Index Of Attentional Bias Research Articles

Electrophysiological evidence of an attentional bias towards appetitive and aversive words in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

ObjectiveEmotional dysregulation has emerged as a core symptom domain in adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, the pathophysiological underpinnings remain poorly understood. This study investigated attentional biases to positive and negative emotional words as possible contributing mechanisms. MethodsEvent-related potentials (ERPSs) and behavioral attention bias indices were recorded from 39 adult patients with ADHD and 41 healthy controls during a verbal dot-probe task with positive-neutral, negative-neutral, and neutral-neutral word pairs. ResultsCue-locked N2pc amplitudes indicated a significant attentional bias towards emotional words in patients with ADHD and healthy controls. In healthy controls, the bias was only significant in positive trials. In patients, the bias was associated with ADHD severity and self-reported poor emotion regulation skills. ADHD patients also exhibited reduced target-locked P1 amplitudes and inferior behavioral performance compared with healthy controls. ConclusionsOur findings provide evidence of an attention bias to positive and negative emotional stimuli in adult patients with ADHD and adverse effects of emotional stimuli on task performance. SignificanceAn attentional bias to emotional stimuli might contribute to emotional reactivity and dysregulation in adult patients with ADHD.

Mechanisms of attentional selection bias for threatening emotions of anger and disgust in individuals with high-trait anxiety.

There are still some controversies that attentional bias to negative emotions in individuals with high-trait anxiety (HTA), as compare with those with low-trait anxiety (LTA), occurs in the engagement or disengagement facet of attentional selectivity and whether this attentional bias is affected by negative emotional types. In this study, we explored the different attentional selectivity mechanisms for threatening emotions of anger and disgust between individuals with HTA and LTA using the variant attentional-probe paradigm. The results showed that under the engagement condition, the HTA group's attentional bias index of the anger mood was negative and was significantly less than the disgusting mood (positive) and that the P1 was smaller with angry faces as compared with neutral faces, which was separate from the results of the disgusted faces, having a significant difference with neutral faces on P1 component. In the LTA group, under the disengagement condition, the attentional bias index of the disgusting mood was significantly bigger than the attentional bias index of the anger mood. Moreover, the P1 of the disgusted faces was significantly bigger than the P1 of the angry faces. The topographical maps were also made to reveal the different neural underpinnings. The results suggested that there were different mechanisms of selective attentional bias for threatening emotions of anger and disgust in individuals with HTA. HTA individuals were characterized by facilitated attentional engagement with angry faces and impaired attentional engagement with disgusted faces. LTA individuals had different neural underpinnings and had impaired attentional disengagement with disgusted faces.

Selective attention to smoking cues in former smokers

Repeated drug use modifies the emotional and cognitive processing of drug-associated cues. These changes are supposed to persist even after prolonged abstinence. Several studies demonstrated that smoking cues selectively attract the attention of smokers, but empirical evidence for such an attentional bias among successful quitters is inconclusive. Here, we investigated whether attentional biases persist after smoking cessation. Thirty-eight former smokers, 34 current smokers, and 29 non-smokers participated in a single experimental session. We used three measures of attentional bias for smoking stimuli: A visual probe task with short (500ms) and long (2000ms) picture stimulus durations, and a modified Stroop task with smoking-related and neutral words. Former smokers and current smokers, as compared to non-smokers, showed an attentional bias in visual orienting to smoking pictures in the 500ms condition of the visual probe task. The Stroop interference index of smoking words was negatively related to nicotine dependence in current smokers. Former smokers and mildly dependent smokers, as compared to non-smokers, showed increased interference by smoking words in the Stroop task. Neither current nor former smokers showed an attentional bias in maintained attention (2000ms visual probe task). In conclusion, even after prolonged abstinence smoking cues retain incentive salience in former smokers, who differed from non-smokers on two attentional bias indices. Attentional biases in former smokers operate mainly in early involuntary rather than in controlled processing, and may represent a vulnerability factor for relapse. Therefore, smoking cessation programs should strengthen self-control abilities to prevent relapses.

