. On the other hand, trial level bias score measures were strongly correlated with general reaction time variability-and after controlling for this effect no longer superior in reliability in comparison to the traditional attention bias measure. We conclude that general response variability should be removed from trial level bias score measures to ensure that they truly reflect attention bias variability.
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39
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Liu Y, Wang P, Wang G. The priority of goal-relevant information and evolutionarily threatening information in early attention processing:Evidence from behavioral and ERP study. Sci Rep 2020; 10:8008. [PMID: 32409674 PMCID: PMC7224194 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-65062-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 01/22/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous studies have demonstrated that evolutionarily threatening information and goal-relevant information can both capture attention. However, some studies have suggested that goal-relevant information is prioritized over evolutionarily threatening information, while some studies have shown the opposite conclusion. The aim of the present study was to investigate the attention advantage by presenting evolutionarily threatening information and goal-relevant information simultaneously. Three conditions were presented in this study: evolutionarily threatening information + an irrelevant stimulus, goal-relevant information + an irrelevant stimulus, and evolutionarily threatening information + goal-relevant information. The behavioral results showed no attentional bias toward evolutionarily threatening information in the two conditions including evolutionarily threatening information; in the two conditions including goal-relevant information, participants showed attentional bias toward goal-relevant information in both. However, the ERP results showed that in the two conditions including evolutionarily threatening information, a significantly stronger N2pc response was seen for evolutionarily threatening information than for the other types of pictures, and goal-relevant information produced a significantly stronger N2pc response than that for an irrelevant stimulus. The abovementioned results indicated that in the earlier stage of attention, both evolutionarily threatening information and goal-relevant information have attention processing advantages over irrelevant stimuli; furthermore, attention was captured by evolutionarily threatening information faster than it was by goal-relevant information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuting Liu
- Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200234, China
| | - Pei Wang
- Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China.
| | - Guan Wang
- School of Education Science, Huaiyin Normal University, Huaian, 223001, China
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40
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Andrzejewski JA, Carlson JM. Electrocortical responses associated with attention bias to fearful facial expressions and auditory distress signals. Int J Psychophysiol 2020; 151:94-102. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/30/2019] [Revised: 01/28/2020] [Accepted: 02/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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41
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Social anxiety and attentional bias variability: electrophysiological evidence of attentional control deficits. Neuroreport 2020; 30:887-892. [PMID: 31373968 DOI: 10.1097/wnr.0000000000001294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Attentional control has an important role in attentional bias in social anxiety. This study aimed to investigate whether attentional bias in social anxiety was caused by attentional control deficit. Event-related potentials and behavioural attentional bias index (trial-level attentional bias variability) were recorded as participants completed the dot-probe task. The behaviour result showed that compared with the low socially anxious individuals, the high socially anxious individuals had a marginally higher score of attentional bias variability. For event-related potentials results, target-locked frontocentral N2 amplitude was significantly larger under the incongruent condition than the congruent condition in the low socially anxious group, whereas there was no significant difference between these two conditions in the high socially anxious group. The low socially anxious group also exhibited reduced target-locked P2 amplitude from the congruent condition to the incongruent condition. Our findings provide electrophysiological evidence of attentional control dysregulation in socially anxious individuals, which contributes to modifying social anxiety-related attentional bias.
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42
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Lange B, Pauli P. Social anxiety changes the way we move-A social approach-avoidance task in a virtual reality CAVE system. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0226805. [PMID: 31869406 PMCID: PMC6927627 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226805] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2018] [Accepted: 12/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Investigating approach-avoidance behavior regarding affective stimuli is important in broadening the understanding of one of the most common psychiatric disorders, social anxiety disorder. Many studies in this field rely on approach-avoidance tasks, which mainly assess hand movements, or interpersonal distance measures, which return inconsistent results and lack ecological validity. Therefore, the present study introduces a virtual reality task, looking at avoidance parameters (movement time and speed, distance to social stimulus, gaze behavior) during whole-body movements. These complex movements represent the most ecologically valid form of approach and avoidance behavior. These are at the core of complex and natural social behavior. With this newly developed task, the present study examined whether high socially anxious individuals differ in avoidance behavior when bypassing another person, here virtual humans with neutral and angry facial expressions. Results showed that virtual bystanders displaying angry facial expressions were generally avoided by all participants. In addition, high socially anxious participants generally displayed enhanced avoidance behavior towards virtual people, but no specifically exaggerated avoidance behavior towards virtual people with a negative facial expression. The newly developed virtual reality task proved to be an ecological valid tool for research on complex approach-avoidance behavior in social situations. The first results revealed that whole body approach-avoidance behavior relative to passive bystanders is modulated by their emotional facial expressions and that social anxiety generally amplifies such avoidance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bastian Lange
- Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Paul Pauli
- Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Center of Mental Health, Medical Faculty, University of Würzburg, Germany
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43
