急性应激损害对威胁刺激的注意解除

急性应激会增强个体对威胁刺激的注意偏向, 但急性应激是增强了对威胁刺激的注意定向还是损害了对威胁刺激的注意解除还不清楚。本研究采用社会评估冷压任务和点探测任务, 结合事件相关电位技术, 考察急性应激对威胁刺激注意偏向影响的认知机制。在进行社会评估冷压任务后, 应激组个体的状态焦虑和皮质醇浓度显著升高。在注意偏向中, 应激组对威胁刺激的注意解除比控制组更慢, 应激组和控制组在对威胁刺激的注意定向上无显著差异。ERP结果上, 威胁刺激诱发应激组比控制组产生了更负的SPCN, 在N2pc上没有显著差异。应激组和控制组皮质醇增量的差异和N2pc、SPCN的组间差异均有显著正相关。这些结果说明, 急性应激增强对威胁刺激的注意偏向是因为其损害个体对威胁刺激的注意解除, 这可能是因为急性应激损害了与注意解除相关的额-顶网络的功能所致。     

创伤后应激障碍个体对威胁刺激的注意偏向：眼动研究的证据

对威胁刺激的注意偏向是创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)个体的一种表现。近年来, 研究者利用眼动技术探讨了注意偏向的加工特点及其内在机制。尽管针对是否存在注意定向加速、注意解除困难或注意回避的研究结果并不一致, 但都试图为验证如警戒-回避模型、注意保持模型等提供眼动证据。未来研究在记录PTSD个体注视模式时, 不仅需要从多个维度构建、整合PTSD个体的眼动模型, 也要结合多种技术从多模态角度共同考察PTSD个体的威胁信息注意偏向机制。     

对威胁刺激的注意偏向：注意定向加速还是注意解除困难？

对威胁刺激的注意偏向普遍存在。注意定向加速和注意解除困难在不同阶段对注意偏向产生影响。威胁刺激属性、呈现时间以及被试特征是重要的调节因素。以杏仁核为核心的杏仁核?前扣带回网络可能是注意定向加速的神经基础, 而以眶额叶为中心的前额叶皮层可能是注意解除的神经基础。未来还需要就注意定向加速与注意解除困难的关系、注意偏向的调节机制以及其神经基础做更深入的研究。     

注意偏向训练对社交焦虑的干预：方法、效果与机制

社交焦虑障碍是最普遍且难于治疗的精神障碍之一。大量研究发现, 注意偏向训练可以有效缓解社交焦虑。研究者从自我报告、结构化评估、生理记录等方面考察发现, 接受了注意偏向训练的社交焦虑个体其注意偏向、生理唤醒和脑神经活动发生变化并且社交焦虑症状有所缓解。注意偏向训练对社交焦虑的干预机制可能是因为训练提升了个体对威胁性刺激的注意解除能力。今后的研究可以进一步明确注意偏向训练干预社交焦虑的效果与机制, 拓宽评估注意偏向训练效果的手段, 并探索其对社交焦虑干预的长期效果和对其它心理疾病的作用。     

PTSD青少年对威胁图片注意偏向的时程特点及习惯化倾向

探讨创伤后应激障碍(post-traumatic stress disorder,PTSD)青少年(n=20)与创伤控制组(n=20)对威胁图片注意偏向的时间进程特点以及习惯化倾向.在线索提示任务中,图片的呈现时间为100ms、500ms和1250ms.研究表明:(1)在时间进程上,当图片呈现100ms时,创伤控制组对地震图存在注意警觉;当呈现时间为500ms时,两组被试对负性图和地震图存在注意回避;当呈现时间为1250ms时,PTSD组对负性图仍存在注意回避、对地震图的注意偏向消失,创伤控制组对负性图和地震图的注意偏向均消失.(2)在习惯化倾向上,当第六次呈现威胁图片时,PTSD组对负性图和地震图的注意偏向消失,而创伤控制组对负性图和地震图的注意回避仍未消失.     

