A Comparative Perspective on Attentional Bias Toward Social Threat

Introduction:This study aims to investigate the attentional bias toward drug-related stimuli along with subjective craving after encountering such stimuli in methamphetamine users. Studies of cue reactivity have confirmed a bias in attention and gaze toward drug-related stimuli for most substances; however, methamphetamine drugs are less studied through a direct measure, such as eye tracking.Methods:A total of 30 male subjects in the case group (methamphetamine users) and 36 subjects in the control group (no prior drug use) participated in this study. The participant’s eye movement data were collected while they were viewing pairs of drug-related and non-drug images in a dot-probe paradigm. Craving was assessed via a self-report questionnaire on a scale of 0 to 10 before and after the psychophysical task.Results:The analysis of eye-movement data showed a meaningful gaze bias toward cue images (drug-related) in the case group. Additionally, the gaze duration on cue images was significantly higher in the case group, in contrast to the control group. The same effect was observed in analyzing the dot-probe task; that is, the mean reaction time to a probe that replaced a cue image was significantly lower. The mean of the first-fixation measure in the control group was not significantly higher than chance; however, the percentage of the first-fixation on cue images in the drug users was meaningfully biased. Reported craving was significantly greater after performing the task compared to before.Conclusion:Our results indicated an attentional bias toward drug-related cues in methamphetamine users as well as subjective craving after encountering such cues.HighlightsThe gaze duration on cue images was significantly higher in methamphetamine users.The mean reaction time to a probe that replaced a cue image was significantly lower in methamphetamine users compared to the control group.The mean of the first-fixation measure in the case group was significantly better than chance.Craving was reported to be significantly greater after performing the task.Plain Language SummarySubstance users tend to focus on the stimuli associated with substances. This is known as attention bias. Attention bias leads to increased craving. Attention bias for various substances has been previously reported; however, methamphetamine attention bias has not been evaluated so far. In this study, we measured the attention bias toward stimuli related to methamphetamine in methamphetamine users and control subjects with direct (eye tracking) and indirect (dot probe paradigm) methods. In addition, we measured the number of cravings in the case group. Our results confirmed the bias in attention toward methamphetamine-related stimuli in the case group compared to the control group.

Reliability (or lack thereof) of smartphone ecological momentary assessment of visual dot probe attention bias toward threat indices

Understanding the impact routine research and laboratory procedures have on animals is crucial to improving their well-being and to the success and reproducibility of the research they are involved in. Cognitive measures of welfare offer insight into animals’ internal psychological state, but require validation. Attention bias – the tendency to attend to one type of information over another – is a cognitive phenomenon documented in humans and animals that is known to be modulated by affective state (i.e., emotions). Hence, changes in attention bias may offer researchers a deeper perspective of their animals’ psychological well-being. The dot-probe task is an established method for quantifying attention bias in humans (by measuring reaction time to a dot-probe replacing pairs of stimuli), but has yet to be validated in animals. We developed a dot-probe task for long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) to determine if the task can detect changes in attention bias following anesthesia, a context known to modulate attention and trigger physiological arousal in macaques. Our task included the following features: stimulus pairs of threatening and neutral facial expressions of conspecifics and their scrambled counterparts, two stimuli durations (100 and 1,000 ms), and counterbalancing of the dot-probe’s position on the touchscreen (left and right) and location relative to the threatening stimulus. We tested 8 group-housed adult females on different days relative to being anesthetized (baseline and 1-, 3-, 7-, and 14-days after). At baseline, monkeys were vigilant to threatening content when stimulus pairs were presented for 100 ms, but not 1,000 ms. On the day immediately following anesthesia, we found evidence that attention bias changed to an avoidance of threatening content. Attention bias returned to threat vigilance by the third day postanesthesia and remained so up to the last day of testing (14-days after anesthesia). We also found that attention bias was independent of the type of stimuli pair (i.e., whole face vs. scrambled counterparts), suggesting that the scrambled stimuli retained aspects of the original stimuli. Nevertheless, whole faces were more salient to the monkeys as responses to these trials were generally slower than to scrambled stimulus pairs. Overall, our study suggests it is feasible to detect changes in attention bias following anesthesia using the dot-probe task in nonhuman primates. Our results also reveal important aspects of stimulus preparation and experimental design.

