Evaluation of inhibitory control and attentional bias through eye-tracking: A modified emotional stop-signal task

Background and aimsSituational triggers such as acute stress may exert significant effects on behavioral execution in addictive behaviors potentially leading to increased cue‐reactivity and the expression of implicit cognitions. We measured the effects of acute stress on cue‐reactivity, attentional bias and implicit associations to stimuli related to online social networks (SN) in problematic social network use (p‐SNU) among women.Design, setting and participantsThis was a mixed‐method, cross‐sectional, between‐subjects design with 135 female participants recruited in Germany who were assigned to the group with p‐SNU (n = 71) or the control group (n = 64) based on a diagnostic interview using DSM‐5 criteria for gaming disorder (applied to p‐SNU). Participants were randomly exposed to acute stress using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or a placebo‐TSST.MeasurementsParticipants performed a Cue‐Reactivity Paradigm, Implicit Association Test and the Dot Probe Paradigm with SN‐related stimuli.FindingsAcute stress led to increased subjective urge to use social networks in both groups [TSST: mean (M) = 2.26, standard deviation (SD) = 0.92, placebo‐TSST: M = 2.08, SD = 0.96, F(1,131) = 6.820, P = 0.01, ηp2 = 0.029]. In the placebo‐TSST condition, the p‐SNU group showed increased subjective arousal (p‐SNU: M = 2.39, SD = 0.74; control group: M = 1.79, SD = 0.90, t70 = 2.55, P = 0.013, │d│ = 0.30) and urge (p‐SNU: M = 2.49, SD = 0.84; control group: M = 1.60, SD = 0.88, t70 = 5.40, P < 0.001, │d│ = 0.58) and the control group showed increased attentional bias (p‐SNU: M = ‐1.75, SD = 16.11; control group: M = 6.43, SD = 15.3, t67 = 2.136, P = 0.036, │d│ = 0.52). No group difference was found regarding the effects of acute stress on implicit associations to SN‐related stimuli or an interaction effect of subjective urge and stress on implicit cognitions.ConclusionsAmong women in Germany, acute stress appears to lead to an increased subjective urge for the use of social networks. Women with problematic social network use report higher subjective urge independent of stress, whereas women with non‐problematic use report an attentional bias.

BackgroundDuring COVID-19, confinement measures were implemented to curb the epidemic spread. While effective in reducing infections, these measures likely deteriorated the psychological wellbeing of students due to school closures and isolation.MethodsThis study analyzed 13,109 valid questionnaires from individuals aged 18–24 years (mean 20.28 ± 1.518) to explore how emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression) impact mental wellbeing through attentional biases (positive and negative), with confinement as three moderators.ResultsCognitive reappraisal was positively associated with mental wellbeing, whereas expression suppression showed a negative association. Positive attentional bias was associated with higher wellbeing, whereas negative bias was linked to lower levels of it. Negative attentional bias was linked to a stronger positive association between cognitive reappraisal and mental wellbeing, as well as a more pronounced negative association? with expression suppression. Confinement was associated with a stronger positive relation between cognitive reappraisal and mental wellbeing, while corresponding to a more negative relation with expression suppression.ConclusionOur findings highlight the complex interplay between emotion regulation strategies and mental wellbeing during confinement. Cognitive reappraisal and positive attentional bias are associated with protective effects, while expression suppression and negative bias are linked to detrimental effects. Confinement measures, despite their positive impact on physical health, significantly modulate these effects. Tailored interventions considering individual differences and contexts are needed to support mental wellbeing in similar crises.

When individuals are repeatedly exposed to a specific task, they store each occurrence as a distinct memory episode, which includes stimuli, responses, and outcomes. The accumulation of these episodes enables more efficient retrieval over time, particularly under consistent conditions, leading to quicker and more automatic responses. This mechanism likely underlies the statistical learning effect observed in tasks such as the probability cueing paradigm, where frequent target detection at a predictable location enhances performance through rapid, less conscious retrieval of relevant episodes. In this study, we explored the role of episodic retrieval in implicit location probability learning, focusing specifically on how changes in response features might impact the retrieval of memory episodes and, consequently, the learned attentional bias. Participants performed a visual search task, searching for a T among Ls, while unaware that the target was more often in one screen region. An attentional bias towards this region developed during training. In the testing phase, we examined whether changes in motor responses could negate the learned attentional bias, as such changes might prevent the retrieval of relevant memory episodes. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, two experiments showed that changing response features did not affect the attentional bias. This study expands our understanding of human statistical learning by examining the previously neglected yet increasingly recognized role of episodic retrieval in shaping implicit learning processes, thereby opening new avenues for understanding how our visual systems adapt to and learn from the environment.

