Attentional bias for affective visual stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder and the role of depression

Hauschildt, Marit; Wittekind, Charlotte E.; Moritz, Steffen; Kellner, Michael; Jelinek, Lena

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2012.11.024

Cited by 13 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Similarly, traditional aggregated mean bias scores towards/away from angry faces at post-deployment did not predict PTS post-deployment; only traditional aggregated mean bias scores towards happy faces at post-deployment, as a function of number of intermediate traumatic experiences, were concurrently related to PTS at post-deployment. Thus, the present findings may help to disambiguate extant mixed findings to date-wherein some studies implicated AB towards threat in PTS, [5,6,8,9,21] others AB away from threat PTS, [10][11][12][13] and yet others found no role for aggregated mean estimates of AB in PTS. [14,15] If, as we observed, AB to emotionally arousing stimuli is characterized by within-subject temporal fluctuation between AB towards emotion stimuli and AB away from those emotion stimuli, and precisely this temporal variability in AB reflects attentional dysregulation subserving PTS, then traditional aggregated mean bias scores estimating AB are likely to lead to mixed and sometimes null effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 46%

“…[5][6][7][8][9] Other studies have found associations between AB away from threat and PTS. [10][11][12][13] Yet other studies reported null associations between AB and PTS. [14,15] A novel approach to the study of AB may help to clarify the associations between AB and the development and maintenance of PTS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…A number of both cross‐sectional and longitudinal studies reported significant associations between AB towards threatening stimuli and PTS . Other studies have found associations between AB away from threat and PTS . Yet other studies reported null associations between AB and PTS …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Attentional Bias Temporal Dynamics Predict Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Prospective-Longitudinal Study Among Soldiers

et al. 2016

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 46%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

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Attentional Bias Temporal Dynamics Predict Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Prospective-Longitudinal Study Among Soldiers

et al. 2016

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“…This finding conflicts with the theoretical assumption of hypervigilance in PTSD (Pineles et al, 2009 ). However, the latter two paradigms are also plagued by interpretational problems (see Hauschildt et al, 2013 , for a further discussion).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depression, not PTSD, is associated with attentional biases for emotional visual cues in early traumatized individuals with PTSD

et al. 2015

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Using variants of the emotional Stroop task (EST), a large number of studies demonstrated attentional biases in individuals with PTSD across different types of trauma. However, the specificity and robustness of the emotional Stroop effect in PTSD have been questioned recently. In particular, the paradigm cannot disentangle underlying cognitive mechanisms. Transgenerational studies provide evidence that consequences of trauma are not limited to the traumatized people, but extend to close relatives, especially the children. To further investigate attentional biases in PTSD and to shed light on the underlying cognitive mechanism(s), a spatial-cueing paradigm with pictures of different emotional valence (neutral, anxiety, depression, trauma) was administered to individuals displaced as children during World War II (WWII) with (n = 22) and without PTSD (n = 26) as well as to non-traumatized controls (n = 22). To assess whether parental PTSD is associated with biased information processing in children, each one adult offspring was also included in the study. PTSD was not associated with attentional biases for trauma-related stimuli. There was no evidence for a transgenerational transmission of biased information processing. However, when samples were regrouped based on current depression, a reduced inhibition of return (IOR) effect emerged for depression-related cues. IOR refers to the phenomenon that with longer intervals between cue and target the validity effect is reversed: uncued locations are associated with shorter and cued locations with longer RTs. The results diverge from EST studies and demonstrate that findings on attentional biases yield equivocal results across different paradigms. Attentional biases for trauma-related material may only appear for verbal but not for visual stimuli in an elderly population with childhood trauma with PTSD. Future studies should more closely investigate whether findings from younger trauma populations also manifest in older trauma survivors.

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“…This evidence is in accord with the resource allocation model of PTSD that theorizes an attentional bias to trauma‐related threat stimuli at the expense of attention to neutral information (Ehlers & Clark, ; Foa, Steketee, & Olasov‐Rothbaum, ). Some PTSD research studies using behavioral experimental procedures, such as the emotional Stroop (Cisler et al., ) and dot probe (Fani et al., ) tasks, provide evidence supporting the model, while studies that used other behavioral measures report no PTSD‐related effects (Hauschildt, Wittekind, Moritz, Keller, & Jelinek, ; Kimble, Frueh, & Marks, ; Wittekind, Muhtz, Jelinek, & Moritz, ). The resource allocation model concurs with neurocognitive conceptualizations of PTSD, such as the neurocircuitry model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early automatic hyperarousal in response to neutral novel auditory stimuli among trauma‐exposed individuals with and without PTSD: An ERP study

2018

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ERP studies have associated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with enhanced P3 amplitudes in response to trauma-related stimuli, along with reduced amplitudes in the context of neutral (trauma-unrelated) stimuli. Additionally, a bias toward trauma-related stimuli is also observed among trauma-exposed participants not meeting criteria for PTSD, suggesting that trauma exposure itself, and not only the severity of posttraumatic stress (PTS), is a critical factor in information processing changes. However, previous examination of the response of trauma-exposed (PTSD and non-PTSD) participants to novel, neutral stimuli has produced conflicting findings. The current study examined ERPs in response to a novelty oddball paradigm comprised of neutral distractor sounds. Participants were 16 individuals with PTSD, 21 trauma-exposed individuals without PTSD, and 12 nontraumatized controls. Detailed trauma histories and PTS symptoms were collected. A significant effect of group on early ERPs was observed, showing an increase in the N1-P2 complex peak amplitude among the PTSD group, relative to controls. Among the entire sample, significant positive correlations were observed between PTS symptom severity, as well as trauma history, and early N1-P2 complex peak amplitudes, in response to novel stimuli. Furthermore, trauma-exposed participants with no PTS symptoms exhibited larger N1 amplitudes compared to participants with no trauma history. No trauma-related alterations in later ERP components were observed. These results suggest that trauma exposure may lead to hyperarousal at early processing levels, even in response to neutral novel stimuli. The findings concur with the neurocircuitry model that associates PTSD with hyperresponsivity of the amygdala.

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Attentional bias for affective visual stimuli in posttraumatic stress disorder and the role of depression

Cited by 13 publications

References 55 publications

Attentional Bias Temporal Dynamics Predict Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Prospective-Longitudinal Study Among Soldiers

Attentional Bias Temporal Dynamics Predict Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: A Prospective-Longitudinal Study Among Soldiers

Depression, not PTSD, is associated with attentional biases for emotional visual cues in early traumatized individuals with PTSD

Early automatic hyperarousal in response to neutral novel auditory stimuli among trauma‐exposed individuals with and without PTSD: An ERP study

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