Cortisol induces attentional bias toward a negative stimulus and impaired attentional function. Depressed individuals have high levels of cortisol, and exhibit an attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus and impaired processing speed and executive attention, which are components of attentional function. Therefore, the study tested the hypotheses that an acute increase in cortisol in response to a stressor is associated with attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus and impaired processing speed and executive attention. Thirty-six participants were administered the dot-probe task for the measurement of attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus and the Trail Making Test A and B for the measurement of processing speed and executive attention before and after a mental arithmetic task. It was revealed that attentional bias toward a depression-related stimulus following the stressor was observed only among the responders (i.e., participants with cortisol elevation in response to a stressor). On the other hand, no differences in the performance of processing speed and executive attention were noted between the responders and non-responders. The results indicate that acutely elevated cortisol is related to attentional bias, but is not related to processing speed and executive attention. The results have an implication for the etiology of depression.

Background: Many studies have found that smokers’ attentional bias toward cigarette-related cues and cognitive control impairment significantly impacts their cigarette use. However, there is limited research on how the interaction between attentional bias and cognitive control may modulate smokers’ cigarette-seeking behavior. Objectives: This study used a cigarette Stroop task to examine whether smokers with different attentional control ability had different levels of attentional bias toward cigarette-related cues. Methods: A total of 130 male smokers completed the Flanker task to measure their attentional control ability. The attentional control scores of all participants were ranked from low to high, with the top 27% placed in the high attentional control group and the bottom 27% in the low attentional control group. Subsequently, both groups completed the cigarette Stroop task to measure their attentional bias toward cigarette-related cues. Results: Smokers with low attentional control responded more slowly to cigarette-related cues than to neutral cues, while smokers with high attentional control showed no significant difference in their response time to either condition. Conclusions/Importance: Attentional control ability can regulate smokers’ attentional bias toward cigarette-related cues. Smokers with low attentional control ability are more likely to have attentional bias toward cigarette-related cues, offering insights for targeted prevention of cigarette addiction.

Attention Bias Toward Threat in Pediatric Anxiety Disorders

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prevalent behavior among young people maintained by complex transdiagnostic processes. This study sought to investigate whether NSSI attentional bias—the preferential allocation of attentional resources to environmental NSSI cues—is one such transdiagnostic process experienced by young adults with histories of NSSI. Participants were 39 young adults who completed a dot probe task designed to measure attentional bias to NSSI cues and negatively-valenced cues. Participants also provided NSSI urge and affect ratings during the task. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to determine if participants exhibited a significant attentional bias to NSSI cues and negatively-valenced cues compared to neutral cues, and to test whether NSSI urge ratings following the dot probe task increased from baseline levels. Participants exhibited a significant attentional bias to NSSI cues presented for 200 ms and a significant attentional bias to negative cues presented for 200 ms. The urge to engage in NSSI was elicited by NSSI cues, but not by negative cues. These findings indicate exposure to NSSI cues elicits both attentional bias and NSSI urge, a unique process that differs from a mere generalized attentional bias to negative affective stimuli known to be exhibited by individuals with other forms of psychopathology, such as anxiety or depressive disorders. These results provide preliminary evidence for possible avenues of intervention as it relates to the role of exposure to NSSI cues in the maintenance of NSSI, including managing cue-elicited urge and tolerating changes in affective states.

Investigating the efficacy of attention bias modification in reducing high spider fear: The role of individual differences in initial bias

The current study aimed to analyze whether individuals with problematic social media use (PSMU) demonstrate attentional bias (AB) toward negative emotional information and determine the relationships among the severity of PSMU, social anxiety, and negative AB. Sixty participants were divided into problematic and normal use groups according to their scores on the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS). The BSMAS and Interaction Anxiety Scale were adopted to measure the severity of PSMU and social anxiety, respectively. An emotional Stroop task and a visual dot-probe task (DPT) were used to assess AB toward negative emotional expressions. Relationships among the severity of PSMU, social anxiety, and negative AB were investigated using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results showed that individuals with PSMU demonstrated AB toward negative emotional information in the emotional DPT but not in the emotional Stroop task. AB toward negative emotional information was positively correlated with the severity of PSMU and social anxiety in the emotional DPT. Findings support the key role of negative AB and social anxiety in individuals with PSMU, suggesting that more attention be paid to negative AB and social anxiety for the prevention and treatment of PSMU. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 61(6), 33-42.].

