Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4.
J Anxiety Disord. 2013 Jun;27(5):447-55. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2013.05.005. Epub 2013 May 24.
Attention to general and trauma-relevant threat was examined in individuals with clinical and subthreshold symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants' eye gaze was tracked and recorded while they viewed sets of four images over a 6-s presentation (one negative, positive, and neutral image, and either a general threat image or a trauma-relevant threat image). Two trauma-exposed groups (a clinical and a subthreshold PTSD symptom group) were compared to a non-trauma-exposed group. Both the clinical and subthreshold PTSD symptom groups attended to trauma-relevant threat images more than the no-trauma-exposure group, whereas there were no group differences for general threat images. A time course analysis of attention to trauma-relevant threat images revealed different attentional profiles for the trauma-exposed groups. Participants with clinical PTSD symptoms exhibited immediate heightened attention to the images relative to participants with no-trauma-exposure, whereas participants with subthreshold PTSD symptoms did not. In addition, participants with subthreshold PTSD symptoms attended to trauma-relevant threat images throughout the 6-s presentation, whereas participants with clinical symptoms of PTSD exhibited evidence of avoidance. The theoretical and clinical implications of these distinct attentional profiles are discussed.
关注一般和创伤相关的威胁，研究了创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的临床和亚临床症状的个体。参与者的眼球运动被跟踪和记录，而他们观看了 6 秒的四组图像（一个负，正，和中性图像，和一个一般威胁图像或创伤相关的威胁图像）。两个创伤暴露组（一个临床和亚临床 PTSD 症状组）与一个非创伤暴露组进行了比较。临床和亚临床 PTSD 症状组对创伤相关威胁图像的关注度均高于非创伤暴露组，而对一般威胁图像则无组间差异。对创伤相关威胁图像注意力的时程分析揭示了创伤暴露组的不同注意力模式。与无创伤暴露的参与者相比，有临床 PTSD 症状的参与者对这些图像表现出即时的高度关注，而有亚临床 PTSD 症状的参与者则没有。此外，有亚临床 PTSD 症状的参与者在整个 6 秒的呈现过程中都关注创伤相关的威胁图像，而有临床 PTSD 症状的参与者则表现出回避的迹象。这些不同的注意力模式的理论和临床意义进行了讨论。
