Attentional bias predicts outcome in smoking cessation.

Most attempts to quit smoking end in failure, with many quitters relapsing in the first few days. Responses to smoking-related cues may precipitate relapse. A modified emotional Stroop task-which measures the extent to which smoking-related words disrupt performance on a reaction time (RT) task-was used to index the distracting effects of smoking-related cues. Smokers (N = 158) randomized to a high-dose nicotine patch (35 mg) or placebo patch completed the Stroop task on the 1st day of a quit attempt. Smokers using an active patch exhibited less attentional bias, making fewer errors on smoking-related words. Smokers who showed greater attentional bias (slowed RT on the first block of smoking words) were significantly more likely to lapse in the short-term, even when controlling for self-reported urges at the test session. Attentional bias measures may tap an important component of dependence.     

Changes of brain potentials in response to smoking-induced stimuli in smokers.

Changes in P300 amplitude were used as an indicator of reactivity to smoking-related stimuli in smokers. The amplitude of P300--a component of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) elicited by 10 smoking-related (craving), 10 antismoking (aversive) and 10 neutral stimuli-- was recorded in smokers (n=10) and nonsmokers (n=10). Electroencephalography (EEG) data were obtained by the Laxtha EEG-monitoring device in the EEG recording room, and were recorded at F3, F4, C3, and C4. Three-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was computed on the P300 amplitudes. The factors were group (smokers, nonsmokers), stimulus (craving, aversive, neutral), and electrode location (F3, F4, C3, and C4). The main effects of stimulus were significant, but the group effects did not show significant interactions with other factors. An interesting observation was the similarity between P300 waveforms for craving and aversive stimuli in smokers. These findings could indicate that the antismoking-related response is similar to the smoking-related one.     

Orienting and maintenance of gaze to facial expressions in social anxiety

In 2 experiments, the authors tested predictions from cognitive models of social anxiety regarding attentional biases for social and nonsocial cues by monitoring eye movements to pictures of faces and objects in high social anxiety (HSA) and low social anxiety (LSA) individuals. Under no-stress conditions (Experiment 1), HSA individuals initially directed their gaze toward neutral faces, relative to objects, more often than did LSA participants. However, under social-evaluative stress (Experiment 2), HSA individuals showed reduced biases in initial orienting and maintenance of gaze on faces (cf. objects) compared with the LSA group. HSA individuals were also relatively quicker to look at emotional faces than neutral faces but looked at emotional faces for less time, compared with LSA individuals, consistent with a vigilant-avoidant pattern of bias.     

吸烟者对香烟相关线索注意偏向的研究述评

吸烟者对香烟相关线索的注意偏向近年来颇受研究界青睐,现有研究大都集中在吸烟者注意偏向的理论解释、研究范式、发生状况以及与吸烟成瘾的关系等方面。其中,在理论解释上形成了诱因敏感、自动行动图式、诱因习惯和目前关注等理论;在研究范式上主要有成瘾stroop任务、点探测任务和线索调控的惊跳测试;在发生状况上涉及发生的被试特征、发生的意识状态、发生的注意阶段、发生的生化基础;在与吸烟成瘾的关系上包括与主观渴求和与觅烟行为的关系。鉴于目前研究所限,未来研究需纳入线索-靶子等研究范式,以深入探讨吸烟者注意偏向的发生阶段及其与吸烟成瘾的关系,进而发现吸烟者注意偏向的特异性之所在。     

Biases of attention in chronic smokers: Men and women are not alike

The activation of motivational systems by stimuli in the environment that are associated with rewarding experiences is able to trigger plastic changes in the brain, thereby altering the attentional priority of those stimuli. As a result, attentional deployment is often abnormal in addiction, with drug-related stimuli attracting attention automatically and gaining control over behavior. For example, smokers show attentional biases toward smoke-related cues, but the mechanisms underlying these effects and the nature of their link to addiction are still debated. Here, we investigated the influence of gender and individual factors on the temporal dynamics of attentional deployment toward smoke-related stimuli in young smokers. Crucially, we found a striking gender difference, with only males exhibiting a typical attentional bias for smoke-related items, and the bias revealed strong time dependency. Additionally, for both males and females, various personality traits and smoking habits predicted the direction and strength of the measured bias. Overall, these results unveil a crucial influence of several predictors—notably, gender—on the biases of attention toward smoke-related items in chronic smokers.     

