Horley Kaye, Williams Lea M, Gonsalvez Craig, Gordon Evian
The Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia.
J Anxiety Disord. 2003;17(1):33-44. doi: 10.1016/s0887-6185(02)00180-9.
Clinical observation suggests that social phobia is characterised by eye avoidance in social interaction, reflecting an exaggerated social sensitivity. These reports are consistent with cognitive models of social phobia that emphasize the role of interpersonal processing biases. Yet, these observations have not been verified empirically, nor has the psychophysiological basis of eye avoidance been examined. This is the first study to use an objective psychophysiological marker of visual attention (the visual scanpath) to examine directly how social phobia subjects process interpersonal (facial expression) stimuli. An infra-red corneal reflection technique was used to record visual scanpaths in response to neutral, happy and sad face stimuli in 15 subjects with social phobia, and 15 age and sex-matched normal controls. The social phobia subjects showed an avoidance of facial features, particularly the eyes, but extensive scanning of non-features, compared with the controls. These findings suggest that attentional strategies for the active avoidance of salient facial features are an important marker of interpersonal cues in social phobia. Visual scanpath evidence may, therefore, have important implications for clinical intervention.
临床观察表明，社交恐惧症的特征是在社交互动中回避眼神，这反映出过度的社交敏感性。这些报告与强调人际加工偏差作用的社交恐惧症认知模型一致。然而，这些观察结果尚未得到实证验证，回避眼神的心理生理基础也未得到研究。这是第一项使用视觉注意力的客观心理生理指标（视觉扫描路径）来直接研究社交恐惧症患者如何处理人际（面部表情）刺激的研究。采用红外角膜反射技术记录了15名社交恐惧症患者以及15名年龄和性别匹配的正常对照者对中性、快乐和悲伤面部刺激的视觉扫描路径。与对照组相比，社交恐惧症患者表现出对面部特征尤其是眼睛的回避，但对非面部特征进行广泛扫描。这些发现表明，主动回避显著面部特征的注意力策略是社交恐惧症中人际线索的重要标志。因此，视觉扫描路径证据可能对临床干预具有重要意义。
