Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
J Anxiety Disord. 2023 May;96:102700. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2023.102700. Epub 2023 Mar 17.
Although attentional bias for threat has been implicated in anxiety disorders, traditional attentional bias measures have been criticized for lack of reliability and validity, and eye tracking technologies can be cost-prohibitive. MouseView.js was recently developed to mimic eye tracking online by using the computer cursor as a proxy for gaze, and although it is equally reliable, MouseView.js' utility for capturing attentional bias for threat in anxiety-related disorders remains unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, snake phobic and non-phobic participants (N = 62) completed a behavioral avoidance task (BAT) and the MouseView.js task which consisted of 10-second exposures to blurred, side-by-side images of either pleasant-neutral or threat-neutral pairings and were instructed to freely move the mouse to reveal the images. Results demonstrated that snake phobic participants had significantly shorter average mouse dwell time on threat images than non-phobic individuals and showed a significant reduction in average dwell time on threat images following the first presentation of the threat-neutral pairing. Additionally, dwell time on threat images significantly mediated the group differences in steps completed on the BAT. Results highlight the utility of MouseView.js in capturing avoidant patterns of attentional bias for threat that may also partially drive avoidance in snake phobia. Implications for capturing attentional bias for threat in anxiety disorders more broadly are discussed.
虽然注意偏向威胁与焦虑障碍有关，但传统的注意偏向测量方法因缺乏可靠性和有效性而受到批评，眼动追踪技术可能成本过高。MouseView.js 最近被开发出来，通过使用计算机光标作为注视的代理来模拟在线眼动追踪，尽管它同样可靠，但 MouseView.js 在焦虑相关障碍中捕捉威胁注意偏向的效用仍不清楚。为了填补这一知识空白，蛇恐惧症和非恐惧症参与者（N=62）完成了行为回避任务（BAT）和 MouseView.js 任务，该任务包括 10 秒的模糊并排呈现愉快中性或威胁中性配对的图像，并被指示自由移动鼠标以揭示图像。结果表明，与非恐惧症个体相比，蛇恐惧症个体在威胁图像上的平均鼠标停留时间明显更短，并且在首次呈现威胁中性配对后，威胁图像上的平均停留时间显著减少。此外，威胁图像上的停留时间显著介导了 BAT 中完成步骤的组间差异。研究结果强调了 MouseView.js 在捕捉威胁注意偏向的回避模式方面的效用，这种模式可能也部分导致了蛇恐惧症中的回避。讨论了在更广泛的焦虑障碍中捕捉威胁注意偏向的影响。