Suicidal ideation and attentional biases in children: An eye-tracking study

BackgroundDespite theoretical and empirical evidence for a heighted responsiveness to signals of social-threat in suicidal individuals, no studies to date have examined whether this responsiveness might also manifest in the form of specific biases in attention to interpersonal stimuli. The current study, therefore, examined the presence and nature of attentional biases for facial expressions of emotion in children with and without a history of suicidal ideation (SI). MethodParticipants were 88 children (44 with a history of SI and 44 demographically and clinically matched controls without such history) recruited from the community. The average age of children was 9.26 years (44.3% female; 67.0% Caucasian). Children's history of SI was assessed via structured interviews with children and their parent. Attentional biases were assessed using a dot probe task and included fearful, happy, and sad facial stimuli and focused on eye tracking and reaction time indices of attentional bias. ResultsChildren with a history of SI exhibited significantly greater gaze duration toward fearful faces. The findings appeared to be at least partially independent of children's history of major depression or anxiety disorders or their current depressive or anxious symptoms. LimitationsThe study is limited by its cross-sectional design, which precludes any causal conclusions regarding the role of attentional biases in future suicide risk. ConclusionsOur results suggest that children with a history of SI exhibit biases in sustained attention toward socially-threatening facial expressions. Pending replications, these findings might represent a new avenue of suicide risk assessment and intervention.

Modulation of Physiological Responses as Indices of Attentional Bias in Dysphoria

The experimental results on attentional bias in depression have been contradictory. Research on physiological correlates that validate attentional bias have been scarce. The aim of the present study was to evaluate physiological responses associated with attentional bias in dysphoria. Heart rate and the galvanic skin response were recorded in 30 dysphoric individuals and 30 nondysphoric individuals while they performed an emotional Stroop task. Dysphoric individuals exhibited attentional bias and heart rate deceleration in response to unpleasant words. Nondysphoric individuals exhibited attentional bias toward pleasant words, accompanied by a higher skin conductance response. These results suggest that heart rate deceleration in response to unpleasant words correlated with attentional bias in dysphoric individuals.

Facial expression movement enhances the measurement of temporal dynamics of attentional bias in the dot-probe task

The facial dot-probe task is one of the most common experimental paradigms used to assess attentional bias toward emotional information. In recent years, however, the psychometric properties of this paradigm have been questioned. In the present study, attentional bias to emotional face stimuli was measured with dynamic and static images of realistic human faces in 97 college students (63 women) who underwent either a positive or a negative mood-induction prior to the experiment. We controlled the bottom-up salience of the stimuli in order to dissociate the top-down orienting of attention from the effects of the bottom-up physical properties of the stimuli. A Bayesian analysis of our results indicates that 1) the traditional global attentional bias index shows a low reliability, 2) reliability increases dramatically when biased attention is analyzed by extracting a series of bias estimations from trial-to-trial (Zvielli, Bernstein, & Koster, 2015), 3) dynamic expression of emotions strengthens biased attention to emotional information, and 4) mood-congruency facilitates the measurement of biased attention to emotional stimuli. These results highlight the importance of using ecologically valid stimuli in attentional bias research, together with the importance of estimating biased attention at the trial level.

Do disinhibited eaters pay increased attention to food cues?

The Three Factors Eating Questionnaire's measure of disinhibited eating is a robust predictor of long-term weight gain. This experiment explored if disinhibited eaters display attentional bias to food cues. Participants (N = 45) completed a visual dot probe task which measured responses to food (energy dense and low energy foods) and neutral cues. Picture pairs were displayed either for a 100 ms or 2000 ms duration. All participants displayed attentional bias for energy dense food items. Indices of attentional bias were largest in disinhibited eaters. Attentional bias in disinhibited eaters appeared to be underpinned by facilitated attention.