ABSTRACTTouch is an extraordinary sensory, communicative, and affective experience that has cascading positive effects on infants’ socio‐emotional development and neurobiological functioning. This study aims to explore whether maternal touch can influence infants’ well‐known attentional biases toward fearful facial expressions. Visual behaviour of 7‐month‐old infants was measured through an eye‐tracker while they were presented with an overlap task in which a central emotional face (happy, neutral, and fearful) was followed by a peripheral distractor. During the task, infants were randomly assigned to two experimental groups. In one group, the mother kept the hand on the infant's lap (Touch group, N = 24), while in another group, the mother was present but not in tactile contact with the infant (No‐Touch condition, N = 24). Also, the frequency of spontaneous maternal touch was assessed during mother‐infant free‐play interaction. Results showed an overall increase in the proportion of looking times (PTs) toward the fear stimulus compared to the other emotional stimuli. Further, only the group of infants that were in tactile contact with their mothers showed slower disengagement times (DTs) from fearful faces compared to happy and neutral emotions. Finally, in the No‐Touch condition, infants who experienced more regulatory touch (massages and caresses) when interacting with their mother showed increased attention toward threatening (Fearful faces) and ambiguous (Neutral faces) emotional signals. Vice versa, increased frequency with other forms of touch (i.e., dynamic and static) during the interaction was associated with decreased attention toward the negative and neutral facial expressions. Our findings suggest that maternal touch provides a relevant communicative signal to the infant that indicates that it is safe to process fearful stimuli, favoring infants’ knowledge and learning of their social world.

Recommendation of: Does pupillometry provide a valid measure of spatial attentional bias (pseudoneglect)?. Round#2

Author response of: Does pupillometry provide a valid measure of spatial attentional bias (pseudoneglect)?. Round#1

Abstract The Combined Cognitive Bias Hypothesis (CCBH) postulates that attention and interpretation biases do not work in “solitary,” but nourish each other, interacting in a cyclic or bi-directional manner. While providing initial evidence for the CCBH in social anxiety, most research assessed each bias separately using traditional laboratory-based tasks with different stimuli in each task. Here, we examined the CCBH, assessing both biases within a single ecological-valid task. We hypothesized that compared with control participants, socially anxious participants would interpret ambiguity more negatively and would also attend more to ambiguous (negatively interpreted) information. Participants with high (HAS; n = 30) and low (LSA; n = 30) levels of social anxiety read a fictitious textual conversation (via the WhatsApp instant messaging platform) between two students following their first date, while putting themselves in the shoes of the conversation initiator. The textual conversation featured both ambiguous and irrelevant (hence non-ambiguous) sections regarding the interest of the counterpart to proceed to another date. Participants’ interpretation of each section was evaluated, as was their attention allocation to each section using eye-tracking methodology. No group differences emerged on interpretation of the ambiguous and irrelevant sections– both groups rated the former as more negative than the latter. Conversely, in attention, while LSA participants dwelled longer on the ambiguous (negatively-interpreted) sections, compared to the irrelevant (less negatively-interpreted) ones, HSA participants exhibited the opposite pattern of attention allocation. No evidence emerged for the CCBH in social anxiety when explored within a single ecological-valid task gauging both interpretation and attention.

Attention mechanisms guide visuomotor behavior by weighing physical salience and internal goals to prioritize stimuli as choices for action. Although less well studied, selection history, which reflects multiple facets of experience with recent events, is increasingly recognized as a distinct source of attentional bias. To examine how selection history impacts saccadic choices, we trained two macaque monkeys to perform an urgent version of an oddball search task in which a red target appeared among three green distracters or vice versa. By imposing urgency, performance could be tracked continuously as it transitioned from uninformed guesses to informed choices as a function of processing time. This, in turn, permitted assessment of attentional control as manifest in motor biases, processing speed, and asymptotic accuracy. Here, we found that the probability of making a correct choice was strongly modulated by the histories of preceding target locations and target colors. Crucially, although both effects were gated by success (or reward), their dynamics were clearly distinct: whereas location history promoted a motor bias, color history modulated perceptual sensitivity, and these influences acted independently. Thus, combined selection histories can give rise to enormous swings in visuomotor performance even in simple tasks with highly discriminable stimuli.