广泛性焦虑个体的注意偏向

探讨广泛性焦虑个体在一般情境和不确定性情境下注意偏向的特点。采用点探测注意搜索任务研究了在一般情境下和不确定性情境下广泛性焦虑个体的注意偏向, 结果表明高广泛性焦虑个体的注意偏向以对威胁性刺激的注意转移困难为主, 不确定性情境会让广泛性焦虑个体更容易处于紧张焦虑的状态当中, 从而对情绪性刺激尤其是消极刺激表现出更多的注意偏向和对情绪性刺激直接的注意敏感性。     

威胁性刺激注意偏向的时间进程

注意偏向各成分间关系及发生时间进程尚存争议。本研究以情绪图片为刺激,采用类别判断任务,通过眼动技术探讨正常个体对威胁性刺激注意偏向的时间进程。结果显示,(1)向左的首次眼跳概率高于向右,而潜伏期短于向右,存在左侧偏向;(2)注意回避发生在250ms以内,解除锁定困难发生在400ms之后;(3)注意偏向影响类别判断过程。结果表明,注意回避与左侧偏向在威胁性刺激注意偏向形成早期存在相互作用,且比解除锁定困难更早发生。     

特质焦虑大学生注意偏向的实验研究

焦虑与注意偏向的研究是近年来情绪与认知领域的热点.本研究采用点探测和线索靶子两个实验任务来探讨特质焦虑大学生注意偏向的特点及其内在机制.结果表明:(1)高特质焦虑大学生对负性情绪词附近靶刺激的反应时显著短于中性和正性情绪词附近的靶刺激.表现出一种对负性刺激的注意偏向.而低特质焦虑大学生没有出现注意偏向;(2)高低特质焦虑大学生在有效线索情况下反应时没有显著差异;在无效线索情况下.高特质焦虑大学生对以负性情绪词为线索的靶刺激反应时显著长于对其他靶刺激的反应时,表现出一种对负性刺激的空间注意的解除困难.因此,高特质焦虑个体对负性刺激的注意偏向是一种注意解除困难.     

低自尊个体注意偏向的ERP研究

本研究以高兴、愤怒和中性面孔图片为实验材料,采用空间线索任务,借助事件相关电位技术(ERP)探讨低自尊个体注意偏向的内在机制及生理基础,即从电生理的角度,探讨注意偏向的内在机制是反映了注意的快速定向还是注意的解脱困难,亦或是既有快速注意定向又伴随注意的解脱困难。行为数据发现,高低自尊个体在有效提示下的反应显著快于无效提示条件。脑电数据发现,无效提示条件下,愤怒面孔后的靶子比高兴和中性面孔后的靶子在低自尊个体中诱发了更大的P1和更小的N1波幅,有效提示下无显著差异;高自尊个体在N1和P1波幅上无显著结果。晚期P300成分上,无效提示比有效提示诱发了更正的波幅,未发现自尊相关的显著差异。结果表明,低自尊个体对评价性威胁信息(愤怒)的注意偏向是对威胁信息(愤怒)的注意解脱困难。     

注意偏向训练对广泛性焦虑障碍负性情绪注意偏向的影响

采用改良的点探测任务,探讨了注意偏向训练能否改变GAD患者的负性情绪注意偏向并缓解其焦虑状态,及注意偏向训练的作用机制。结果发现,与控制组相比,训练组被试的负性注意偏向分数显著降低,具体表现为训练后训练组的负性注意解除能力显著高于控制组,两组被试的负性注意警觉在前后测均未有显著变化;注意偏向训练引起了GAD患者积极情绪的变化,缓解了状态焦虑。这证明了注意偏向训练对改变GAD患者负性情绪注意偏向及缓解其焦虑状态的有效性,并揭示这种改变主要是通过提升其对负性刺激的注意解除能力来实现的。     

The interaction effect of attentional bias and attentional control on dispositional anxiety among adolescents

Research has shown that children and adolescents with attentional control deficits tend to have high anxiety and exhibit threat‐related selective attentional bias. This study aimed to investigate how positive and negative attentional biases would interact with attentional control on dispositional anxiety. One hundred and twenty participants aged 18 years of age or younger participated in a visual dot‐probe task to measure their attentional bias and completed psychological questionnaires to measure their trait anxiety, and attentional control. Mean reaction times to the probe in milliseconds were used to measure attentional bias. Overall, our participants showed a bigger tendency towards attending to positive emotional stimuli than to negative emotional stimuli. Adolescents with high dispositional anxiety showed poorer attentional control. Regression analyses showed that attentional control interact with negative attentional bias to affect anxiety. For participants with high attentional control, higher negative attentional bias was associated with lower trait anxiety. Trait anxiety was not related to negative attentional bias for participants with low attentional control. Positive attentional bias showed no significant relationship with dispositional anxiety, either alone or in interaction with attentional control. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Biased attentional processing of positive stimuli in social anxiety disorder: an eye movement study

Despite the established relationship between social anxiety and attentional bias towards threat, a growing base of evidence suggests that social anxiety is additionally maintained by a deficit in the attentional processing of positive information. However, it remains unclear which component of attention is implicated in this deficit. Using eye movement-based measures and a novel attentional cuing methodology, the present study sought to investigate the presence of anxiety-linked bias in attentional engagement with, attentional disengagement from, and total fixation time to, socially relevant emotional stimuli in individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, relative to non-socially anxious controls. Socially anxious individuals were found to exhibit faster attentional disengagement from positive stimuli, and reduced total fixation time to all emotional stimuli, relative to controls. Additionally for socially anxious individuals, lower total fixation times to positive stimuli were associated with higher levels of state anxiety. No differential pattern of engagement was evident between groups. We conclude that social anxiety is maintained in part by the aberrant processing of positive social stimuli.     

