P300 Marker of Emotional Attention Bias in Health-Risk Smoking Behaviors: The Specific and Distinct Roles of ASPD and Moral Identity

ABSTRACTChildren with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience emotional dysregulation. Dysregulation can arise from heightened attention to emotional stimuli. Emotional attention biases are associated with a number of adverse socioemotional outcomes including reward sensitivity and externalizing behaviors. As reward sensitivity and externalizing behaviors are common in children with ADHD, the aim of the current study was to determine whether emotional attention biases are evident in young children with clinically significant ADHD symptoms. To test this, children with (n = 18) and without (n = 15) symptoms of ADHD were tested on a Dot Probe task. Provided recent evidence that emotional attention biases are attenuated by sleep, the task was performed before and after overnight sleep. Children with ADHD symptoms displayed positive, but not negative, attention biases at both time points, whereas typically developing children did not preferentially attend toward or away from positive or negative stimuli. Sleep did not alter attention biases in either group. Collectively, these results indicate that children with ADHD symptoms have stable, positive attention biases.

The family environment shapes children’s social information processing and emotion regulation. Yet, the long-term effects of early family systems have rarely been studied. This study investigated how family system types predict children’s attentional biases toward facial expressions at the age of 10 years. The participants were 79 children from Cohesive, Disengaged, Enmeshed, and Authoritarian family types based on marital and parental relationship trajectories from pregnancy to the age of 12 months. A dot-probe task was used to assess children’s emotional attention biases toward threatening (angry) and affiliative (happy) faces at the early (500 ms) and late (1250 ms) stages of processing. Situational priming was applied to activate children’s sense of danger or safety. Results showed that children from Cohesive families had an early-stage attentional bias toward threat, whereas children from Enmeshed families had a late-stage bias toward threat. Children from Disengaged families had an early-stage attentional bias toward threat, but showed in addition a late-stage bias away from emotional faces (i.e., both angry and happy). Children from Authoritarian families, in turn, showed a late-stage attentional bias toward emotional faces. Situational priming did not moderate the effects of family system types on children’s attentional biases. The findings confirm the influence of early family systems on the attentional biases, suggesting differences in the emotion regulation strategies children have developed to adapt to their family environments.

Antisocial Personality Disorder and Related Conditions in Hungarian Youth Committed Homicide

Emotional attention bias is an unconscious cognitive process that affects the processing of information. Individuals with positive emotional attention bias tend to have high self-efficacy. In adolescents, high self-efficacy helps them to get through difficult situations. This study seeks to find out the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias in adolescents by assuming there is a mediating role of positive affect. This is because the behavior and thoughts of adolescents are strongly influenced by affect. The purpose of this study was to examine positive affect as a mediator in the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias towards happiness and threats related words in adolescents. A total of 87 adolescent participants who were also high school students (M= 16.5) participated in this study. Self-efficacy was measured using the General Self-Efficacy Scale and positive affect was measured using the positive affect dimensions of the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale. Meanwhile, emotional attention bias was measured using the emotional Stroop task. The results using Jamovi's mediation showed that the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias towards happiness and threats related words was fully mediated by positive affect. This study succeeded in explaining the role of automatic and unconscious cognitive processes in the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias in adolescents.

Compared with neutral stimuli, emotional stimuli usually results in faster and more attention and presents a cognitive processing priority. In the studies of investigating the relation of attention and emotion, emotional materials are observed to attract attention or occupy attentional resource, thereby cause attention bias. Moderate bias for emotional information is of great value for the individual’s social life. The current study reviews four types of theories about emotional attention bias which refers to components of selective attention account, schema theory, attentional resource theory and the PDP model, emphasizing on the emotional attention bias under inhibitory paradigm separately with the normal individuals and the special ones. Furthermore, we points out the possibility of adopting new technology such as ERPs and fMRI to study the connection between emotion and attention for the different groups of participants in the future.

Former studies demonstrated that antisocial youth with callous-unemotional (CU) traits are impaired in the processing of negative emotional stimuli. The aim of the current study was to explore the moderating role of different behavioural (i.e. conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention) and emotional problems (i.e. internalizing symptoms) in the relationship between CU traits and attentional bias towards emotional stimuli. Besides using self-report measures, attentional bias was tested by an affective dot-probe task in a high-risk sample of 102 adolescent boys (M age = 16.34 years; SD = 1.32). CU traits were related to reduced attention to emotionally distressing pictures. Furthermore, conduct problems significantly moderated the relationship between CU traits and attention to distress cues. These findings highlight the importance of considering potential moderators to the well-established link between CU traits and deficits in response to negative emotional cues.

