Attention and Anxiety

Pacheco-Unguetti, Antonia Pilar; Acosta, Alberto; Callejas, Alicia; Lupiáñez, Juan

doi:10.1177/0956797609359624

Cited by 337 publications

(188 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…As WM load did not influence eye movements in this study, we tentatively suggest that executive control regulates these later processes, probably including appraisal, and does not so strongly regulate earlier processes such as orienting towards threat. Further support for this notion comes from the fact that eye movements to threat were associated with state rather than trait anxiety: evidence suggests that state anxiety is more closely associated with alerting and orienting, whereas trait anxiety is more closely associated with overall executive control deficits (Bishop et al, 2007;Pacheco-Unguetti, Acosta, Callejas, & Lupiáñez, 2010). Note that these eye movement results do not invalidate our interpretation of the RT data, because attention is able to operate independently from eye movements (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…This is inconsistent with the dissociation between trait and state anxiety effects on RTs in our Study 2. Evidence supports the notion that trait and state anxiety may have differentiable effects on cognition (Pacheco-Unguetti et al, 2010); further research is required to fully investigate this difference with regard to both performance-based and eye movement-based biases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Working memory regulates trait anxiety-related threat processing biases.

Booth¹,

Mackintosh

Sharma

2017

Emotion

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High trait anxious individuals tend to show biased processing of threat. Correlational evidence suggests that executive control could be used to regulate such threat-processing. On this basis, we hypothesised that trait anxiety-related cognitive biases regarding threat should be exaggerated when executive control is experimentally impaired by loading working memory. In Study 1, 68 undergraduates read ambiguous vignettes under high and low working memory load; later, their interpretations of these vignettes were assessed via a recognition test. Trait anxiety predicted biased interpretation of social threat vignettes under high working memory load, but not under low working memory load. In Study 2, 53 undergraduates completed a dot probe task with fear-conditioned Japanese characters serving as threat stimuli. Trait anxiety predicted attentional bias to the threat stimuli but, again, this only occurred under high working memory load. Interestingly however, actual eye movements toward the threat stimuli were only associated with state anxiety and this was not moderated by working memory load, suggesting that executive control regulates biased threat-processing downstream of initial input processes such as orienting. These results suggest that cognitive loads can exacerbate trait anxiety-related cognitive biases, and therefore represent a useful tool for assessing cognitive biases in future research. More importantly, since biased threat-processing has been implicated in the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety, poor executive control may be a risk factor for anxiety disorders.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Working memory regulates trait anxiety-related threat processing biases.

Booth¹,

Mackintosh

Sharma

2017

Emotion

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“…However, there is a lack of empirical data concerning a difference between state and trait anxiety impact on cognitive processes. It has been recently argued that trait anxiety is related to deficiencies in the executive control attentional network, while state anxiety is associated with hyperactivity of the alerting and orienting networks (Pacheco-Unguetti, Acosta, Callejas, & Lupianez, 2010). Consistent with ACT, neuroimaging studies demonstrated that high-anxious individuals had to invest more cognitive (compensatory) efforts in task performance which manifested itself as an increased task-related activation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Ansari & Derakshan, 2011;Basten, Stelzel, & Fiebach, 2011;Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Satpute, 2005).…”

mentioning

confidence: 62%

Interaction Effects of the COMT and DRD4 Genes with Anxiety-Related Traits on Selective Attention

et al. 2014

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The study investigated whether the DRD4 and COMT genes can modify relations between trait anxiety and selective attention. Two hundreds and sixty-six subjects performed a visual search task in which they had to find words looking through a sheet with rows of letters. After finishing the first sheet the subject was presented the second one, this time with an instruction to perform the task as quickly and accurate as possible. To study top-down attention, the number of correctly identified words (accuracy) and the time for completion of each trial were analyzed. To study bottom-up attention, the letters ‘o’ and ‘n’ were written in green, whilst the others were in black, and subjects were asked whether they had noticed that 2–3 minutes after the task completion. Genotypes for the COMT Val158Met and DRD4 VNTR-48 polymorphisms and TCI Harm Avoidance and MMPI Depression scales’ scores were obtained as well. High anxious individuals showed a more pronounced increase in accuracy in the second trial and more profound processing of irrelevant stimuli (colored letters). There was a significant interaction effect of DRD4 and Harm avoidance on the accuracy dynamics F(1, 210), = 7.65, p = .006, η2 = .04. Among DRD4 long allele carriers, high anxious subjects significantly improved accuracy (p = .013) and tended to slow speed, while those with lower Harm avoidance demonstrated the opposite trend. These effects were more robust in less educated individuals. It was concluded that the DRD4 polymorphism may modify the influence of trait anxiety on the speed-accuracy tradeoff.

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“…Pacheco-Unguetti et al [7] demonstrates that high trait-anxious individuals exhibit difficulty responding to a target arrow flanked with perceptually competing distractor arrows relative to those low in trait anxiety. Similarly, high trait-sanxiou individuals have been shown difficulty performing anti-saccade tasks, in which participants are required to execute a saccade (horizontal eye movement) toward a target stimulus located in the opposite direction of a perceptually salient flashed stimulus [8] [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modulatory Effect of Motivation on the Association of Trait Anxiety and Cognitive Performance: A Pupillometric Study

Hoshino¹,

Tanno²

2017

JBBS

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The attentional control theory (ACT) proposes that trait anxiety disrupts functional efficiency of executive control of attention relating to working memory system such as shifting. ACT also emphasizes the modulatory role of motivation in anxiety on cognitive task performance. The present study investigated the association of trait anxiety-related inefficiencies in attentional shift and working memory performance in conjunction with the level of motivation. A variation of complex span paradigm is designed to systematically manipulate the time constraint on shifting attentional focus back and forth between working memory contents and processing task was used in this study. In the experiment, participants high and low in trait anxiety were allocated either high or low motivation induction conditions, and performed a series of complex span tasks. They also completed a state anxiety measure before and after the experimental task. Motivational states were assessed by the pupil dilation, which is known to reflect the amount of cognitive effort invested on the task at hand. Results showed that, only in low motivation condition, high trait-anxious individuals exhibited greater difficulty, relative to those low in trait anxiety, in maintaining working memory contents as the task demand increased. State anxiety showed no relation to working memory performance regardless of the level of motivation and task demands. Pupillary responses revealed that, in high motivational state, high trait-anxious individuals invested more effort than those low in trait anxiety when the task demand was low, F(1, 132) = 6.65, p = 0.0110, to moderate, F(1, 132) = 8.441, p = 0.00043. In accordance with ACT, these findings suggest that motivation can modulate the association between trait anxiety and cognitive performance along with the levels of task demand. Clinical implication is briefly discussed.

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Attention and Anxiety

Cited by 337 publications

References 22 publications

Working memory regulates trait anxiety-related threat processing biases.

Working memory regulates trait anxiety-related threat processing biases.

Interaction Effects of the COMT and DRD4 Genes with Anxiety-Related Traits on Selective Attention

Modulatory Effect of Motivation on the Association of Trait Anxiety and Cognitive Performance: A Pupillometric Study

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