Gaze-Based Assessments of Vigilance and Avoidance in Social Anxiety: a Review

Chen, Nigel T. M.; Clarke, Patrick

doi:10.1007/s11920-017-0808-4

Cited by 58 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Mogg and Bradley (2002) suggest that vigilant patterns of attention may be located in initially attentional processing. Furthermore, Chen and Clarke (2017) conclude that there is an association between social anxiety and vigilance (e.g., hyperscanning the environment) as well as attentional avoidance (e.g., reducing eye contact) according to the information processing of emotionally social stimuli.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The authors emphasize that socially anxious persons utilize an exaggerated attentional allocation toward any sign of impending negative feedback of others, which can lead to biased estimations of a more threatening social environment and that a wisp of negative evaluation will be perceived rapidly and reinforce the threatening negative selfevaluation (Heimberg et al, 2014). Chen and Clarke (2017) report in their review that there are different results in empirical research among socially anxious humans with attentional bias to relevant emotionally threat stimuli (Gilboa-Schechtman et al, 1999;Perowne and Mansell, 2002;Lange et al, 2011;Çek et al, 2016;Lazarov et al, 2016) and who also exhibited attentional avoidance toward socially feared information (Chen et al, 2002;Wieser et al, 2009b;Singh et al, 2015;Shechner et al, 2017). Mogg and Bradley (2002) suggest that vigilant patterns of attention may be located in initially attentional processing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These mixed empirical results caused the formulation of a vigilance-avoidance hypothesis of selective attention (Bögels and Mansell, 2004;Wieser et al, 2009a,b;Chen and Clarke, 2017). It assumes that socially anxious humans guide their initial attention to emotionally threatening information (hypervigilance) and avoid the negative information subsequently (attentional avoidance) to reduce emotional distress (Bögels and Mansell, 2004;e Claudino et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaze Behavior in Social Fear Conditioning: An Eye-Tracking Study in Virtual Reality

2020

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The vigilance-avoidance hypothesis of selective attention assumes that socially anxious persons initially direct their attention toward fear-related stimuli and subsequently avoid these social stimuli to reduce emotional distress. New technical developments provide tools to implicit measure overt attention on fear-related stimuli via eyetracking in ecological valid virtual environments presented via a head-mounted display. We examined in 27 low (LSA) and 26 high socially anxious (HSA) individuals fear ratings, physical behavior (duration of approach), hypervigilance (time to first fixation), and attentional avoidance (count of fixations) toward virtual female and male agents (CS) during social fear conditioning (SFC) and extinction in virtual reality (VR). As hypothesized, generally SFC was successfully induced and extinguished concerning the fear ratings. Our findings partly support the vigilance-avoidance hypothesis as HSA directed especially at the first half of the fear acquisition their initial attention more at CS+ than CS− agents, and avoided subsequently the CS+ more than the CS− agents during the fear acquisition. In contrast, in LSA participants initial and sustained attention did not differ between CS+ and CS− agents during fear acquisition. We conclude that HSA individuals guide their initial attention to emotionally threatening stimuli and subsequently avoid the threatening stimuli to possibly reduce their emotional distress, whereas LSA individuals regulate themselves less in their (fear) responses during SFC. Measuring implicit gaze behavior within a well-controlled virtual environment is an interesting innovative tool to in deeply investigate the impact of attention on emotional learning processes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gaze Behavior in Social Fear Conditioning: An Eye-Tracking Study in Virtual Reality

2020

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“…Despite numerous reviews of eye-tracking literature in psychiatric disorders such as those discussed above (Black et al, 2017;Chen & Clarke, 2017;Chita-Tegmark, 2016;Frazier et al, 2017;O'Driscoll & Callahan, 2008;Toh et al, 2011), no review to date has provided a synthesis of eye-tracking studies in EDs. Such a review will be important in understanding the cognitive and social mechanisms underlying the attentional biases seen in EDs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye‐tracking research in eating disorders: A systematic review