Beyond Traditional Clinical Measurements for Screening Fears and Phobias

The use of eye movements is a usual method of measuring attentional and emotional response in laboratory. However, when it comes to clinical practice, it is seldom applied. Two studies were conducted to examine whether extraocular and intraocular movements can be used as indices of attentional bias and autonomic activation. In the first study, a free-viewing task, combined with subliminal exposure, showed that high-fear individuals tend to orient more their attention toward the visual space where threat-stimuli (snakes) were presented. The findings suggest a reflexive overt attentional orienting bias for subliminal snakes in comparison with subliminal control stimuli. The differentiation between participants with high and low fear of snakes suggested that a disposition to fear snakes affects the initial ocular saccades. In the second study, participants were instructed to discriminate a sign that was randomly displayed at the center of the display while subliminal images were peripherally presented. The results revealed larger pupil dilation for threatening stimuli subliminally presented; again, high-fear individuals showed larger pupillary dilations, independently of the stimulus category. Our results are in line with the assumption that a predisposition to fear is relevant for extraocular and intraocular movements when exposed to threat stimuli. These findings suggest that eye measurements, combined with subliminal exposure techniques, could be a reliable and nonintrusive aid tool to be used for the assessment and treatment of fear and phobias.

Obsessive–compulsive symptoms and attentional bias: An eye-tracking methodology

Background and objectivesCognitive models suggest that attentional biases are integral in the maintenance of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS). Such biases have been established experimentally in anxiety disorders; however, the evidence is unclear in Obsessive Compulsive disorder (OCD). In the present study, an eye-tracking methodology was employed to explore attentional biases in relation to OCS. MethodsA convenience sample of 85 community volunteers was assessed on OCS using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale-self report. Participants completed an eye-tracking paradigm where they were exposed to OCD, Aversive and Neutral visual stimuli. Indices of attentional bias were derived from the eye-tracking data. ResultsSimple linear regressions were performed with OCS severity as the predictor and eye-tracking measures of the different attentional biases for each of the three stimuli types were the criterion variables. Findings revealed that OCS severity moderately predicted greater frequency and duration of fixations on OCD stimuli, which reflect the maintenance attentional bias. No significant results were found in support of other biases. LimitationsInterpretations based on a non-clinical sample limit the generalisability of the conclusions, although use of such samples in OCD research has been found to be comparable to clinical populations. Future research would include both clinical and sub-clinical participants. ConclusionsResults provide some support for the theory of maintained attention in OCD attentional biases, as opposed to vigilance theory. Individuals with greater OCS do not orient to OCD stimuli any faster than individuals with lower OCS, but once a threat is identified, these individuals allocate more attention to OCS-relevant stimuli..

Internal reliability of the alcohol-related visual probe task is increased by utilising personalised stimuli and eye-tracking

BackgroundIn the current study, we investigated whether the internal reliability of the visual probe task measure of attentional bias for substance-related cues could be improved by incorporating eye-tracking methods and personalised stimuli. MethodSixty social drinkers completed two visual probe tasks: one with a broad range of different alcohol pictures, the other containing only images of the participants’ preferred drink. Attentional bias was inferred from manual reaction times to probes replacing the pictures, and from the duration of eye movement fixations towards the pictures (gaze dwell time). ResultsInternal reliability was highest for personalised (versus general) alcohol stimuli, and for eye-tracking (versus manual reaction time) measures of attentional bias. The internal reliability of both reaction time (α=.73) and gaze dwell time measures (α=.76) of attentional bias for personalised alcohol stimuli was acceptable. Internal reliability of indices of attentional bias for general alcohol stimuli was inferior, although better for the gaze dwell time (α=.51) compared to the reaction time measure (α=.19). Attentional bias towards personalised stimuli was larger than bias to general stimuli, but only for the reaction time measure. There were no statistically significant associations between measures of attentional bias and alcohol consumption or craving. ConclusionsAdopting personalised stimuli and eye movement monitoring significantly improves the internal reliability of the alcohol-related visual probe task.