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Gupta RS, Kujawa A, Vago DR. The neural chronometry of threat-related attentional bias: Event-related potential (ERP) evidence for early and late stages of selective attentional processing. Int J Psychophysiol 2019; 146:20-42. [PMID: 31605728 PMCID: PMC6905495 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2019.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2019] [Revised: 08/04/2019] [Accepted: 08/12/2019] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Rapid and accurate detection of threat is adaptive. Yet, threat-related attentional biases, including hypervigilance, avoidance, and attentional disengagement delays, may contribute to the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Behavioral measures of attentional bias generally indicate that threat demands more attentional resources; however, indices exploring differential allocation of attention using reaction time fail to clarify the time course by which attention is deployed under threatening circumstances in healthy and anxious populations. In this review, we conduct an interpretive synthesis of 28 attentional bias studies focusing on event-related potentials (ERPs) as a primary outcome to inform an ERP model of the neural chronometry of attentional bias in healthy and anxious populations. The model posits that both healthy and anxious populations display modulations of early ERP components, including the P1, N170, P2, and N2pc, in response to threatening and emotional stimuli, suggesting that both typical and abnormal patterns of attentional bias are characterized by enhanced allocation of attention to threat and emotion at earlier stages of processing. Compared to anxious populations, healthy populations more clearly demonstrate modulations of later components, such as the P3, indexing conscious and evaluative processing of threat and emotion and disengagement difficulties at later stages of processing. Findings from the interpretive synthesis, existing bias models, and extant neural literature on attentional systems are then integrated to inform a conceptual model of the processes and substrates underlying threat appraisal and resource allocation in healthy and anxious populations. To conclude, we discuss therapeutic interventions for attentional bias and future directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Resh S Gupta
- Contemplative Neuroscience & Integrative Medicine Laboratory, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 3401 West End Ave., Suite 380, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
| | - Autumn Kujawa
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Peabody College #552, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203-5721, USA.
| | - David R Vago
- Contemplative Neuroscience & Integrative Medicine Laboratory, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 3401 West End Ave., Suite 380, Nashville, TN 37203, USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2201 Children's Way, Suite 1318, Nashville, TN 37212, USA.
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44
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Attentional bias modification in social anxiety: Effects on the N2pc component. Behav Res Ther 2019; 120:103404. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2019.05.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2018] [Revised: 01/18/2019] [Accepted: 05/10/2019] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
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45
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Bernoster I, De Groot K, Wieser MJ, Thurik R, Franken IH. Birds of a feather flock together: Evidence of prominent correlations within but not between self-report, behavioral, and electrophysiological measures of impulsivity. Biol Psychol 2019; 145:112-123. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2018] [Revised: 01/29/2019] [Accepted: 04/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
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46
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Burra N, Pittet C, Barras C, Kerzel D. Attentional suppression is delayed for threatening distractors. VISUAL COGNITION 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2019.1593272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Burra
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Coralie Pittet
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Caroline Barras
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Dirk Kerzel
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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Sallard E, Hartmann L, Ptak R, Spierer L. Spatiotemporal brain dynamics underlying attentional bias modifications. Int J Psychophysiol 2018; 130:29-39. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2018] [Revised: 04/25/2018] [Accepted: 06/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Electrophysiological evidence of an attentional bias towards appetitive and aversive words in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Clin Neurophysiol 2018; 129:1937-1946. [PMID: 30007893 DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2018.06.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2018] [Revised: 06/15/2018] [Accepted: 06/23/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Emotional dysregulation has emerged as a core symptom domain in adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, the pathophysiological underpinnings remain poorly understood. This study investigated attentional biases to positive and negative emotional words as possible contributing mechanisms. METHODS Event-related potentials (ERPSs) and behavioral attention bias indices were recorded from 39 adult patients with ADHD and 41 healthy controls during a verbal dot-probe task with positive-neutral, negative-neutral, and neutral-neutral word pairs. RESULTS Cue-locked N2pc amplitudes indicated a significant attentional bias towards emotional words in patients with ADHD and healthy controls. In healthy controls, the bias was only significant in positive trials. In patients, the bias was associated with ADHD severity and self-reported poor emotion regulation skills. ADHD patients also exhibited reduced target-locked P1 amplitudes and inferior behavioral performance compared with healthy controls. CONCLUSIONS Our findings provide evidence of an attention bias to positive and negative emotional stimuli in adult patients with ADHD and adverse effects of emotional stimuli on task performance. SIGNIFICANCE An attentional bias to emotional stimuli might contribute to emotional reactivity and dysregulation in adult patients with ADHD.
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Anxiety and Threat-Related Attention: Cognitive-Motivational Framework and Treatment. Trends Cogn Sci 2018; 22:225-240. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2018.01.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2017] [Revised: 11/18/2017] [Accepted: 01/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
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50
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Neurophysiological correlates of attentional bias for emotional faces in socially anxious individuals – Evidence from a visual search task and N2pc. Biol Psychol 2018; 132:192-201. [DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2017] [Revised: 01/03/2018] [Accepted: 01/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
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