Dynamics of attentional bias to threat in anxious adults: bias towards and/or away?

Ariel Zvielli,Amit Bernstein,Ernst H W Koster,Martin Voracek

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104025

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to question untested assumptions about the nature of the expression of Attentional Bias (AB) towards and away from threat stimuli. We tested the idea that high trait anxious individuals (N = 106; M(SD)age = 23.9(3.2) years; 68% women) show a stable AB towards multiple categories of threatening information using the emotional visual dot probe task. AB with respect to five categories of threat stimuli (i.e., angry faces, attacking dogs, attacking snakes, pointed weapons, violent scenes) was evaluated. In contrast with current theories, we found that 34% of participants expressed AB towards threat stimuli, 20.8% AB away from threat stimuli, and 34% AB towards some categories of threat stimuli and away from others. The multiple observed expressions of AB were not an artifact of a specific criterion AB score cut-off; not specific to certain categories of threat stimuli; not an artifact of differences in within-subject variability in reaction time; nor accounted for by individual differences in anxiety-related variables. Findings are conceptualized as reflecting the understudied dynamics of AB expression, with implications for AB measurement and quantification, etiology, relations, and intervention research.

Highlights

Selective attention to threat reflects an adaptive neurocognitive function to protect us from danger [1,2,3]
It is thought that attentional bias (AB) towards and away from threat stimuli occurs as a function of time of threat presentation where early preferential allocation of attention to threat initially is followed by more elaborated stages of information processing bias towards threat which can subsequently be followed by strategic avoidance of threat [2,4,11,12]
The identified state Anxiety Inventory (STAI) cut-off reflecting elevated trait anxiety is based on a local (Israeli) norm reflecting 1SD,STAI mean among a treatment-seeking clinical population (N = 275) and 1SD.STAI mean among healthy control participants (N = 534) [37]

Summary

Introduction

Selective attention to threat reflects an adaptive neurocognitive function to protect us from danger [1,2,3]. It is thought that AB towards and away from threat stimuli occurs as a function of time of threat presentation where early preferential allocation of attention to threat initially is followed by more elaborated stages of information processing bias towards threat (due to difficulty to disengage attention) which can subsequently be followed by strategic avoidance of threat [2,4,11,12]. This ‘‘vigilanceavoidance’’ pattern of attention has been used to explain why anxious individuals fail to habituate to threat despite enhanced processing of threat at early stages of information processing [13]

Objectives

Methods

Results