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Does attention bias modification training impact on task performance in the context of pain: An experimental study in healthy participants.

ABSTRACT: Attention has been theorized to play a key role in the experience of pain and associated task interference. Training attention away from pain via attention bias modification (ABM) training techniques has been proposed to improve pain-related outcomes, but evidence is inconsistent. In an experimental study, we investigated the impact of a single session ABM training -using a visual probe paradigm with idiosyncratic pain words- on cold pressor test (CPT) pain experience and task interference by pain. Fifty-eight healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to an ABM training group (N = 28; attending away from pain) and a sham training group (N = 30; no training direction). At pre-training, participants performed a baseline Random-Interval-Repetition (RIR) task and the CPT. Participants reported on sensations they experienced during the baseline CPT. Relevant descriptors were integrated in the visual probe paradigm during the training phase. At post-training, participants completed the RIR task again while experiencing CPT pain. Participants also reported on the extent they attended to the pain and the intensity/unpleasantness of the pain. Results indicated that, in contrast with our hypotheses, ABM training did also not reduce task interference due to CPT pain. Furthermore, ABM training did not change self-reported attending to CPT pain. Finally, ABM training did not reduce CPT pain intensity or pain unpleasantness. Overall, the current study provides no support for the effectiveness of a single session ABM training in improving pain-related outcomes. Future research addressing the conditions under which ABM training improves or fails to improve pain-related outcomes is warranted.

SUBMITTER: Van Ryckeghem DML

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6051628 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Does attention bias modification training impact on task performance in the context of pain: An experimental study in healthy participants.

Van Ryckeghem Dimitri M L DML Van Damme Stefaan S Vervoort Tine T

PloS one 20180718 7

Attention has been theorized to play a key role in the experience of pain and associated task interference. Training attention away from pain via attention bias modification (ABM) training techniques has been proposed to improve pain-related outcomes, but evidence is inconsistent. In an experimental study, we investigated the impact of a single session ABM training -using a visual probe paradigm with idiosyncratic pain words- on cold pressor test (CPT) pain experience and task interference by pa ...[more]

PMID: 30020983

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Project description:BackgroundAltered amygdala activation in response to the emotional matching faces (EMF) task, a task thought to reflect implicit emotion detection and reactivity, has been found in some patients with internalizing disorders; mixed findings from the EMF suggest individual differences (within and/or across diagnoses) that may be important to consider. Attention Bias Modification (ABM), a mechanistic attention-targeting intervention, has demonstrated efficacy in treatment of internalizing disorders. Individual differences in neural activation to a relatively attention-independent task, such as the EMF, could reveal novel neural substrates relevant in ABM's transdiagnostic effects, such as the brain's generalized threat reactivity capacity.MethodsIn a sample of clinically anxious patients randomized to ABM (n = 43) or sham training (n = 18), we measured fMRI activation patterns during the EMF and related them to measures of transdiagnostic internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxious arousal, general distress, anhedonic depression, and general depressive symptoms).ResultsLower baseline right amygdala activation to negative (fearful/angry) faces, relative to shapes, predicted greater pre-to-post reduction in general depression symptoms in ABM-randomized patients. Greater increases in bilateral amygdalae activation from pre-to-post ABM were associated with greater reductions in general distress, anhedonic depression, and general depression symptoms.ConclusionsABM may lead to greater improvement in depressive symptoms in individuals exhibiting blunted baseline amygdalar responses to the EMF task, potentially by enhancing neural-level discrimination between negative and unambiguously neutral stimuli. Convergently, longitudinal increases in amygdala reactivity from pre-to-post-ABM may be associated with greater improvement in depression, possibly secondary to improved neural discrimination of threat and/or decreased neurophysiological threat avoidance in these specific patients.

Project description:Identifying neurocognitive mechanisms underlying optimism bias is essential to understand its benefits for well-being and mental health. The combined cognitive biases hypothesis suggests that biases (e.g., in expectancies and attention) interact and mutually enforce each other. Whereas, in line with this hypothesis, optimistic expectancies have been shown to guide attention to positive information, reverse causal effects have not been investigated yet. Revealing such bidirectional optimism-attention interactions both on a behavioral and neural level could explain how cognitive biases contribute to a self-sustaining upward spiral of positivity. In this behavioral study, we hypothesized that extensive training to direct attention to positive information enhances optimism bias. To test this hypothesis, for 2 weeks, 149 participants underwent either daily online 80-trial attention bias modification training (ABMT) toward accepting faces and away from rejecting faces or neutral control training. Participants in the ABMT group were instructed to click as quickly as possible on the accepting face among 15 rejecting faces randomly displayed on a 4-by-4 matrix; participants in the control group were instructed to click on the five-petaled flower depicted among 15 seven-petaled flowers. Comparative optimism bias and state optimism were measured via questionnaires before training, after one training week, and after two training weeks. ABMT enhanced comparative optimism bias, whereas control training did not. Our findings reveal that ABMT toward positive social information causally influences comparative optimism bias and may, thereby trigger the biases' benefits for well-being and mental health. These results can (a) stimulate future neurophysiological research in the area of positive psychology; and (b) reveal an innovative low-cost and easy-to-access intervention that may support psychotherapy in times of rising numbers of patients with psychological disorders.

Project description:UnlabelledBiases in attention processes are thought to play a crucial role in the aetiology and maintenance of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). The goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a programme intended to train attention towards positive cues and a programme intended to train attention towards negative cues. In a randomised, controlled, double-blind design, the impact of these two training conditions on both selective attention and social anxiety were compared to that of a control training condition. A modified dot probe task was used, and delivered via the internet. A total of 129 individuals, diagnosed with SAD, were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions and took part in a 14-day programme with daily training/control sessions. Participants in all three groups did not on average display an attentional bias prior to the training. Critically, results on change in attention bias implied that significantly differential change in selective attention to threat was not detected in the three conditions. However, symptoms of social anxiety reduced significantly from pre- to follow-up-assessment in all three conditions (dwithin ?=?0.63-1.24), with the procedure intended to train attention towards threat cues producing, relative to the control condition, a significantly greater reduction of social fears. There were no significant differences in social anxiety outcome between the training condition intended to induce attentional bias towards positive cues and the control condition. To our knowledge, this is the first RCT where a condition intended to induce attention bias to negative cues yielded greater emotional benefits than a control condition. Intriguingly, changes in symptoms are unlikely to be by the mechanism of change in attention processes since there was no change detected in bias per se. Implications of this finding for future research on attention bias modification in social anxiety are discussed.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01463137.

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Does attention bias modification training impact on task performance in the context of pain: An experimental study in healthy participants.

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Does attention bias modification training impact on task performance in the context of pain: An experimental study in healthy participants.

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