Spider fearful individuals attend to threat, then quickly avoid it: evidence from eye movements

According to cognitive models of anxiety, anxiety patients exhibit an early reflexive attentional bias toward threat stimuli, which may be followed by intentional avoidance of these stimuli. To determine the time course of attentional vigilance and avoidance, the authors conducted an eye-tracking study in which 22 highly spider fearful participants (SFs) and 23 nonanxious control participants (NACs) studied groups of 4 pictures (spider, butterfly, dog, and cat). The authors found that the very first fixation was on a spider picture more often in SFs than in NACs. However, SFs quickly moved their eyes away from the spider they had fixated first, yielding shorter gaze durations than NACs. Afterward, SFs exhibited shorter gaze durations on spiders than NACs for the rest of the 1-min presentation time. This early reflexive attentional bias toward threat followed by avoidance of threat may explain earlier failures to find attentional biases in anxiety.     

Attentional bias to respiratory- and anxiety-related threat in children with asthma

This study investigated attentional biases in children with asthma. The study aimed at testing whether children with asthma are vigilant to asthma and/or anxiety cues. Thirty-six children (18 with asthma and 18 healthy controls) aged 9–12 completed a computerised dot probe task designed to measure attentional bias to three different categories of words: asthma, anxiety symptom and general negative emotion. Main caregiver anxiety was also assessed, as was frequency of inhaler use for those with asthma. Children with asthma showed an attentional bias towards asthma words but not anxiety or general negative emotion words. Children without asthma showed no significant attentional biases to any word categories. Caregiver anxiety was correlated with asthma word attentional bias in the asthma group. The findings indicate that attentional bias is present in children with asthma. Further research is required to ascertain if this exacerbates or maintains health-related problems.     

Biases in visual orienting to negative and positive scenes in dysphoria: An eye movement study

The study investigated biases for negative information in component processes of visual attention (initial shift vs. maintenance of gaze) in dysphoric and nondysphoric individuals. Eye movements were recorded while participants viewed a series of picture pairs depicting negative, positive, and neutral scenes (each pair presented for 3 s). Biases in initial orienting were assessed from the direction and latency of the initial shift in gaze, whereas biases in the maintenance of attention were assessed from the duration of gaze on the picture that was initially fixated. Results indicated that the dysphoric group showed a significantly greater bias to maintain gaze longer on negative pictures, relative to control pictures, compared with the nondysphoric group. There was no evidence of a dysphoria-related bias in initial shift of orienting to negative cues. Results are consistent with a depression-related bias that operates in the maintenance of attention on negative material.     

情绪启动条件下三种反刍思维类型的注意偏向

目的:探讨积极型、消极型和低型反刍思维者对不同情绪刺激的注意偏向。方法:采用积极和消极反刍思维量表区分三种反刍思维类型的大学生,以情绪面孔(高兴,中性,悲伤)图片为实验材料,采用“空间线索任务”实验范式,探讨不同反刍思维类型个体注意偏向特点。结果:无启动条件下,三种类型都未产生注意偏向。积极情绪启动条件下,积极型和低型产生对积极刺激的注意警觉,消极型产生对消极刺激的注意警觉和注意解脱困难。消极启动条件下,三种类型都产生对积极刺激的注意警觉,且积极型的警觉水平高于低型和消极型。结论:积极和消极启动对三种反刍思维类型注意偏向的影响不完全符合情绪一致性效应。     

Reward expectancy promotes generalized increases in attentional bias for rewarding stimuli

Expectations of drug availability increase the magnitude of attentional biases for drug-related cues. However, it is unknown whether these effects are outcome specific, or whether expectation of a specific reinforcer produces a general enhancement of attentional bias for other types of rewarding cues. In the present study, 31 social drinkers completed an eye-tracking task in which attentional bias for alcohol- and chocolate-related cues was assessed while the expectation of receiving alcohol and chocolate was manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis. Participants showed attentional bias for alcohol and chocolate cues (relative to neutral cues) overall. Importantly, these attentional biases for reward cues were magnified when participants expected to receive alcohol and chocolate, but effects were not outcome specific: The expectation of receiving either alcohol or chocolate increased attentional bias for both alcohol and chocolate cues. Results suggest that anticipation of reward produces a general rather than an outcome-specific enhancement of attentional bias for reward-related stimuli.     