Anti-saccade error rates as a measure of attentional bias in cocaine dependent subjects

Cocaine-dependent (CD) subjects show attentional bias toward cocaine-related cues, and this form of cue-reactivity may be predictive of craving and relapse. Attentional bias has previously been assessed by models that present drug-relevant stimuli and measure physiological and behavioral reactivity (often reaction time). Studies of several CNS diseases outside of substance use disorders consistently report anti-saccade deficits, suggesting a compromise in the interplay between higher-order cortical processes in voluntary eye control (i.e., anti-saccades) and reflexive saccades driven more by involuntary midbrain perceptual input (i.e., pro-saccades). Here, we describe a novel attentional-bias task developed by using measurements of saccadic eye movements in the presence of cocaine-specific stimuli, combining previously unique research domains to capitalize on their respective experimental and conceptual strengths. CD subjects (N=46) and healthy controls (N=41) were tested on blocks of pro-saccade and anti-saccade trials featuring cocaine and neutral stimuli (pictures). Analyses of eye-movement data indicated (1) greater overall anti-saccade errors in the CD group; (2) greater attentional bias in CD subjects as measured by anti-saccade errors to cocaine-specific (relative to neutral) stimuli; and (3) no differences in pro-saccade error rates. Attentional bias was correlated with scores on the obsessive–compulsive cocaine scale. The results demonstrate increased saliency and differential attentional to cocaine cues by the CD group. The assay provides a sensitive index of saccadic (visual inhibitory) control, a specific index of attentional bias to drug-relevant cues, and preliminary insight into the visual circuitry that may contribute to drug-specific cue reactivity.

Eye tracking indices of attentional bias in children of depressed mothers: Polygenic influences help to clarify previous mixed findings.

Information-processing biases may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of depression. There is growing evidence that children of depressed mothers exhibit attentional biases for sad faces. However, findings are mixed as to whether this bias reflects preferential attention toward, versus attentional avoidance of, sad faces, suggesting the presence of unmeasured moderators. To address these mixed findings, we focused on the potential moderating role of genes associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis reactivity. Participants included children (8-14 years old) of mothers with (n = 81) and without (n = 81) a history of depression. Eye movements were recorded while children passively viewed arrays of angry, happy, sad, and neutral faces. DNA was obtained from buccal cells. Children of depressed mothers exhibited more sustained attention to sad faces than did children of nondepressed mothers. However, it is important that this relation was moderated by children's genotype. Specifically, children of depressed mothers who carried reactive genotypes across the corticotropin-releasing hormone type 1 receptor (CHRH1) TAT haplotype and FK506 binding protein 5 (FKBP5) rs1360780 (but not the solute carrier family C6 member 4 [SLC6A4] of the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region [5-HTTLPR]) exhibited less sustained attention to sad faces and more sustained attention to happy faces. These findings highlight the role played by specific genetic influences and suggest that previous mixed findings may have been due to genetic heterogeneity across the samples.

Reward sensitivity, attentional bias, and executive control in early adolescent alcohol use

This study examined whether attentional bias for alcohol stimuli was associated with alcohol use in young adolescents, and whether the frequently demonstrated relationship between reward sensitivity and adolescent alcohol use would be partly mediated by attentional bias for alcohol cues. In addition, this study investigated the potential moderating role of executive control (EC), and tested whether the relationship between alcohol-related attentional bias and alcohol use was especially present in young adolescents with weak EC. Participants were 86 adolescents (mean age=14.86), who completed a Visual Probe Task (VPT) as an index of attentional bias, a flanker-task based Attention Network Task (ANT) as an index of EC, the sensitivity of punishment and sensitivity of reward questionnaire (SPSRQ) as an index of reward sensitivity, and an alcohol use questionnaire. High reward sensitivity, high alcohol-related attentional bias, and weak EC were all related to alcohol use. The relationship between reward sensitivity and alcohol use was not mediated by alcohol-related attentional bias. As hypothesized, attentional bias was only associated with alcohol use in participants with weak EC. Together, the present findings are consistent with the view that high reward sensitivity and low EC may be considered as risk factors for adolescent alcohol use. The independent contribution of reward sensitivity and attentional bias might suggest that adolescents who are highly reward sensitive and display an attentional bias for alcohol cues are at even higher risk for excessive alcohol use and developing alcohol abuse problems. Future research using a longitudinal approach would allow an examination of these risk factors on subsequent alcohol use. Treatment implications are discussed, including the importance of strengthening EC and reducing the rewarding value of alcohol use.

Attentional bias and metacognitions in cancer survivors with high fear of cancer recurrence.

Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a common and severe problem amongst cancer survivors, but mechanisms to explain its development and maintenance are still lacking. The self-regulatory executive function (S-REF) model suggests that metacognitions and attentional bias to cancer-related words may explain high FCR. Thus, this study aimed to explore relationships between FCR, metacognitions and attentional bias in a mixed group of cancer survivors. Sixty-three early-stage breast or prostate cancer survivors, diagnosed within 6 months to 5 years prior to participation and who had completed all hospital-based treatment with no evidence of cancer recurrence were recruited through two metropolitan oncology clinics. Participants completed a questionnaire battery and the dot-probe task. Survivors with clinical FCR had significantly greater positive beliefs about worry (10.1 vs 7.4, p = 0.002) and beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of worry (12.0 vs 7.7, p = 0.000) than those with non-clinical FCR, whereas the total metacognition score significantly predicted FCR in multiple regression analysis (β = 0.371, p = 0.001). No significant differences were detected between participants scoring above and below clinical FCR levels in attention bias indices. This study found partial support for the S-REF model of FCR, with metacognitions but not attentional bias found to be related to FCR. Further research is needed to explore attentional biases in more detail.

Electrophysiological evidence for greater attention to threat when cognitive control resources are depleted

In this study, we investigated the time course of attentional bias for threat-related (angry) facial expressions under conditions of high versus low cognitive (working memory) load. Event-related potential (ERP) and reaction time (RT) data were recorded while participants viewed pairs of faces (angry paired with neutral face) displayed for 500ms and followed by a probe. Participants were required to respond to the probe while performing a concurrent task of holding in working memory a sequence of digits that were either in the same order (low memory load) or in a random mixed order (high memory load). The ERP results revealed that higher working memory load resulted in enhanced lateralized neural responses to threatening relative to neutral faces, consistent with greater initial orienting of attention to threatening faces (early N2pc: 180-252ms) and enhanced maintenance of processing representations of threat (late N2pc, 252-320ms; SPCN, 320-500ms). The ERP indices showed significant positive relationships with each other, and also with the behavioral index of attentional bias to threat (reflected by faster RTs to probes replacing angry than neutral faces at 500ms), although the latter index was not significantly influenced by memory load. Overall, the findings indicate that depletion of cognitive control resources, using a working memory manipulation, increases the capacity of task-irrelevant threat cues to capture and hold attention.

Measuring Attentional Bias to Threat: Reliability of Dot Probe and Eye Movement Indices

A variety of methodological paradigms, including dot probe and eye movement tasks, have been used to examine attentional biases to threat in anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, little attention has been devoted to the psychometric properties of measures from these paradigms. In the current study, participants selected for high and low social anxiety completed a dot probe and eye movement task using angry, disgust and happy facial expressions paired with neutral expressions. Results indicated that dot probe bias scores, eye movement first fixation indices, and eye movement proportions of viewing time in the first 1,500 ms had unacceptably low reliability. However, eye movement indices of attentional bias over the full 5,000 ms time course had excellent reliability. Individuals’ dot probe and eye movement biases were largely uncorrelated across the two tasks and demonstrated little relation with social anxiety scores. Implications for future research are discussed.

Do Episodic Migraineurs Selectively Attend to Headache‐Related Visual Stimuli?

To assess pain-related attentional biases among individuals with episodic migraine. Prior studies have examined whether chronic pain patients selectively attend to pain-related stimuli in the environment, but these studies have produced largely mixed findings and focused primarily on patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Limited research has implicated attentional biases among chronic headache patients, but no studies have been conducted among episodic migraineurs, who comprise the overwhelming majority of the migraine population. This was a case-control, experimental study. Three hundred and eight participants (mean age = 19.2 years [standard deviation = 3.3]; 69.5% female; 36.4% minority), consisting of 84 episodic migraineurs, diagnosed in accordance with International Classification of Headache Disorders (2(nd) edition) criteria using a structured diagnostic interview, and 224 non-migraine controls completed a computerized dot probe task to assess attentional bias toward headache-related pictorial stimuli. The task consisted of 192 trials and utilized 2 emotional-neutral stimulus pairing conditions (headache-neutral and happy-neutral). No within-group differences for reaction time latencies to headache vs happy conditions were found among those with episodic migraine or among the non-migraine controls. Migraine status was unrelated to attentional bias indices for both headache (F [1,306] = 0.56, P = .45) and happy facial stimuli (F [1,306] = 0.37, P = .54), indicating a lack of between-group differences. Lack of within- and between-group differences was confirmed with repeated measures analysis of variance. In light of the large sample size and prior pilot testing of presented images, results suggest that episodic migraineurs do not differentially attend to headache-related facial stimuli. Given modest evidence of attentional biases among chronic headache samples, these findings suggest potential differences in attentional processing between chronic and episodic headache subforms.

