Schröder Benedikt, Mühlberger Andreas
Department for Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2023 Mar 31;14:1129422. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1129422. eCollection 2023.
Attentional bias (AB) is considered an important factor not only in the etiology of addiction, but also with respect to relapse. However, evidence for the predictive ability of AB for relapse is not robust. One reason for this might be fluctuations of AB due to stress. Therefore, the current study investigated whether AB was present during and after stress induction and whether AB was enhanced by stress induction.
A Virtual Reality (VR) adaptation of the Trier Social Stress Test (VR-TSST) was used to induce psychosocial stress in smokers ( = 34) and non-smokers ( = 37) followed by a novel free-viewing task in VR. Eye tracking data was recorded to examine gaze behavior to smoking-related and neutral stimuli presented in the VR-TSST and the free-viewing task.
Stress ratings increased significantly from baseline to post VR-TSST in smokers and non-smokers. During the VR-TSST we observed, more frequent, longer, and earlier fixations on smoke-related compared with neutral stimuli without significant group differences. However, in the free-viewing task following the stress induction, a specific AB of smokers in terms of earlier and longer fixations on smoke stimuli was found.
Results indicate that AB is not a persistent trait in smokers, but is context dependent. It is suggested that emotional learning processes such as smoking in the context of relief after stress may contribute to changes of AB both in terms of increased initial attention and deeper stimulus processing. Additionally, the potential of the VR-TSST to induce psychosocial stress could be replicated.
注意偏向（AB）不仅被认为是成瘾病因中的一个重要因素，而且在复发方面也是如此。然而，AB对复发的预测能力的证据并不充分。造成这种情况的一个原因可能是由于压力导致的AB波动。因此，本研究调查了在压力诱导期间和之后是否存在AB，以及压力诱导是否会增强AB。
采用虚拟现实（VR）版的特里尔社会压力测试（VR-TSST）对34名吸烟者和37名非吸烟者诱导心理社会压力，随后进行一项新的VR自由观看任务。记录眼动追踪数据，以检查在VR-TSST和自由观看任务中对与吸烟相关和中性刺激的注视行为。
吸烟者和非吸烟者的压力评分从基线到VR-TSST后均显著增加。在VR-TSST期间，我们观察到，与中性刺激相比，对与吸烟相关的刺激的注视更频繁、持续时间更长且更早，且无显著组间差异。然而，在压力诱导后的自由观看任务中，发现吸烟者对吸烟刺激存在特定的注意偏向，即注视更早且持续时间更长。
结果表明，注意偏向在吸烟者中不是一种持久的特质，而是依赖于情境。有人提出，诸如在压力缓解情境下吸烟等情绪学习过程可能会导致注意偏向的变化，包括初始注意力增加和对刺激的深入加工。此外，VR-TSST诱导心理社会压力的潜力可以被复制。
