Harrewijn Anita, Abend Rany, Naim Reut, Haller Simone P, Stavish Caitlin M, Bajaj Mira A, Matsumoto Chika, Dombek Kelly, Cardinale Elise M, Kircanski Katharina, Brotman Melissa A
Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
J Psychiatr Res. 2021 Jun;138:514-518. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.04.036. Epub 2021 May 1.
This study identified a shared pathophysiological mechanism of pediatric anxiety and irritability. Clinically, anxiety and irritability are common, co-occurring problems, both characterized by high-arousal negative affective states. Behaviorally, anxiety and irritability are associated with aberrant threat processing. To build on these findings, we examined eye-tracking measures of attention bias in relation to the unique and shared features of anxiety and irritability in a transdiagnostic sample of youth (n = 97, 58% female, M = 13.03, SD = 2.82). We measured attention bias to negative versus non-negative emotional faces during a passive viewing task. We employed bifactor analysis to parse the unique and shared variance of anxiety and irritability symptoms from self- and parent-report questionnaires. Negative affectivity is the derived latent factor reflecting shared variance of anxiety and irritability. We found that higher negative affectivity was associated with looking longer at negative versus non-negative faces, reflecting a shared mechanism of anxiety and irritability. This finding suggests that modification of elevated attention to negative emotional faces may represent a common potential treatment target of anxiety and irritability.
本研究确定了儿童焦虑和易怒的共同病理生理机制。在临床上，焦虑和易怒是常见的共发问题，两者都以高唤醒负性情绪状态为特征。在行为方面，焦虑和易怒与异常的威胁处理有关。基于这些发现，我们在一个青少年跨诊断样本（n = 97，58%为女性，M = 13.03，SD = 2.82）中，研究了与焦虑和易怒的独特特征及共同特征相关的注意偏向的眼动追踪测量指标。我们在一个被动观看任务中测量了对负面与非负面情绪面孔的注意偏向。我们采用双因素分析从自我报告和家长报告问卷中解析出焦虑和易怒症状的独特方差和共同方差。负性情感是反映焦虑和易怒共同方差的衍生潜在因素。我们发现，较高的负性情感与对负面面孔比对非负面面孔注视时间更长有关，这反映了焦虑和易怒的共同机制。这一发现表明，改变对负面情绪面孔的过度关注可能是焦虑和易怒的一个共同潜在治疗靶点。
