Abstract
BackgroundDistorted cognitive processing has been found among survivors of child maltreatment. However, different types of abuse and neglect may bring about differences in emotion and attention processing. The present study aimed to detect differential associations between various types of childhood maltreatment and attentional biases in facial emotion processing.MethodsA non-clinical sample was recruited on University campus and consisted of 67 individuals with varying degrees of maltreatment. In an evaluative conditioning task, images of faces with neutral emotional expressions were either associated with short videos of intense negative statements, or associated with neutral videos. Subsequently, these faces were used as stimuli in a face in the crowd recognition task in which the familiar faces had to be recognized within a crowd of unfamiliar neutral faces.ResultsIn multiple linear regression analyses controlling for the intercorrelatedness of types of maltreatment, differential relationships between types of maltreatment and attentional bias were found. While emotional abuse was associated with faster detection of negatively associated faces, emotional neglect was associated with an impaired recognition of familiar stimuli regardless of the emotional content.ConclusionResults indicated that interindividual differences in cognitive biases may be due to the activation of diverse cognitive schemas based on differential experiences of maltreatment.
Highlights
Attentional biases are characterized by a selectively and differentially allocated attention toward emotional stimuli in comparison to neutral stimuli
Threshold levels were met for emotional abuse for 25.4% (n = 17), emotional neglect for 13.4% (n = 9), physical abuse for 13.4% (n = 9), physical neglect for 34.3% (n = 23) and sexual abuse for 6.0% (n = 4)
It has been shown that childhood maltreatment retains cognitive scars even in healthy individuals (Wells et al, 2014)
Summary
Attentional biases are characterized by a selectively and differentially allocated attention toward emotional stimuli in comparison to neutral stimuli (for a review, see Cisler and Koster, 2010). Previous studies consistently showed attentional biases in the processing of threatening information among individuals who reported adverse child experiences. Attentional biases were found in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder who reported sexual abuse in their childhood and adolescence but not in patients who did not report sexual abuse (Field et al, 2001). This finding indicates that experiences of child maltreatment may outweigh the effects of psychiatric diagnoses as correlates of attentional biases. The present study aimed to detect differential associations between various types of childhood maltreatment and attentional biases in facial emotion processing
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