Biases in orienting and maintenance of attention among weight dissatisfied women: an eye-movement study

Despite evidence indicating fatness and thinness information are processed differently among weight-preoccupied and eating disordered individuals, the exact nature of these attentional biases is not clear. In this research, eye movement (EM) tracking assessed biases in specific component processes of visual attention (i.e., orientation, detection, maintenance and disengagement of gaze) in relation to body-related stimuli among 20 weight dissatisfied (WD) and 20 weight satisfied young women. Eye movements were recorded while participants completed a dot-probe task that featured fatness-neutral and thinness-neutral word pairs. Compared to controls, WD women were more likely to direct their initial gaze toward fatness words, had a shorter mean latency of first fixation on both fatness and thinness words, had longer first fixation on fatness words but shorter first fixation on thinness words, and shorter total gaze duration on thinness words. Reaction time data showed a maintenance bias towards fatness words among the WD women. In sum, results indicated WD women show initial orienting, speeded detection and initial maintenance biases towards fat body words in addition to a speeded detection – avoidance pattern of biases in relation to thin body words. In sum, results highlight the importance of the utility of EM-tracking as a means of identifying subtle attentional biases among weight dissatisfied women drawn from a non-clinical setting and the need to assess attentional biases as a dynamic process.     

The role of extinction and reinstatement in attentional bias to threat: a conditioning approach

We investigated the effects of extinction and reinstatement on attentional bias to fear-conditioned signals in healthy individuals using an emotional modification of a spatial cueing paradigm. Spatial cues were emotionally modulated using differential conditioning. The CS+ was sometimes followed by an aversive electrocutaneous stimulus (UCS), whereas the CS- was never followed by the UCS. During a subsequent extinction phase no UCS was presented anymore. The reinstatement phase started with one or four unpredicted UCS-only trials for half of the participants (reinstatement group). For the other half there were no additional UCS presentations (control group). We found that attention was biased to threat signals during acquisition. This biased attention largely disappeared during extinction. During the reinstatement phase attentional bias to threat signals re-emerged in the reinstatement group, but not in the control group.     

Effects of Smoking Social Cues on Inhibitory Control in Smokers: An Event-Related Potential Study

ObjectiveReduced inhibitory control is a general characteristic of smokers and becomes increasingly pronounced in smoking-related contexts. However, research has rarely considered differences in the effects of various smoking-related cues. To fill this research gap, this study compared the effects of smoking object-related and smoking social-related cues on inhibitory control in smokers.MethodsWe used a visual Go/NoGo paradigm with three types of long-lasting backgrounds (neutral, smoking object, and smoking social background) to record the error rates, reaction times, and amplitudes of the N2 and P3 event-related potentials (ERPs) by 25 smokers and 25 non-smokers.Results(1) Smokers displayed smaller NoGo-N2 amplitudes than controls under the neutral background; (2) smokers displayed smaller NoGo-N2 amplitudes under the smoking social background and smoking object background than they did under the neutral background; (3) relative to neutral and smoking object backgrounds, smokers displayed higher commission error rates, shorter reaction times, and larger NoGo-P3 amplitudes under smoking social background.ConclusionSmoking-related stimuli impair inhibitory control in smokers, especially when these stimuli are socially related.     

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.     

胖负面身体自我女性对身体信息注意偏向成分的时间进程：一项眼动追踪研究

虽然目前大量研究基于Vitousek和Hollon (1990)提出的饮食失调认知模型对胖负面身体自我图式者或饮食失调者的注意偏向进行探讨, 但对其注意偏向的成分仍未得出一致结论, 且尚无研究查考其时间进程特点。研究采用更具生态效度的身体图片为实验刺激, 刺激呈现时间2000ms, 采用传统经典的点探测范式与眼动追踪技术结合, 探讨胖负面身体自我女性对身体信息注意偏向成分的时间进程。基于前人的工作(Castellanos et al., 2009; Garner, Mogg, & Bradley, 2006), 研究考察了四个眼动数据：首视点定向偏向分数、首视点潜伏期偏向分数、首视点注视时间偏向以及总注视时间偏向分数, 系统探讨了注意定向、探测时间、最初注意维持/回避以及总体注意维持/回避。眼动数据发现, 胖负面身体自我图式者对不同身体图片存在不同的注意偏向模式, 对胖图片为注意警觉—维持模式, 具体表现为早期加速探测、注意定向, 以及最初的注意维持和总体注意维持; 对瘦图片仅为注意警觉, 具体表现为早期加速探测; 行为数据支持实验组对胖图片的注意维持以及对身体图片的注意脱离困难。该结果部分支持Vitousek和Hollon (1990)的模型, 即负面身体自我图式能够易化对图式一致信息的加工, 而未发现对图式不一致信息的回避或抑制。     

Attentional Processing of Threat in Bipolar Disorder: Going Beyond Mood-Congruency