Attention mechanisms guide visuomotor behavior by weighing physical salience and internal goals to prioritize stimuli as choices for action. Although less well studied, selection history, which reflects multiple facets of experience with recent events, is increasingly recognized as a distinct source of attentional bias. To examine how selection history impacts saccadic choices, we trained two macaque monkeys to perform an urgent version of an oddball search task in which a red target appeared among three green distracters or vice versa. By imposing urgency, performance could be tracked continuously as it transitioned from uninformed guesses to informed choices as a function of processing time. This, in turn, permitted assessment of attentional control as manifest in motor biases, processing speed, and asymptotic accuracy. Here, we found that the probability of making a correct choice was strongly modulated by the histories of preceding target locations and target colors. Crucially, although both effects were gated by success (or reward), their dynamics were clearly distinct: whereas location history promoted a motor bias, color history modulated perceptual sensitivity, and these influences acted independently. Thus, combined selection histories can give rise to enormous swings in visuomotor performance even in simple tasks with highly discriminable stimuli.

Attention mechanisms guide visuomotor behavior by weighing physical salience and internal goals to prioritize stimuli as choices for action. Although less well studied, selection history, which reflects multiple facets of experience with recent events, is increasingly recognized as a distinct source of attentional bias. To examine how selection history impacts saccadic choices, we trained two macaque monkeys to perform an urgent version of an oddball search task in which a red target appeared among three green distracters or vice versa. By imposing urgency, performance could be tracked continuously as it transitioned from uninformed guesses to informed choices as a function of processing time. This, in turn, permitted assessment of attentional control as manifest in motor biases, processing speed, and asymptotic accuracy. Here, we found that the probability of making a correct choice was strongly modulated by the histories of preceding target locations and target colors. Crucially, although both effects were gated by success (or reward), their dynamics were clearly distinct: whereas location history promoted a motor bias, color history modulated perceptual sensitivity, and these influences acted independently. Thus, combined selection histories can give rise to enormous swings in visuomotor performance even in simple tasks with highly discriminable stimuli.

Individuals with Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) exhibit a heightened reward responsiveness to gaming-related rewards, alongside a diminished response to natural rewards. However, the temporal dynamics and neural correlates underlying this imbalanced processing remain unclear. This electrophysiological study investigated the neural responses associated with reward processing and their relationship to self-reported reward responsiveness. Using an Incentive Delay Task, we compared neural responses to gaming and monetary rewards between 25 IGD participants and 32 recreational game users (RGUs). Self-reported reward responsiveness was assessed with the Behavioral Approach/Inhibition System (BAS/BIS) scales. The IGD group scored higher on the BAS-responsivenesssubscale. Correlation analysis indicated that enhanced BAS-responsiveness was associated with automatic attention (N1) to gaming feedback, but not with feedback monitoring (FRN) or emotional arousal (LPP). No such correlation was found in the monetary condition. Following initial automatic attention, the IGD group demonstrated selective feedback monitoring (FRN) for gaming rewards while neglecting monetary feedback. Gaming stimuli automatically capture the attention of individuals with IGD, triggering less top-down monitoring of other potential positive feedback. These findings suggest that attentional bias toward game-related stimuli serves as a sensitive biological marker of heightened reward responsiveness in individuals with IGD.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is considered a disorder of brain-gut interaction. Central processes like selective attention to visceral stimuli are involved in the pathophysiology of IBS. The primary aim of this study was to replicate the Tkalčić and colleagues' experiment using the same modified Stroop task to assess the reliability of previously obtained results. A secondary objective was to explore the proposed associations between attentional indices and various aspects of anxiety and interoceptive accuracy. Ninety IBS patients and 77 healthy controls (HC) completed a set of questionnaires [State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T), Visceral Sensitivity Index (VSI), Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) and Anxious Thoughts Inventory (ATI)] followed by a heartbeat counting task and an emotional Stroop task. Repeated measures 2-way ANOVA showed no significant effects. GLMM results showed that IBS patients had shorter RTs (~50ms) than HCs. The IBS group scored higher than HC in all anxiety measures, while there were no differences in IAcc. Positive correlations were found among all anxiety measures in both groups. There was a negative correlation of average RT with ASI, ATI, and IAcc, only in the IBS group. IBS patients with higher ASI and ATI have faster RTs, while patients with higher IAcc have lower RTs. Stroop facilitation was not replicated, but IBS patients were faster than HCs. This study provides preliminary evidence that IBS patients may show distinct attentional patterns, marked by a general tendency for faster engagement, independent of stimulus type. This effect may relate to higher interoceptive accuracy and anxiety, and was not observed in HCs.

