Attentional bias in clinical depression and anxiety: The impact of emotional and non-emotional distracting information

Specificity and overlap of attention and memory biases in depression

“…Third, the unique component of attentional bias for depressotypic material did not emerge as a meaningful predictor in accounting for depression severity or any depressive symptom. Although this null finding could be due to methodological limitations that characterize the current paradigms for attentional bias (Cisler, Bacon, & Williams, 2009), our study is in line with previous evidence showing that the association between attentional bias and depression is not robust (Lichtenstein-Vidne et al, 2017;Mogg & Bradley, 2005).…”

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) behavioral laterality predicts increased short-term avoidance memory but not stress-reactivity responses

“…Collectively, these data suggest, contrary to theories that laterality is related to increased stress-reactivity, that increased behavioral laterality may be related to increased cue-reactivity, particularly in relation to aversive cues. This has connotations for translational models of human disorders of affective state, in which heightened attention to threat-related cues is observed (Lichtenstein-Vidne et al 2017) and in which brain and behavioral laterality are thought to be risk factors (Bruder et al 2016).…”

“…Research has revealed that motor functions may also be under the control of lateralized mechanisms which, in humans, may manifest as preference for one side over the other for handedness, footedness and eyedness (Brown and Taylor 1988). Laterality has been shown to be an evolutionarily conserved characteristic which is observed at the populational level and, when disrupted, has been associated with cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and major depressive disorder (Koster et al 2010; Lichtenstein-Vidne et al 2017).…”

“…Behavioral asymmetries have been related to high escape performance (Dadda et al 2010b), social responses (Reddon and Balshine 2010) and even accelerated learning responses (Andrade et al 2001) in fish and rodent species. Behavioral laterality has also been implicated in anxiety and major depressive disorder (MDD) in humans, being cited as a factor in initiating and maintaining both disorders (Koster et al 2010; Lichtenstein-Vidne et al 2017). Interestingly, EEG studies showed that depressed and anxious patients exhibit abnormal alpha asymmetry, indicative of low right vs. left parietal activity, confirming that both disorders have a differential influence on lateralized hemispheric processing of emotional and verbal information (Bruder et al 2016; Bruder et al 1997; Henriques and Davidson 1990; Kentgen et al 2000; Reid et al 1998).…”

Neurocognitive mechanisms modulating attention bias in anxiety: Current perspectives

“…The current special issue is linked to a second special issue (link) reporting work on cognitive biases other than attention biases, as well as the link among them in anxiety. This continues current attempts to describe less-studied biases and explore their causal linkages (Aue & Okon-Singer, 2016). Taken together, insights from these two special issues suggest new and exciting directions for further research and treatment.…”