Cortisol,stress, and attentional bias toward threat

Abstract

Attentional bias toward threatening stimuli is a central characteristic of anxiety and acute stress. Recent small-scale studies have provided divergent perspectives on the association between the stress hormone cortisol and attentional bias toward threat cues. In a larger sample size than previous studies, we examined this association by investigating the impact of cortisol on attentional bias in two studies using a psychological stressor (N=35) and a physical stressor (N=65), respectively. Attentional bias and salivary cortisol were measured prior to and following the administration of a stressful task designed to increase cortisol levels. Results across these studies were equivocal relative to the association between baseline cortisol and baseline attentional bias. In addition, the association between acute change in cortisol and change in attentional bias appeared to differ as a function of the presence or absence of psychological stress. There was a trend toward a stronger negative association between acute cortisol change and attentional bias change among women relative to men. These results imply that the association between cortisol and attentional bias may be moderated by additional factors, such as gender or presence of stress.     

Eye movements reveal mechanisms underlying attentional biases towards threat

Mechanisms underlying attentional biases towards threat (ABTs), such as attentional avoidance and difficulty of disengagement, are still unclear. To address this issue, we recorded participants' eye movements during a dot detection task in which threatening or neutral stimuli served as peripheral cues. We evaluated response times (RTs) in trials where participants looked at the central fixation cross (not at the cues), as they were required, and number and duration of (unwanted) fixations towards threatening or neutral cues; in all analyses trait anxiety was treated as a covariate. Difficulty in attentional disengagement (longer RTs) was found when peripheral threatening stimuli were presented for 100?ms. Moreover, we observed significantly shorter (unwanted) fixations on threatening than on neutral peripheral stimuli, compatible with an avoidance bias, for longer presentation times. These findings demonstrate that, independent of trait anxiety levels, disengagement bias occurs without eye movements, whereas eye movements are implied in threat avoidance.     

Assessing the role of spatial engagement and disengagement of attention in anxiety-linked attentional bias: a critique of current paradigms and suggestions for future research directions

A considerable volume of research has demonstrated an anxiety-linked attentional bias characterized by selective processing of threat stimuli. The last decade has seen growing interest in identifying the precise attentional mechanisms which underlie such selective processing to advance both theoretical and etiological models of anxiety. This research has particularly focused on the roles of spatial engagement and disengagement of attention. The relative contribution of these attentional components to selective processing of threat in anxious individuals remains unclear however. Moreover, we argue here that many of the tasks employed to examine these mechanisms, may not be capable of indexing the attentional processes that they claim to measure. In this article, we provide a methodological review, critically evaluating the adequacy of previous tasks employed to measure biased attentional engagement and disengagement. Based on a number of concerns raised about the ability of such tasks to differentiate these component attentional processes, we detail three task criteria that we believe are essential to be confident that a task will accurately index biased attentional engagement with, and disengagement from threat in anxious participants.     

Enhanced probing of attentional bias: The independence of anxiety-linked selectivity in attentional engagement with and disengagement from negative information

Cognitive models of anxiety posit that an attentional bias to negative information plays a causal role in elevated anxiety vulnerability and dysfunction. There has been considerable recent interest in determining whether this attentional bias reflects facilitated attentional engagement with and/or impaired attentional disengagement from negative information. We concur with the claim of investigators who have noted that the methodologies previously employed to dissociate engagement and disengagement biases are not optimal for this purpose. In the present study, we employ a novel methodology, the Attentional Response to Distal vs. Proximal Emotional Information (ARDPEI) task, which enables the discrete assessment of these two types of attentional selectivity. The findings demonstrate that facilitated attentional engagement with and impaired attentional disengagement from negative information both characterise elevated anxiety vulnerability. Further, these biases represent distinctive facets of anxiety-linked attentional selectivity. We discuss the potentially differing roles that engagement and disengagement biases may play in the development and/or maintenance of anxiety vulnerability and dysfunction.