Attentional biases for threat in at-risk daughters and mothers with lifetime panic disorder.

Children of parents with panic disorder (PD) have high risk for developing anxiety disorders. However, the mechanisms involved in transmission of risk are uncertain. Cognitive models of anxiety propose that information-processing biases underlie anxiety vulnerability; in particular, attentional biases for threat. Consequently, this study examined attentional biases in mothers with lifetime PD and their daughters (aged 9-14 years). Sixty mother-daughter dyads (n = 120) were recruited to the study; half the mothers had lifetime PD (i.e., either a current or past history of PD), and half had no psychiatric history. Attentional biases were assessed using a visual-probe task with pictorial and word stimuli related to physical-health threat. Stimulus duration was varied to examine the time-course of attentional biases (initial orienting and maintained attention). Results showed an attentional bias for threat in daughters of mothers with lifetime PD, compared with daughters of mothers with no PD history. Specifically, at-risk daughters had an attentional bias for physical-health threat cues (words and pictures) at the longer stimulus duration of 1250 ms (but not at 500 ms). In addition, attentional bias for threat in girls was associated with increased physical-health threat worries. Mothers with lifetime PD did not significantly differ from mothers with no PD history on the indices of attentional bias. The findings are discussed in terms of an attentional threat-monitoring strategy in at-risk girls and argue against the view that there is simple transmission of an anxiety-related attentional processing style across generations.

Attentional bias, distractibility and short-term memory in anxiety

Cognitive effects of anxiety have been amply documented. Anxiety has been linked with an attentional bias toward threat, distractibility, and reductions in short-term memory (STM) capacity. These three functions have rarely been investigated jointly and permeability may account for some of the effects documented. In this experiment, we examine these three cognitive functions using one verbal and one visuospatial task. In the irrelevant speech paradigm, participants had to remember strings of letters while irrelevant neutral or threatening speech was presented. In the visuospatial sandwich paradigm, participants were asked to remember sequences of visuospatial targets sometimes presented within irrelevant distracters. We examined the links between state anxiety, worry, and indices of attentional bias toward threat, distractibility from neutral stimuli, and STM capacity. Results show that state anxiety was uniquely linked with impairments in STM while worry was more particularly related to distractibility, independently from permeability between the different cognitive functions. Attentional bias toward threat was linked with variance common to both anxiety and worry. An examination of clinical and non-clinical subgroups suggests that subjective threat perception and attentional bias toward threat are features that are particularly characteristic of clinical levels of anxiety. Our findings confirm the important links between anxiety and basic cognitive functions.

The effects of attention retraining on depressive mood and cortisol responses to depression‐related stimuli1

AbstractAlthough it has been reported that attentional bias at an early stage is found in depression, no study has investigated the effects of modification of attentional bias at an early stage on depressive mood and cortisol response to a stressor. Therefore, this study tested the hypotheses that the modification of attentional bias at an early stage would reduce depressive mood and cortisol response. Fifty‐three participants were allocated alternately either to the training or the control group. They were administered attention retraining for modification of attentional bias or a sham attention task, and then underwent a stress task. With respect to depressive mood response, depressive mood increased in response to a stress task in the control group, while for high‐dysphoric participants in the training group, depressive mood response remained constant. These results indicate that attention retraining is efficacious for reducing depressive mood response. With respect to cortisol response, the percentage change in cortisol is associated with the amount of change in the attentional bias index scores. The results suggest the possibility that attention retraining could reduce cortisol response.