Chen Nigel T M, Clarke Patrick J F, Watson Tamara L, MacLeod Colin, Guastella Adam J
Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, 100 Mallett Street, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia; Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
Biol Psychol. 2015 Jan;104:139-46. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.12.002. Epub 2014 Dec 16.
Social anxiety is thought to be maintained by biased attentional processing towards threatening information. Research has further shown that the experimental attenuation of this bias, through the implementation of attentional bias modification (ABM), may serve to reduce social anxiety vulnerability. However, the mechanisms underlying ABM remain unclear. The present study examined whether inhibitory attentional control was associated with ABM. A non-clinical sample of participants was randomly assigned to receive either ABM or a placebo task. To assess pre-post changes in attentional control, participants were additionally administered an emotional antisaccade task. ABM participants exhibited a subsequent shift in attentional bias away from threat as expected. ABM participants further showed a subsequent decrease in antisaccade cost, indicating a general facilitation of inhibitory attentional control. Mediational analysis revealed that the shift in attentional bias following ABM was independent to the change in attentional control. The findings suggest that the mechanisms of ABM are multifaceted.
社交焦虑被认为是由对威胁性信息的偏向性注意加工所维持的。研究进一步表明，通过实施注意偏向矫正（ABM）对这种偏向进行实验性减弱，可能有助于降低社交焦虑易感性。然而，ABM背后的机制仍不清楚。本研究考察了抑制性注意控制是否与ABM相关。参与者的一个非临床样本被随机分配接受ABM或安慰剂任务。为了评估注意控制的前后变化，还对参与者进行了一项情绪性反眼跳任务。正如预期的那样，接受ABM的参与者随后出现了注意偏向从威胁上的转移。接受ABM的参与者还进一步表现出反眼跳代价的随后降低，表明抑制性注意控制总体上得到了促进。中介分析显示，ABM后注意偏向的转移与注意控制的变化无关。研究结果表明，ABM的机制是多方面的。
