Mechanisms of cross-modal selective attentional bias for negative faces of anger and disgust in high-trait anxiety individuals.

Abstract

Research reveals that selective attentional bias to socially negative information is a reliable characteristic of individuals with high-trait anxiety (HTA). However, for selective attentional bias across sensory channels (visual and auditory), the interaction between attentional bias type and negative face type remains unclear. In this study, we recruited 30 individuals with high- and low-trait anxiety (LTA) (15 in each group), and measured their engagement and disengagement bias indices using the cross-modal attentional-probe paradigm, and measured the occipital P1 component using a 64-channel electroencephalography system. The results showed that under the engagement condition in the HTA group, the occipital P1 amplitude of an angry face was smaller than that of a neutral face, and there also exhibited smaller attentional bias indices of angry faces in the HTA group than that of the LTA group. For the presence of disgusted faces, the attentional bias indices of the HTA group were smaller than that of the LTA group under the disengagement condition. These findings demonstrate that the selective attentional bias occurs both in the engagement and the disengagement facets within the cross modal. There is a feature of facilitated attentional engagement bias for an angry face, and a feature of promoted attentional disengagement bias for a disgusted face in HTA individuals.