Emotional processing in bipolar disorder (BD) entails a complex attentional pattern not merely restricted to happy or sad biases, but also directed towards threatening information. This study examined threat-related bias on attentional orienting when participants were not instructed about the presentation of emotional stimuli (i.e., implicit instructions). An emotional dot-probe task in which an emotional face (i.e., threat, sad, happy) is simultaneously displayed with a neutral face was applied to BD individuals in their different episodes: mania (n?=?26), depression (n?=?24), and euthymia (n?=?28) as well as to a group of healthy controls (n?=?28). Symptomatic BD patients (i.e., in a manic or depressive episode) showed an attentional orienting bias toward threatening faces but not for happy or sad faces, while euthymic BD patients did not exhibit any attentional bias for emotional stimuli. A bias toward happy faces was found in the control group. Threat-related bias was not related to the severity of affective and anxiety symptoms in BD. When attention is not explicitly directed to emotional information, threat-related bias may characterize attentional orienting during mania and depression, but may be attenuated during euthymia.

     

Temperament, executive functions, and the allocation of attention to punishment feedback in passive avoidance learning

Several theories have been proposed to account for the apparent non-responsiveness to punishment cues or aversive events demonstrated by members of some disinhibited groups. Included among these theories are those that emphasize individual differences in temperament, temperament-related biases associated with the allocation of attentional resources, and impairments in executive functions. This study examined the relative contribution of each of these variables to the prediction of passive avoidance errors (PAEs, or failures to inhibit responding to punishment cues) during a computerized go/no-go task. Variations in temperament, attentional allocation to punishment feedback, and executive functions were found to independently and additively contribute to the prediction of PAEs in a mixed sample of men and women recruited at a university campus (n=145). Results from this study, therefore, support multiple theoretical perspectives on PAEs as assessed by the go/no-go experimental paradigm.     

Attentional bias toward threat in contamination fear: overt components and behavioral correlates

Recent research suggests that an attentional bias toward threat may play a causal role in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with contamination concerns. However, the attentional components involved in this bias, as well as its behavioral correlates, remain unclear. In the present study, eye movements were recorded in individuals high and low in contamination fear (HCF, LCF, respectively) during 30-s exposures to stimulus arrays containing contamination threat, general threat, pleasant, and neutral images. HCF individuals oriented gaze toward contamination threat more often than LCF individuals in initial fixations, and this bias mediated group differences in responding to a behavioral challenge in a public restroom. No group differences were found in the maintenance of gaze on contamination threat, both in terms of initial gaze encounters, as well as gaze duration over time. However, the HCF group made shorter fixations on contamination threat relative to other image types. The implications of these findings for further delineating the nature and function of attentional biases in contamination-based OCD are discussed.     

Attentional bias in high- and low-anxious individuals: Evidence for threat-induced effects on engagement and disengagement

Attentional bias to threatening visual stimuli (words or pictures) is commonly present in anxious individuals, but not in non-anxious people. There is evidence to show that attentional bias to threat can be induced in all individuals when threat is imposed by threat not of symbolic nature, but by cues that predict aversive stimulation (loud noise or electric shock). However, it is not known whether attentional bias in such situations is still influenced by individual differences in anxiety. This question was addressed in two experiments using a spatial cuing task in which visual cues predicted the occurrence of an aversive event consisting of a loud human scream. Speeded attentional engagement to threat cues was positively correlated with trait anxiety in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 showed that speeded attentional engagement was present only in participants selected for high anxiety but not in low-anxious participants. In both experiments, slower disengagement from threat cues was found in all participants, irrespective of their trait anxiety levels.     

Attentional bias in high- and low-anxious individuals: evidence for threat-induced effects on engagement and disengagement

Attentional bias to threatening visual stimuli (words or pictures) is commonly present in anxious individuals, but not in non-anxious people. There is evidence to show that attentional bias to threat can be induced in all individuals when threat is imposed by threat not of symbolic nature, but by cues that predict aversive stimulation (loud noise or electric shock). However, it is not known whether attentional bias in such situations is still influenced by individual differences in anxiety. This question was addressed in two experiments using a spatial cuing task in which visual cues predicted the occurrence of an aversive event consisting of a loud human scream. Speeded attentional engagement to threat cues was positively correlated with trait anxiety in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 showed that speeded attentional engagement was present only in participants selected for high anxiety but not in low-anxious participants. In both experiments, slower disengagement from threat cues was found in all participants, irrespective of their trait anxiety levels.