Relative and absolute attentional biases in response times and error rates to social and health threat words were investigated in a sample of female undergraduates with high and low social anxiety (n = 63; mean age = 20.22) and high and low depression (n = 63; mean age = 20.30). A dot-probe paradigm measured attention to (1) social threat versus neutral words, (2) social threat versus health threat words, and (3) health threat versus neutral words. Participants with low social anxiety displayed an absolute bias in response times but not error rates away from social threat words. In contrast, participants with high social anxiety displayed an absolute bias in error rates but not response times toward social threat words. Findings suggest that attention toward social threat may not be unique to social anxiety, and that individuals with high social anxiety may lack a protective bias away from social threat.

<p>Relative and absolute attentional biases in response times and error rates to social and health threat words were investigated in a sample of female undergraduates with high and low social anxiety (<em>n</em> = 63; mean age = 20.22) and high and low depression (<em>n</em> = 63; mean age = 20.30). A dot-probe paradigm measured attention to (1) social threat versus neutral words, (2) social threat versus health threat words, and (3) health threat versus neutral words. Participants with low social anxiety displayed an absolute bias in response times but not error rates away from social threat words. In contrast, participants with high social anxiety displayed an absolute bias in error rates but not response times toward social threat words. Findings suggest that attention toward social threat may not be unique to social anxiety, and that individuals with high social anxiety may lack a protective bias away from social threat.</p>

<p>Relative and absolute attentional biases in response times and error rates to social and health threat words were investigated in a sample of female undergraduates with high and low social anxiety (<em>n</em> = 63; mean age = 20.22) and high and low depression (<em>n</em> = 63; mean age = 20.30). A dot-probe paradigm measured attention to (1) social threat versus neutral words, (2) social threat versus health threat words, and (3) health threat versus neutral words. Participants with low social anxiety displayed an absolute bias in response times but not error rates away from social threat words. In contrast, participants with high social anxiety displayed an absolute bias in error rates but not response times toward social threat words. Findings suggest that attention toward social threat may not be unique to social anxiety, and that individuals with high social anxiety may lack a protective bias away from social threat.</p>

Young children are frequently exposed to environmental prints (e.g., billboards and product labels) that contain visual word forms on a daily basis. As the visual word forms in environmental prints are frequently used to convey information critical to an individual’s survival and wellbeing (e.g., “STOP” in the stop sign), it is conceivable that an attentional bias toward words in the environment may emerge as the reading ability of young children develops. Empirical findings relevant to this issue, however, are inconclusive so far. The present study examines this issue in children in the early stages of formal reading training (grades 1, 3, and 5) with the eye-tracking technique. Children viewed images with word and non-word visual information (environmental prints) and images with the same words in standard typeface on a plain background (standard prints). For children in grade 1, the latency of their first fixations on words in environmental prints was longer than those in standard prints. This latency cost, however, was markedly reduced in grades 3 and 5, suggesting that in older children an attentional bias toward words has emerged to help filter out the non-word visual information in environmental prints. Importantly, this attentional bias was found to correlate moderately with word reading ability. These findings show that an attentional bias toward visual word forms emerges shortly after the start of formal schooling and it is closely linked to the development of reading skills.

Purpose: We know that adults who stutter report higher levels of social anxiety [Craig and Tran: J Fluency Disord 2014;40:35–43; Iverach et al.: J Anxiety Disord 2009;23(7):928–34]. What is not clear is whether adults who stutter develop maladaptive attentional shifts, similar to what is observed in socially anxious individuals, in response to social anxiety. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attentional biases in adults who stutter compared to adults who do not stutter before and after social evaluative threat induction and determine whether responses are associated with objective and subjective measures of anxiety. Method: Twelve adults who stutter and 14 matched adults who do not stutter performed a modified response time paradigm, the dot-probe task, where they responded to a probe appearing behind one of two faces, one emotional (positive or negative) and one neutral. Participant’s reaction times were measured before and after a social threat induction task. Skin conductance levels were used as an index of induced stress. Self-reports of trait and social anxiety were used as subjective measures of anxiety. Results: Adults who stutter compared to controls exhibited an attentional bias towards negative facial expressions following a social evaluative threat induction. This effect remained when covarying for levels of trait and social anxiety. Before social evaluative threat induction, visual inspection of the data showed that adults who stutter compared to adults who do not stutter avoided positive facial expressions as they attended more to the negative facial expressions; however, these differences were not significant. Discussion: This study provides evidence for a maladaptive attentional behavior in adults who stutter when undergoing feelings of social evaluative threat. Results provide rationale for research aimed at assessing the use of attention restructuring in highly anxious adults who stutter.

Effects of early maternal care on adolescent attention bias to threat in nonhuman primates