Torrence Robert D, Troup Lucy J
Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
Psychophysiology. 2018 Jun;55(6):e13051. doi: 10.1111/psyp.13051. Epub 2017 Dec 20.
The dot-probe task is a common task to assess attentional bias toward different stimuli and how groups differ (e.g., attentional bias in anxiety disorders). However, measuring reaction time has been suggested to be unreliable. Neuroimaging methods such as fMRI were shown to be more reliable in assessing attentional bias, but fMRI has poor temporal resolution and therefore cannot assess timing of attention. ERPs have been used to examine the time course of attentional bias. Although ERP research may be more reliable than reaction time, there have been inconsistencies in the literature. This review systematically searched for articles that used the dot-probe task with facial expressions and measured neural correlates with ERP. We found that some of the inconsistencies might be the cause of methodological differences (e.g., timing of stimuli), differences in emotional expression, and/or sample differences (e.g., sex, age, etc.). Suggestions on how future research could address the issues presented in this review were discussed.
点探测任务是一种常见的任务，用于评估对不同刺激的注意偏向以及不同群体之间的差异（例如，焦虑症中的注意偏向）。然而，有人认为测量反应时间是不可靠的。诸如功能磁共振成像（fMRI）等神经成像方法在评估注意偏向方面被证明更可靠，但fMRI的时间分辨率较差，因此无法评估注意的时间。事件相关电位（ERP）已被用于研究注意偏向的时间进程。尽管ERP研究可能比反应时间更可靠，但文献中存在不一致之处。本综述系统地检索了使用带有面部表情的点探测任务并测量与ERP相关的神经关联的文章。我们发现，一些不一致可能是方法学差异（例如，刺激时间）、情绪表达差异和/或样本差异（例如，性别、年龄等）造成的。讨论了未来研究如何解决本综述中提出的问题的建议。