Measuring shifts in attentional bias following satiety: A within-subject eye-tracking study in healthy-weight adults.

Attentional bias toward threatening stimuli in major depressive disorder: A free-viewing eye-tracking study.

Aims: Psychoeducation for patients with anxiety disorders has been associated with reduced symptoms, improved quality of life, and increased response to treatment. However, there is much heterogeneity in such interventions. Patients with anxiety disorders can have maladaptive cognitive patterns such as catastrophic thinking, attentional biases toward threat, and cognitive avoidance. These patterns can interfere with the processing and assimilation of psychoeducational content, potentially reducing its effectiveness. Our hypothesis is that psychological safety plays a key role in increasing the effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions for patients with anxiety disorders. We aim to critically review the role of psychological safety in such interventions and to explore its impact on medical education in psychiatry.Methods: Sources were identified through searches via databases including PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar. Results were then critically analysed with key themes extracted to evaluate the role of psychological safety in psychoeducation. A narrative synthesis was then performed, exploring the influence of this on medical education in psychiatry.Results: Several key themes were identified. Psychological safety has a mediating role between the quality of doctor-patient communication and patients’ self-disclosure, which can be limited by various fears, including a fear of negative judgment in this population. Patient engagement, which has a multidimensional construct, is also impacted by the presence of psychological safety which increases patient openness and comfort. Psychological safety also aids collaborative efforts within the healthcare ecosystem, positively impacting the outcomes of psychoeducational processes. The influence of psychological safety on the concept of the therapeutic interpersonal relationship in psychoeducation was also explored, with implications for open communication and the perception of threats. Proposed enhancements to assessments and curriculum for educational efforts in anxiety disorders and corresponding psychoeducational interventions through the active provision of psychological safety concepts were discussed.Conclusion: This critical review highlights the pivotal role of psychological safety in enhancing the effectiveness of psychoeducational interventions for patients with anxiety disorders. By equipping clinicians to create safe environments, these efforts can optimize psychoeducational interventions and ultimately improve care for patients with anxiety disorders. Targeted studies on specific subgroups of patients with anxiety disorders should be performed to better qualify and quantify the impact of psychological safety in psychoeducational interventions in these subgroups.

Mindfulness and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to Attenuate Situational Urgency Urinary Incontinence (UUI): A randomized pilot study.

Modern quantitative finance and portfolio-based investment hinge on multimedia news and historical price trends for stock movement prediction. However, prior studies overlook the long tail effect in the feature distribution of stocks, inevitably leading to biased attention and thus degrading the efficiency of utilizing news. To this end, we propose a prompt-adaptive trimodal model (PA-TMM) to overcome the biased stock attention networks and tail feature scarcity problem. In this model, sentiments automatically extracted from trimodal information serve as prompts reflecting the market's collective mood for other entities, and the interactions among stocks are dynamically inferred for integrating both news- and price-induced movements. By leveraging the movement prompt adaptation (MPA) strategy, our model proactively adapts to the feature-imbalanced phenomenon and converges toward being responsive to the news sensitively. Extensive experiments conducted on real-world datasets consistently demonstrate not only the superiority of the proposed framework over various state-of-the-art baselines, but also its effectiveness, profitability, and robustness in Fintech. The code is accessible at https://github.com/lauht/PA-TMM.

A Swin Transformer based on multi-directional-shift window attention and inductive bias for diagnosis of pleural effusion

Early hypervigilance and sustained attention for the eye region in adolescents with social anxiety disorder.