Byrne Meghan E, Kirschner Sara, Harrewijn Anita, Abend Rany, Lazarov Amit, Liuzzi Lucrezia, Kircanski Katharina, Haller Simone P, Bar-Haim Yair, Pine Daniel S
Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, Emotion and Development Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA.
Department of Psychology, Education & Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
J Mood Anxiety Disord. 2024 Dec;8. doi: 10.1016/j.xjmad.2024.100075. Epub 2024 Jun 18.
Attentional bias to social threat cues has been linked to heightened anxiety and irritability in youth. Yet, inconsistent methodology has limited replication and led to mixed findings. The current study aims to 1) replicate and extend two previous pediatric studies demonstrating a relationship between negative affectivity and attentional bias to social threat and 2) examine the test-retest reliability of an eye-tracking paradigm among a subsample of youth. Attention allocation to negative versus non-negative emotional faces was measured using a free-viewing eye-tracking task among youth (185 total, 60% female, =13.10 years, =2.77) with three face-pair conditions: happy-angry, neutral-disgust, sad-happy. Replicating procedures of two previous studies, linear mixed-effects models compared attention bias between children with anxiety disorders and healthy controls. Bifactor analysis was used to parse shared versus unique facets of general negative affectivity (i.e., anxiety, irritability), which were then examined in relation to attention bias. Test-retest reliability of the bias-index was estimated among a subsample of youth (=36). No significant differences in attention allocation or bias emerged between anxiety and healthy control groups. While general negative affectivity across the sample was not associated with attention bias, there was a positive relationship for anxiety and irritability on duration of attention allocation toward negative faces. Test-retest reliability for attention bias was moderate (=0.50, <.01). While anxiety-related findings from the two previous studies were not replicated, the relationship between attention bias and facets of negative affect suggests a potential target for treatment. Evidence for test-retest reliability encourages future use of the eye-tracking task for researchers.
对社会威胁线索的注意偏向与青少年焦虑和易怒情绪的加剧有关。然而，方法的不一致限制了研究的重复性，并导致了结果的参差不齐。本研究旨在：1）重复并扩展之前两项儿科研究，这些研究表明消极情感与对社会威胁的注意偏向之间存在关联；2）在青少年子样本中检验眼动追踪范式的重测信度。在青少年（共185人，60%为女性，平均年龄 = 13.10岁，标准差 = 2.77）中使用自由观看眼动追踪任务，在三种面部配对条件下（开心-愤怒、中性-厌恶、悲伤-开心）测量对消极与非消极情绪面孔的注意力分配。重复之前两项研究的程序，使用线性混合效应模型比较焦虑症患儿与健康对照组之间的注意偏向。采用双因素分析来剖析一般消极情感（即焦虑、易怒）的共同和独特方面，然后将其与注意偏向相关联进行考察。在青少年子样本（n = 36）中估计了偏向指数的重测信度。焦虑组和健康对照组在注意力分配或偏向上未出现显著差异。虽然样本中的一般消极情感与注意偏向无关，但焦虑和易怒与对消极面孔的注意力分配持续时间呈正相关。注意偏向的重测信度中等（r = 0.50，p <.01）。虽然之前两项研究中与焦虑相关的结果未能重复，但注意偏向与消极情感方面之间的关系提示了一个潜在的治疗靶点。重测信度的证据鼓励研究人员在未来使用眼动追踪任务。