Kerr-Gaffney

Harrison

Tchanturia

2018

Intl J Eating Disorders

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Objective: Those with eating disorders (EDs) show attentional biases to disorder-relevant stimuli, such as food and body shape information. However, attentional bias research in EDs largely relies on reaction time based measures, which are limited in their ability to assess different components and the time course of attention. Eye-tracking paradigms have therefore been utilized to provide greater ecological validity, and directly capture the detailed sequence of processes in perception and attention. While numerous studies have examined eye movements in the mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders, there has been a lack of studies in EDs. The purpose of this qualitative review is to provide a summary of eye-tracking studies in clinical ED populations.Method: The review was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines. Electronic databases were systematically searched to identify studies examining gaze parameters in ED compared to healthy controls (HCs). Thirty-one studies met inclusion criteria.Results: Across ED diagnoses, there was evidence of attentional biases towards food and body stimuli. In addition, differential patterns of attention to social information, and differences in smooth pursuit and saccadic eye movements were found in anorexia nervosa (AN).Discussion: Findings are discussed in relation to research in other psychiatric disorders, and recommendations for future studies using eye-tracking in EDs are given. The findings add to the wider literature on attentional biases in EDs, and provide potential avenues for treatment.Discusión: Los hallazgos se discuten en relación con la investigación en otros trastornos psiquiátricos, y se dan recomendaciones para futuros estudios que utilizan el seguimiento ocular en los TCA. Los hallazgos se suman a la literatura más amplia sobre los sesgos de atención en los TCA y proporcionan posibles vías para el tratamiento. K E Y W O R D Sattentional biases, body image, eating disorders, eye gaze, eye movements, social perception

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“…Social anxiety, which is characterized by a penetrating fear of social encounters and social-evaluative situations and typically has a life-long impact on the relationships of the affected individuals (Wittchen, Stein, & Kessler, 1999), is assumed to feature differential processing of social information as a core symptom (Wells et al, 1995). There is, however, vast disagreement regarding the characteristics of these gaze behavior alterations (Chen & Clarke, 2017). Studies using emotional faces as probes to investigate attentional biases have shown that socially anxious patients predominantly avoid these threatening stimuli (Chen, Ehlers, Clark, & Mansell, 2002;Mansell, Clark, Ehlers, & Chen, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social anxiety is associated with alterations in heart rate but not gaze in a real social interaction

Rösler¹,

Göhring²,

Strunz³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Much of our current understanding of social anxiety rests on the use of simplistic stimulation material in laboratory settings. Latest technological developments now allow the investigation of eye movements and physiological measures during real interactions with adequate recording quality. Considering the wealth of conflicting findings on gaze behavior in social anxiety, the current study aimed at unraveling the mechanisms contributing to differential gaze patterns in a naturalistic setting in the general population and in social anxiety. We introduced participants with differing social anxiety symptoms to a waiting room situation while recording heart rate and electrodermal activity using mobile sensors and eye movements using mobile eye-tracking glasses. We observed fewer fixations on the head of the confederate in the initial waiting phase of the experiment. These head fixations increased when the confederate was involved in a phone call and head fixations were most pronounced during the actual conversation. In opposition to gaze-avoidance models of social anxiety, we did not observe any correlations between social anxiety and visual attention. Social anxiety was, however, associated with elevated heart rate throughout the entire experiment suggesting that physiological hyperactivity constitutes a cardinal feature of the disorder.

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Gaze-Based Assessments of Vigilance and Avoidance in Social Anxiety: a Review

Cited by 58 publications

References 70 publications

Gaze Behavior in Social Fear Conditioning: An Eye-Tracking Study in Virtual Reality

Gaze Behavior in Social Fear Conditioning: An Eye-Tracking Study in Virtual Reality

Eye‐tracking research in eating disorders: A systematic review

Social anxiety is associated with alterations in heart rate but not gaze in a real social interaction

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