Dataset Information

Seeking neutral: A VR-based person-identity-matching task for attentional bias modification - A randomised controlled experiment.

ABSTRACT: Background:Attentional bias modification (ABM) aims to reduce anxiety by attenuating bias towards threatening information. The current study incorporated virtual reality (VR) technology and 3-dimensional stimuli with a person-identity-matching (PIM) task to evaluate the effects of a VR-based ABM training on attentional bias and anxiety symptoms. Methods:One hundred participants with elevated social anxiety were randomised to four training groups. Attentional bias was assessed at pre- and post-training, and anxiety symptoms were assessed at pre-training, post-training, 1-week follow-up, and 3-month follow-up. Results:Change in anxiety did not correlate with change in bias (r = -0.08). A repeated-measures ANOVA showed no significant difference in bias from pre- to post-ABM, or between groups. For anxiety symptoms, a linear mixed-effects model analysis revealed a significant effect of time. Participants showed reduction in anxiety score at each successive assessment (p < .001, Nagelkerke's pseudo r 2 = 0.65). However, no other significant main effect or interactions were found. A clinically significant change analysis revealed that 4% of participants were classified as 'recovered' at 3-month follow-up. Conclusions:A single session of VR-based PIM task did not change attentional bias. The significant reduction in anxiety was not specific to active training, and the majority of participants remained clinically unchanged.

SUBMITTER: Ma L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7452567 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Seeking neutral: A VR-based person-identity-matching task for attentional bias modification - A randomised controlled experiment.

Ma Lichen L Kruijt Anne-Wil AW Ek Anna-Karin AK Åbyhammar Gustaf G Furmark Tomas T Andersson Gerhard G Carlbring Per P

Internet interventions 20200814

<h4>Background</h4>Attentional bias modification (ABM) aims to reduce anxiety by attenuating bias towards threatening information. The current study incorporated virtual reality (VR) technology and 3-dimensional stimuli with a person-identity-matching (PIM) task to evaluate the effects of a VR-based ABM training on attentional bias and anxiety symptoms.<h4>Methods</h4>One hundred participants with elevated social anxiety were randomised to four training groups. Attentional bias was assessed at p ...[more]

PMID: 32904341

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Project description:Threatening stimuli seem to capture attention more swiftly than neutral stimuli. This attention bias has been observed under different experimental conditions and with different types of stimuli. It remains unclear whether this adaptive behaviour reflects the function of automatic or controlled attention mechanisms. Additionally, the spatiotemporal dynamics of its neural correlates are largely unknown. The present study investigates these issues using an Emotional Flanker Task synchronized with EEG recordings. A group of 32 healthy participants saw response-relevant images (emotional scenes from IAPS or line drawings of objects) flanked by response-irrelevant distracters (i.e., emotional scenes flanked by line drawings or vice versa). We assessed behavioural and ERP responses drawn from four task conditions (Threat-Central, Neutral-Central, Threat-Peripheral, and Neutral-Peripheral) and subjected these responses to repeated-measures ANOVA models. When presented as response-relevant targets, threatening images attracted faster and more accurate responses. They did not affect response accuracy to targets when presented as response-irrelevant flankers. However, response times were significantly slower when threatening images flanked objects than when neutral images were shown as flankers. This result replicated the well-known Emotional Flanker Effect. Behavioural responses to response-relevant threatening targets were accompanied by significant modulations of ERP activity across all time-windows and regions of interest and displayed some meaningful correlations. The Emotional Flanker Effect was accompanied by a modulation over parietal and central-parietal regions within a time-window between 550-690ms. Such a modulation suggests that the attentional disruption to targets caused by response-irrelevant threatening flankers appears to reflect less neural resources available, which are seemingly drawn away by distracting threatening flankers. The observed spatiotemporal dynamics seem to concur with understanding of the important adaptive role attributed to threat-related attention bias.

Dataset Information

Seeking neutral: A VR-based person-identity-matching task for attentional bias modification - A randomised controlled experiment.

Publications

Seeking neutral: A VR-based person-identity-matching task for attentional bias modification - A randomised controlled experiment.

Similar Datasets

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