Université Lille Nord de France, Lille, France; LNFP, UDSL, Lille, France; Neurosciences, Université de Lille 1, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
J Affect Disord. 2014 Jan;152-154:91-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2013.05.051. Epub 2013 Jun 12.
The priority processing of peripherally presented affective stimuli was recently shown in healthy individuals to divert attentional resources dedicated to foveal processing. Here we investigated the influence of sub-clinical levels of anxiety and depression on this bias.
Eighty-four participants were submitted to psychological tests that evaluate anxiety and depression levels. Then, they had to make speeded responses to the direction of left- or right-oriented arrows that were presented foveally at fixation. Each arrow was preceded by a peripherally presented pair of pictures, one neutral and one emotional, unpleasant or pleasant. Thus, the direction of the foveal arrow was either congruent or not with the peripheral location of the previously presented emotional picture. Data analysis focused on the differences of reaction times between congruent and incongruent conditions, which assess the spatial response bias in the task.
A main effect of state-anxiety was observed suggesting that the higher the level of state-anxiety, the greater the congruence effect.
Since the obtained result relates to subclinical anxiety levels, its generalization to anxiety disorders remains tentative.
State-anxiety appears to modulate the propensity to be influenced by emotionally salient information occurring in peripheral vision, independently of its relevance to the ongoing behavior. The long-term persistence of a high level of alertness for emotional cues in visual periphery could contribute to the causation and the maintenance of anxiety disorders.
最近有研究表明，健康个体对外周呈现的情感刺激具有优先处理能力，这种能力会转移用于注视点加工的注意资源。在此，我们研究了亚临床水平的焦虑和抑郁对这种偏向的影响。
84 名参与者接受了评估焦虑和抑郁水平的心理测试。然后，他们需要快速响应注视点处呈现的左右指向箭头的方向。每个箭头之前都呈现一对外周呈现的图片，一为中性，一为情绪性的，为不愉快或愉快图片。因此，注视点箭头的方向与之前呈现的情绪图片的外周位置一致或不一致。数据分析集中于在一致和不一致条件下反应时间的差异，这反映了任务中的空间反应偏向。
观察到状态焦虑的主要效应，表明状态焦虑水平越高，一致性效应越大。
由于所得到的结果与亚临床焦虑水平有关，因此其对焦虑障碍的推广仍存在不确定性。
状态焦虑似乎调节了对外周呈现的情感相关信息的易感性，而与正在进行的行为无关。对外周视觉中情绪线索的长期高警觉性可能有助于焦虑障碍的发生和维持。
