Hypomanic trait is associated with a hypovigilant automatic attentional response to social cues of danger

Abstract

Hypomania in bipolar disorders is characterized by disinhibited, fearless and reward-seeking behavior. This behavioral pattern suggests that early and automatic responding to socio-emotional cues such as facial expressions might be aberrant in hypomania. The present study tested the predictions that participants selected on hypomania-like trait would show hypovigilant responses to facial cues of danger and increased responses to facial cues of reward. From a group of 513, the 16 most trait-hypomanic individuals were selected by use of a shortened version of an established self-report instrument, the General Behavior Inventory (GBI). Their spatial-attentional responses after perception of dynamic fearful and happy facial gaze cues were compared with those of 12 controls. The group difference for full GBI hypomania scores was reliable (p=0.000). Individuals with elevated hypomanic traits clearly demonstrated attentional hypovigilance after perception of fearful, laterally gazing faces (p=0.009). In addition, unlike controls, they demonstrated reliable attentional responding to happy gaze cues (p=0.007). These data provide the first experimental evidence that hypomania-like trait is associated with hypovigilant, fearless responding to the social cue of an emotionally expressive gaze.