Sleep loss alters processing of emotional stimuli in preschool-aged children. However, the mechanism by which sleep modifies emotional processing in early childhood is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that a nap, compared to an equivalent time spent awake, reduces biases in attention allocation to affective information. Children (n=43; M=55.40months, SD=8.05months) completed a Dot Probe task, which provides a measure of attention biases to emotional stimuli, following a mid-day nap and an equivalent interval spent awake. No emotional attention biases emerged when children napped. However, when nap-deprived, children exhibited biases towards negative and positive stimuli. This emotional bias after wake was greater in children who napped habitually. Gender differences also emerged such that females were more attentive to positive emotional stimuli whereas males showed heightened attention to negative emotional stimuli, regardless of having napped or not. Moreover, greater slow wave activity (SWA) during the nap was associated with faster responding, which suggests that SWA may promote efficiency of attention allocation. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIoZ8mzxQgg.

This study examined the roles of identity formation and moral identity in predicting college student mental health (anxiety and depressive symptoms), health-risk behaviors (hazardous alcohol use and sexual risk taking), and psychological well-being (self-esteem and meaning). The sample comprised 9,500 college students (aged 18-25 years, mean = 19.78, standard deviation = 1.61; 73% female; 62% European American), from 31 different universities, who completed an online self-report survey. Structural equation models found that identity maturity (commitment making and identity synthesis) predicted 5 of the health outcomes (except sexual risk taking), and moral identity predicted all of the health outcomes. In most cases identity maturity and moral identity also interacted in predicting mental health and psychological well-being, but not health-risk behaviors. The maturity and specific contents of identity may both play unique and often interactive roles in predicting college student health. Thus, college student health might be bolstered by helping them establish appropriate identity commitments.

We explored the mediating mechanism of positive reciprocity in the relationship between moral identity and moral behavior, using data obtained from a survey of 567 college students. The results indicate that moral identity internalization, moral identity symbolization, and overall moral identity were positively correlated with positive reciprocity and moral behavior. In addition, positive reciprocity was positively correlated with moral behavior. Further, moral identity internalization moderated the influence of moral identity symbolization on moral behavior, and this moderating effect was partially mediated by positive reciprocity. Specifically, the effect of moral identity symbolization on moral behavior through positive reciprocity was strong among individuals with higher moral identity internalization, but weak among individuals with lower moral identity internalization. Overall, the study findings reveal how moral identity affects moral behavior, which has implications for improving the structure of ideological and moral education in colleges and universities.

Research has demonstrated that the impact of childhood abuse often outlasts the initial abuse experiences, paving the way for a myriad of psychological difficulties in adulthood. Attentional bias might serve as a pathway from childhood abuse to negative outcomes associated with such experiences. The primary aim of the study was to investigate the impact of childhood emotional abuse (CEA) experiences on the presence of attentional bias in a sample of college women by comparing performance on a modified Stroop task between CEA survivors (n = 28) and a nonabused control group (n = 31). Results suggest that for CEA survivors, psychological symptoms moderated the relationship between CEA severity and attentional bias to specific word types. Results underscore the importance in continued exploration of the relationship among childhood emotional abuse, attentional bias, and concurrent psychopathology. Results also suggest that modification of attentional biases, via cognitive bias modification procedures, could help mitigate the impact of childhood abuse experiences on psychological well-being in adult survivors.

Converging evidence suggests that visual spatial attention is preferentially allocated to emotional over neutral stimuli, referred to as an attentional bias to emotional information. Intriguing questions emerged about whether this attentional bias is facilitated by an assumed right hemispheric dominance of emotion processing and by converging cross-modal information (Gerdes et al., 2021). However, we argue that a critical condition that would allow an interpretation in terms of an influence on an emotional attention bias is missing from the experimental design testing these effects: namely, a condition presenting only neutral pictures. To corroborate our argument, we conducted a replication and extension of the eye-tracking study by Gerdes et al. (2021), including this control condition. Specifically, we presented pairs of pictures and lateralized sounds in a free-viewing paradigm and tested the effect of picture position, sound position, and sound valence on an attentional bias score (BS), a difference value for the number of first fixations to unpleasant pictures compared to neutral ones. Importantly, we included a neutral-neutral condition and computed a corresponding BS for an arbitrary set of neutral pictures. Both the supposed leftward bias of emotional attention (i.e., the BS for unpleasant pictures is more pronounced if they are presented on the left) and its supposed guidance by sounds (i.e., the BS for unpleasant pictures is more pronounced if a sound was heard on the same side as the unpleasant picture) emerged in striking parallelism for both unpleasant-neutral and neutral-neutral picture pairs. Thus, the paradigm gives no evidence for emotion specificity of results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Bystanders are the most common role that adolescents play in bullying episodes, they have considerable influence on the formation of the victim's experience and the perpetrator's behavior. Based on the social-cognitive model, the current study examined the mediating role of moral disengagement in the association between callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior and the moderating roles of moral identity and perceived social support. Participants included 2,286 Chinese adolescents aged 11-16years (49.3% boys; Mage = 13.46, SDage = 0.93). The study showed callous-unemotional traits were significantly and positively associated with bystander behavior and this relation was partially mediated by moral disengagement. Moral identity moderated the relation between callous-unemotional traits and moral disengagement as well as callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior. Perceived social support moderated in the direct and indirect associations between callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior via moral disengagement. The relation between callous-unemotional traits and moral disengagement and the relation between callous-unemotional traits and bystander behavior became weaker for adolescents with high perceived social support. Surprisingly, the relation between moral disengagement and bystander behavior became stronger for adolescents with a high level of perceived social support. The results supported two specific patterns of perceived social support: stress-buffering and reverse stress-buffering. The present study contributes to our understanding of the key mechanisms underlying the association between callous-unemotional traits and adolescents' bystander behavior.

