Dataset Information

Sustained neural alterations in anxious youth performing an attentional bias task: a pupilometry study.

ABSTRACT: Biased attention patterns have been observed at early (16-500 ms poststimulus onset) and intermediate (1,500-4,000 ms post-onset) time points in anxious youth, but it is unclear whether a more sustained form of neural attentional bias, persisting well beyond the time frame of stimulus presentation and behavioral response, is also apparent. We investigated early, intermediate, and sustained forms of bias using behavioral measures and pupillary reactivity, an index of cognitive and affective load, to gain insight into potential neurocognitive targets for early intervention.Twenty nonanxious youth and 74 youth with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), separation anxiety disorder (SAD), and/or social phobia (SP) completed a dot-probe task, which requires participants to respond to a dot replacing either a neutral or fearful face. Emotional faces were presented for short/early (200 ms) or intermediate (2 s) intervals and followed by a sustained (up to 10.5 s) poststimulus interval. Pupil dilation, gaze direction, and reaction times (RTs) were measured during task completion.Early and intermediate vigilance patterns in RTs and an avoidant pattern in gaze direction were observed in all participants irrespective of anxiety. Sustained pupil dilation in anxious youth was observed on trials in which the dot replaced fearful faces, along with an inflexible pattern of pupillary responding in comparison to controls.Sustained cognitive-affective load following emotional face viewing is altered and inflexible in anxious youth. These prolonged alterations extend well beyond the time frame of behavioral attentional bias and may indicate inflexible and insufficient sustained cognitive control. Early interventions targeting these alterations could improve long-term mental health trajectories.

SUBMITTER: Price RB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3480547 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sustained neural alterations in anxious youth performing an attentional bias task: a pupilometry study.

Price Rebecca B RB Siegle Greg J GJ Silk Jennifer S JS Ladouceur Cecile C McFarland Ashley A Dahl Ronald E RE Ryan Neal D ND

Depression and anxiety 20120614 1

<h4>Background</h4>Biased attention patterns have been observed at early (16-500 ms poststimulus onset) and intermediate (1,500-4,000 ms post-onset) time points in anxious youth, but it is unclear whether a more sustained form of neural attentional bias, persisting well beyond the time frame of stimulus presentation and behavioral response, is also apparent. We investigated early, intermediate, and sustained forms of bias using behavioral measures and pupillary reactivity, an index of cognitive ...[more]

PMID: 22700457

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Project description:The attention of drug-dependent persons tends to be captured by stimuli associated with drug consumption. This involuntary cognitive process is considered as attentional bias (AB). AB has been hypothesized to have causal effects on drug abuse and drug relapse, but its underlying neural mechanisms are still unclear. This study investigated the neural basis of AB in abstinent heroin addicts (AHAs), combining event-related potential (ERP) analysis and source localization techniques. Electroencephalography data were collected in 21 abstinent heroin addicts and 24 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs) during a dot-probe task. In the task, a pair of drug-related image and neutral image was presented randomly in left and right side of the cross fixation, followed by a dot probe replacing one of the images. Behaviorally, AHAs had shorter reaction times (RTs) for the congruent condition compared to the incongruent condition, whereas this was not the case in the HCs. This finding demonstrated the presence of AB towards drug cues in AHAs. Furthermore, the image-evoked ERPs in AHAs had significant shorter P1 latency compared to HCs, as well as larger N1, N2, and P2 amplitude, suggesting that drug-related stimuli might capture attention early and overall require more attentional resources in AHAs. The target-related P3 had significantly shorter latency and lower amplitude in the congruent than incongruent condition in AHAs compared to HCs. Moreover, source localization of ERP components revealed increased activity for AHAs as compared to HCs in the dorsal posterior cingulate cortex (dPCC), superior parietal lobule and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for image-elicited responses, and decreased activity in the occipital and the medial parietal lobes for target-elicited responses. Overall, the results of our study confirmed that AHAs may exhibit AB in drug-related contexts, and suggested that the bias might be related to an abnormal neural activity, both in early and late attention processing stages.

Dataset Information

Sustained neural alterations in anxious youth performing an attentional bias task: a pupilometry study.

Publications

Sustained neural alterations in anxious youth performing an attentional bias task: a pupilometry study.

Similar Datasets

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