Children with early-onset conduct problems (CP) are at great risk for future behavior problems, and this risk seems to increase when CP co-occur with psychopathic traits. Even though studies are indicating that the entire psychopathic personality construct may be more useful in designating a meaningful subgroup of children with CP, research on psychopathic traits and CP in childhood have mainly focused on the role of callous unemotional (CU) traits. Prospective longitudinal data of 1867 3- to 5-year-olds (47% girls) followed annually for two years was used to compare groups of children with different combinations of CP and psychopathic traits on fearlessness and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Children with CP and psychopathic personality had higher baseline and stable levels of ADHD symptoms than children with CP only or children with CP and concurrent CU traits, while baseline levels of fearlessness did not differ. They were also more likely to display stable levels of the risky combination of CP and ADHD symptoms. Results were similar for boys and girls. Findings indicate that there are reasons to consider other traits and behaviors as specifiers for subgroups of children with CP over and above CU traits, in order to optimize both diagnostic practice and treatment outcomes.

The Incentive Sensitization Theory (IST) offers a comprehensive framework that explains how attentional mechanisms contribute to the maintenance and relapse of addictive behavior. However, the extent to which the underlying neuropsychological mechanisms are consciously accessible for report remains unknown. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between self-reported wanting and liking among smokers and its relationship with detecting changes in smoking-related stimuli. An online experiment was designed deploying a flicker paradigm with neutral and smoking-related changes, completed by 422 individuals (mean age = 29.1 years, 214 non-smokers, 123 current smokers, and 85 former smokers). Additionally, the Fagerström Test for Cigarette Dependence and the Imaginative Wanting and Liking Questionnaire were administered. Consistent with prior research findings, smokers exhibited faster detection of smoking-related changes compared to non-smokers, while former smokers displayed an intermediate level of attentional bias, falling between the levels observed in smokers and non-smokers. Further, higher levels of nicotine dependence were associated with a greater discrepancy between self-reported wanting and liking, which was associated with better change detection performance for high salience smoking-related stimuli in smokers. These findings support the predictions of IST and support the notion that attentional bias might develops early in the course of nicotine addiction. Furthermore, the results indicate that the underlying cognitive mechanisms might be partially within conscious awareness, which opens up potential avenues for research design, treatment, and interventions.

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) has long been described focusing exclusively on behavioral features, like aggression. Although the role of mentalizing for aggression is well established, research on the role of mentalizing in ASPD remains limited. The present study examined the independent and interactive effects of mentalizing abilities and aggression in predicting ASPD traits in a violent male offender sample (N = 403). Participants completed self-report measures of ASPD traits, and a comprehensive assessment of mentalizing skills including measures of mindfulness, empathy, and alexithymia. Above and beyond the main effect of aggression, mindfulness, alexithymia, and empathy significantly explained an incremental amount of variance in ASPD traits in separate regression analyses. Further, mindfulness, alexithymia, and empathy significantly interacted with aggression in predicting ASPD scores. Findings suggest that among offenders with better mentalizing, aggression was significantly more strongly related to ASPD traits, indicating that at higher levels of mentalizing, only participants who also had higher levels of aggression scored higher on ASPD traits. Conversely, among offenders with poorer mentalizing, the positive association between aggression and ASPD traits was significantly weaker, indicating that poor mentalizing alone was sufficient to have high levels of ASPD traits (and aggression). Findings suggest that in some instances, mentalizing may not have a protective role on ASPD in the presence of very high levels of aggression. However, among offenders with poor mentalizing, treatments targeting aggression may not be successful in reducing ASPD traits. Interventions that aim at improving mentalizing may ultimately be more effective to treat aggression and ASPD among offenders.